The Abba Project — a local community support group for foster and adoptive parents or anyone interested in becoming foster or adoptive parent — will host its second meeting this week.

The group will meet from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 20 at Island Church, located at 9624 Sportsman Club Road NE.

The group meets each month to listen to guest speakers and meet other families that are going through the challenges of being a foster and adoptive parent.

At this week’s meeting, Shannon Vander Ark from Fostering Together will be the guest speaker.

As a national speaker for Focus on the Family’s Orphan Care Ministry, Vander Ark inspires her audiences with her amazing story of how a child of abuse came to know healing and restoration through the love of a foster family who took her into their home when she was 11. It’s an age when many foster children begin to lose hope of finding a home where they can safely navigate the challenging teen years which are made even more difficult when the child has experienced loss, trauma and multiple placements.

As a former foster child, Vander Ark brings a unique perspective to her speaking and is able to share a message that is both gut-wrenchingly honest as well as heartwarmingly inspirational.

Her foster care story is one shared by countless children across the country. Placed in an overburdened system that often leads to additional trauma, many of these children face incredible odds and never receive the love and support that they need to deal with their pasts and heal. Though Vander Ark was never able to be officially adopted by her foster family, she was able to remain in their home throughout her teen years and receive the commitment, unconditional love, safety and structure that she had never experienced as a child.

Through her work as the community outreach coordinator for Fostering Together, Vander Ark is able to share the need for foster homes and encourage communities to support those families who open their hearts and homes to these children, and she is passionate about sharing her message to both inspire and motivate others.