"I had to tell my story again and again. They didn't know anything about me."
When systems change, people should remain known.
Beginning with foster care, AnchorPhoenix strengthens human-centered continuity so voice, identity, relationships, and care remain connected through transition.
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children are in U.S. foster care (2025)
A placement changes more than an address.
Foster care is intended to provide safety when children cannot remain at home. But with every placement transition, pieces of a young person's life can become separated.
They may be asked to retell painful and deeply personal histories to people who do not yet know them. Important context about their health, education, relationships, routines, and support can be lost. Belongings get left behind. Care is interrupted. Trust must be rebuilt.
When essential understanding disappears, the child carries it.
The impact is not limited to a story or a record. It travels with the young person into every room they enter next.
"Having grown up in foster care and across child-serving systems, I know the impact does not end when a placement does. It can shape many areas of a person's life long after care ends. Foster care will continue to be necessary. But preventable disruption should never be treated as inevitable. That is what motivates me every day. It is why AnchorPhoenix exists."
What we build
What AnchorPhoenix Is Building
AnchorPhoenix is building a safe, child-centered way to help a child's voice and the most important information about their life move forward with them.
The goal is to help caregivers and professionals understand what matters, without requiring the child or family to explain everything all over again.
With AnchorPhoenix, children remain known. Caregivers begin with greater understanding. Important supports and relationships are less likely to disappear during change.
While we build this future continuity solution, Second Summer creates opportunities for foster families to build shared memories today. The Foster Care Belonging Summit brings people together for connection, shared learning, and a deeper understanding of belonging.
Who's behind it
Why this exists.
AnchorPhoenix was founded by Beth LaFontaine, LCSW, a clinician with lived experience in foster care, adoption, and residential treatment. Beth moved through nineteen foster homes before being adopted and later earned her master's degree from Boston College. In June 2025, her AnchorPhoenix capstone project received second-place recognition among nearly 500 international participants in Harvard Medical School Executive Education's AI in Health Care: From Strategies to Implementation program.
She did not only live inside a system that loses track of children. She went on to work inside complex systems and learn how they connect and where they break, across child welfare, healthcare, insurance, and community support. Three decades of clinical and systems practice, alongside that lived experience, shape the mission and direction of AnchorPhoenix.
AnchorPhoenix presents
Foster Care Coded: The Belonging Summit
A one-day online gathering centered on what it takes to make belonging, not simply placement, a lasting part of foster care.
Speaker applications are open
We are inviting people connected to foster care through lived experience, caregiving, practice, community leadership, research, or systems work to apply to speak.
- Lived experience
- Belonging
- Continuity
- Identity
- Caregiver experience
- Innovation
- Policy
- Research
- Technology
- System improvement
An AnchorPhoenix Social Impact Initiative
No child should be left behind when a family makes memories.
Simple pathways for real family time. Second Summer is designed around one idea: people and organizations can open doors, sponsors can make the experience possible, and foster families can have time together without everything feeling complicated.
How this happens
- People open doors
Property owners and community partners offer stays, activities, or experiences.
- Supporters make them possible
Donors and sponsors fund the practical pieces that turn an opportunity into a family experience.
- Families make memories
Foster families get something deeply ordinary and deeply important: time together.
For a few days, they simply get to be a family in the moment.
How you can help
- Offer a stayA cabin, vacation property, or other place to host a foster family.
- Sponsor an experienceFund a stay, activity, or travel need.
- Partner with usContribute experiences, resources, or services.
- Foster or kinship familyJoin the interest list for the first experience.
Music for the mission
The Sound of Second Summer
Twelve original songs were created for Second Summer, including the Second Summer Anthem.
With gratitude to Mariami Basha, trusted advisor to AnchorPhoenix, who generously donated the music in hopes that it will continue to support the mission.
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services.
Fund the work
Ways to move this forward.
One gift. Two things it makes possible: the organization, and the family experiences.
Your contribution helps:
- Establish strong legal and governance foundations
- Build early systems with the safeguards children deserve
Why this matters
Support raised through the Foster Care Belonging Summit will help AnchorPhoenix build the organizational, technological, and program infrastructure needed to preserve continuity and belonging for foster youth, foster parents, and those who support them.
Other ways to support
- Support AnchorPhoenix Governance & infrastructure.
- Sponsor Second Summer Family experiences.
- Offer access Property, tickets, experiences.
- Strategic partner Tech, expertise, capacity.