While shrinkflation quietly chips away at what families can afford.

There are other systems placing even greater strain on households, where the stakes go far beyond the grocery bill.

For thousands of children, instability isn't about lessen the package, but uncertainty about where they'll call home.

That's where the foster care system comes in.

It's a state run, federally funded program providing temporary out-of-home care for children who were removed from their families due to safety concerns.

With over 420,000 kids currently in foster care, it's a system that many feel is broken.

Carolina Impact's, Jason Terzis joins us with the story of one local organization doing all it can to help.

- Well, like many things, the US foster care system was designed with the best of intentions.

But the unfortunate reality is it's riddled with issues such as inadequate resources, mental health challenges, and poor outcomes for many who age out of the system.

It's estimated that some 90% of foster kids experience some form of trauma.

25% will attempt suicide and 97% of young adults who age outta the system each year will immediately enter into chronic poverty.

- 5 investigates with just a horrific case of abuse that's been kept hidden for years by the state and in courts.

- The abuse, all involving a single foster home in Massachusetts and at least six children reported.

- [Jason] You've likely heard just some of the disheartening stories.

- I call what we went through torture.

- [Jason] The US foster care system simply put is not in a good place.

- [Narrator 2] When a child enters foster care, that child has likely experienced instability causing a disruption in brain development.

- [Jason] But there are those with a servant's heart working to make a difference.

- Defend The Fatherless.

Totally different.

They meet all the needs that we have of foster parents, kinship and adoptive.

I've never seen anything like it.

- [Jason] Defend The Fatherless is a Fort Mill based nonprofit supporting foster, adoptive and kinship families throughout York County.

- Kinship, is when a grandparent and aunt and uncle, close family friend is caring for a vulnerable child in their home.

- [Jason] And a passion project for founder and executive director, Caitlyn Sund.

- It has been one step of faith after another.

- [Jason] Caitlyn's life journey is always centered around assisting others.

Working as a pediatric occupational therapist, she made in-home visits to help special needs children.

- Just have had a really big heart for kids with special for my whole life.

- Caitlyn always had an insatiable appetite to help small children.

- [Jason] Caitlin and husband Brad had two biological children, Kyrie and Brooks.

- I have known since I was a young child that I wanted to adopt.

My husband was like, "All right, if we're gonna do this, we should probably do it now."

- [Jason] Their decision.

Go to China.

And adopt this special needs little girl.

- God shut every door except for the one to China.

- [Jason] They brought home 14 month old Olivia who was born with a hearing impairment.

- Adopting Olivia was one of the scariest things we've ever done.

Like we knew that we were called to do this.

We were passionate about it, we were excited about it.

The moment we saw her face, we knew she was ours.

- [Jason] But soon after getting settled in back home reality set in.

- You know, people were there for the first couple weeks and then it gets quiet, really quiet.

- We also realized how isolating it could be when you're welcoming a child into your home that has a traumatic background.

Your family's just a little bit different and a lot of your friends maybe don't understand that, or your church community doesn't understand that life just changes.

- And honestly, we felt kind of alone.

You know, we had friends, we had a great church network, but we didn't have people who understood what we were going through.

- [Jason] And even with Olivia now home, Caitlyn still wanted to go out and give back.

- I went back to China on a couple mission trips and just loved the work I was doing there.

One of my teammates on one of the trips that I took, had started a Foster Closet out of her church in another state.

I was really inspired by that work.

- [Jason] With the help of her church, she launched the York County Foster Closet operating out of a couple of storage units, working to meet the various needs of new foster and adoptive families.

- We had a chandelier, a rug, shelves, all the things that made it feel like a boutique within a storage unit and families could come shop for car seats, baby equipment, diapers, clothing, kind of all that they needed.

And then we realized, you know, we're just really outgrowing this storage unit.

We're serving more and more families.

We wanna build a strong community.

We need a space.

- [Jason] In 2019, The Foster Closet evolved into Defend The Fatherless, a biblical term for help the weak.

- Our mission is for families to have one more reason to say yes to vulnerable children through foster care, adoption and kinship care.

We know that walking the road of caring for a vulnerable child is really hard, and statistics show that 50% of foster families end their journey within the first year because it's really hard and really isolating.

- [Jason] The Foster Closet is still in operation, but now under the Defend The Fatherless umbrella.

It moved out of its storage unit and into its own home.

- Thank you very much.

I just got him a bunch of little shorts.

Yes.

- [Jason] With five full-time employees and a slew of volunteers, they sort donated supplies offering up new and gently used clothing, car seats and other needed items.

- These are the two girl tables, these are the two boy tables.

Everything is labeled by size.

So 12 month, 18 month, 24 and on.

- And then just watching her turn it from, you know, her and two other women starting this thing into now what it's become is kind almost like a volunteer opportunity.

Now, a full-fledged organization that is just making a huge impact on the communities.

- [Jason] And along the way, Caitlyn made the difficult decision to leave her occupational therapist job and focus on Defend The Fatherless full time.

- It didn't come without a lot of thought and prayer.

And a lot of resisting God, to be honest.

Yeah, I resisted it.

I resisted the decision for, for a long time.

- [Jason] In these days, it goes well beyond just The Foster Closet.

Defend The Fatherless also offers all sorts of programming, including parents nights out and scholarships.

Anything to assist families of foster and adopted families.

- They have all kinds of grants and programs and they give us respite.

Nights where we if need a break, we can get a break.

They have one tonight.

As a matter of fact.

I mean, I've never seen anything like it.

"Don't feed the kids, bring 'em, we'll feed them, drop 'em off."

They don't rush you to get back.

"We know things come up.

Take your time, we got 'em."

I mean, I've never seen anything like that.

I don't know a ministry, not even a church that does that.

- [Jason] Those utilizing Defense services.

Can't say enough.

- It takes a village to, you know, to do something like this.

And this is a great starting point and it takes a lot of the pain and anxiety away when you have something like this that you can lean on.

- It's an organization and a ministry that God has ordained and sent for such a time.

- [Jason] Between individual donors and church partnerships Defend The Fatherless serves about 400 people every month and gives away thousands in adoption grants in mental health scholarships.

Not bad for an organization that started out not too long ago in a storage unit.

- Defend The Fatherless has some big upcoming events as I understand.

- Yeah, they have a full calendar.

June events include a family walk and talk and ice cream, a bowling event and family movie night.

And information sessions called The Inner Circle with a trained therapist to answer people's questions.

There's also an annual sporting Clays Tournament in October.

We have a link to their calendar on our website, pbscharlotte.org.