PHOENIX — Timing is everything for healthy parents who are struggling financially and at risk of losing their children to Arizona's Department of Child Safety (DCS).
Teri Vogel, the founder of Thrive AZ, tells ABC15 she was volunteering at the Phoenix Dream Center when the idea for her Phoenix-based non-profit came to life.
"Our main focus is prevention and to reduce the risk of DCS having to remove a child due to poverty or not having the basic needs," Vogel said.
Vogel's journey with the foster care system began roughly five years ago when she was working as an advocate for a young woman who was pregnant with her seventh child and facing a personal crisis.
Vogel was working to help the young woman reunite with her six other children in foster care.
"I quickly learned that she was not going to be able to do it in the timeframe that the Department of Child Safety needed for her kids to be returned in a healthy manner," Vogel said.
According to Teri, she and her husband, Steve, leaned in to help the young mother, taking the baby home at just four days old.
But, the couple was thrown into a system loaded with unexpected surprises.
"I realized there was a missing piece to the puzzle in our community and that was support for the biological family,” Vogel said. “So, I looked at my husband and I said, ‘Babe, we need to get a truck. I just want to pick up people's things that they no longer need, and give these things as support to the biological families.’"
That was seven years ago.
Since then, the Vogels founded Thrive AZ and teamed with DCS to provide homecare necessities to keep families together.
"We've been able to actually help over 10,000 kids since 2016 stay either out of the foster care system or get reunified with their families," Steve Vogel, president of Thrive AZ, told ABC15.
To keep Thrive AZ running, the Vogels opened two thrift stores, aptly named “Thrift to Thrive.”
Every dollar raised at Thrift to Thrive goes toward purchasing items DCS requires families to have in order to keep children from entering Arizona's already crowded foster care system.
"Safe sleep is the main thing. Every child needs their own bed,” Steve Vogel said. “We've given out over 7,500 brand new beds since we started in 2016 because we want to keep families together."
The Camelback Thrift to Thrive location, which opened this year, recently went viral online, leading to an influx of community support for the family-owned thrift store.
“People got the message that it’s not just a thrift store,” Vogel said. “It’s more than a thrift store.”
IF YOU GO:
Thrift to Thrive - Camelback Road location
- 839 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85014
- Tuesday - Saturday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
- Sunday - Monday: Closed
Thrift to Thrive - Cave Creek Road location
- 2205 E Eugie Terrace, Phoenix, AZ 85022
- Wednesday - Saturday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
- Sunday - Tuesday: Closed
