About VA Fosters
Our Origins
Virginia Fosters is a statewide initiative aimed at creating solutions for children, families, and workers in the Commonwealth’s child welfare system. Virginia Fosters collaborates with leaders from the government, business, faith, and non-profit sectors in order to increase the number of foster families and placement of children into good homes, enhance support services for kinship families, and better equip child welfare workers with needed resources and support.
VA Fosters is partly based on a model run in Virginia in 2013 and in Colorado starting in 2005, focused mostly on recruiting adoptive families. That work was enhanced and accelerated in Oklahoma and Tennessee in recent years, resulting in significant increases in the number of foster families recruited in those states. Visit their websites for more information and outcomes.
about the director
Leslie J. Frazier
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Leslie J. Frazier serves in the administration of Virginia Governor Ralph S. Northam as the Director of Virginia Fosters. Her interest and passion for serving those impacted by our child welfare system come from her father, a Vietnam Veteran who was adopted and immigrated to the United States as a child.
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Previously Ms. Frazier served as the Assistant Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs, where she advised the Governor and Secretary on issues impacting Virginia’s nearly one million service members, veterans, and their families (SMVF), created the secretariat’s annual legislative and budget
A native of Chesapeake, Virginia, Ms. Frazier received her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Government and Spanish from the University of Virginia and her Master of Public Administration from Virginia Tech. She is also a graduate of two leadership programs under the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.
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packages, and worked with the Governor’s senior policy team, members of the Virginia General Assembly, and state agency leadership to create and implement the best initiatives for the SMVF population. Ms. Frazier also served in the administration of Governor Terence R. McAuliffe as the Assistant Director of Appointments and the Policy Director for the Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs. Before joining state government, she worked on several political campaigns.
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about Virginia's Kids BELONG.
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Virginia’s Kids Belong is a 501(c)3 organization that empowers government, faith, business, and creative leaders to end the crisis for children, families, and workers in Virginia’s foster care system.
Like Oklahoma and Tennessee, Virginia’s Kids Belong is VA Fosters’ catalyst private partner. VA Fosters also partners with many other non-profits who have been doing great work for years to make the system better for children, families and workers.
Visit their website for more information.