Mission
New Life Village provides a residential community where families seeking permanency for children impacted by foster care or trauma can seek healing in a safe and stable intergenerational Village.
New Life Village Featured on the Christian Broadcast Network
New Life Village opened its doors in 2012 and is located in Tampa, Florida – an area which is heavily impacted by both the affordable housing and foster care crises. NLV is an intergenerational community designed to support families raising foster to permanency and kinship children who have survived abuse, neglect and trauma, offering them program-rich, below-market housing and onsite wrap-around services. Designed for children formerly in foster care and/or affected by trauma, their foster-adoptive-kinship families now providing them permanency, and elders seeking meaning and purpose, our community-driven intergenerational housing and integrated onsite services improve health and wellbeing, housing stability, and educational attainment for residents at all stages of life. Senior citizens also live in the Village serving as surrogate grandparents, tutors and mentors. Autonomous families live at the Village. NLV is not a group home.
The Village program allows children to realize safety, housing stability, permanency, healing and the ability to thrive within a trauma informed community. The Village hosts an onsite Trauma Informed Wellness, Resilience and Character Development Program. We exist to reduce the number of children in foster care by encouraging more families to adopt or to prevent children from entering foster care.
New Life Village was recognized by the Florida Civic Advance with the 2019 Honorable Mention FCA Civic Excellence Award for Intergenerational Civic Engagement. New Life Village is the only community of its kind in Florida!
Why Do We Exist?
Both nationally and locally, the foster care system is filled with children who need a forever home. These kids have been through more than most of us can imagine and end up in foster care through no fault of their own.
Nationally…..
- According to the Children’s Bureau there were 407,000 children in foster care in 2020
- Children spent an average of 21 months in foster care and 17% spent 3 or more years in care
- 117,000 children were waiting to be adopted in 2020
- According to the AFCARS Report, over 20,000 children age out of foster care annually, leaving many homeless
- According to the Casey Family Programs, the U.S. spends $9.8 billion on federal child welfare funding
In Hillsborough County…..
Hillsborough County is amidst both a Foster Care and an Affordable Housing crisis. There are simply not enough affordable housing options for seniors and low-income families, and there are also not enough foster homes for the volume of children entering into the system of care.
- Florida is 3rd in US, behind California and Texas, with over 22,000 children in foster care
- Hillsborough County is #1 and Pinellas County is #2 in the state for the amount of children placed in foster care
- As of March 2022
- Hillsborough County Circuit 13: There are 2,521 children in foster care
- Pinellas/Pasco Circuit 6: There are 2,679 children in foster care
