Uplift: How The Foster Lane is Fueling Positive Change in Milwaukee

If we haven’t met yet, we are The Foster Lane. We’re parent coaches passionate about helping families laugh more and yell less! As parents who had to face challenges with our own children, we know that none of us were meant to parent alone. That’s why we spent thousands of hours learning about trauma, child development, and positive parenting to become parent coaches. Know that we’re here to help you and your family succeed. Sarah Salisott, our founder, started The Foster Lane in 2016, and in 2021 the company became certified LGBTE® and Woman-owned.

The Foster Lane helps struggling parents and caregivers like you by tailoring our coaching to your situation and needs. We help you understand what’s behind your child’s behavior, reducing family stress so you all can laugh more and yell less. Our core values keep us focused on our mission and help us better serve you and your family. One of The Foster Lane’s core values is to uplift. At The Foster Lane, you see this core value in action by how we are active in our communities, filling our neighbors with hope and empowering them to make positive changes in their relationships. 

From Strangers to Neighbors: How The Foster Lane is Creating a Supportive, Inclusive Community

When you feel alone in your parenting journey, every day can feel like a struggle. You may feel like you’re slogging through and barely holding things together. 

But when you’re surrounded by a community of people who see you and want to support you, you are no longer burdened by the weight of your responsibilities. You become free to hope, free to dream, free to change.

The parent coaches of The Foster Lane come alongside you to guide you and your family through the hard times. To best be able to assist you, we are committed to volunteering our time in service to the community, continually learning techniques to share, and using the media to spread our message and make change.   

Volunteerism

One of the best ways to support parents and families is to be involved in the local community. Direct involvement helps us better understand the broader issues in Wisconsin, which provides valuable insights into the challenges and needs of families. We also believe that volunteering is personally enriching and that these experiences improve how we help the families we coach.

Everyone at The Foster Lane receives paid time off to volunteer for their community service initiative of choice. For example, employees working 20 hours per week each receive 20 hours per year of paid volunteer time. When you multiply this by the number of people on our team, the impact is significant. We are thankful and proud to be able to support our fellow Wisconsinites in this way.

Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Certification

When your kids react violently or have outbursts of rage, it's hard to remain calm and untriggered. Because we often work with families confronted with these behaviors, The Foster Lane team is getting certified in nonviolent crisis intervention.

We are committed to creating safe, violence-free environments within our practice and our community. We are being trained in prevention and intervention techniques to help stop or de-escalate violent situations, ways to reduce harm in times of crisis, methods of managing challenging behaviors, and more. What we are learning through this program will help us build a community where everyone’s safety is valued. 

We strive to help you overcome negative behaviors. With this valuable knowledge, we can empower you to change behaviors and reduce conflict within your own home. And don’t be surprised if you find yourself applying these techniques outside your home too!

Community Education

Parenting is hard, and you don’t have to do it alone. That is why The Foster Lane exists and why community matters to us.

Community is all about relationships, and we want them to be healthy. We believe this starts in families: parents and children, co-parents with each other, and couples. Having a supportive home environment improves familial connections. The relational skills you build as part of a loving family can help you in your friendships and other relationships. It’s especially important to us that LGBTQIA+ youth feel safe and welcome in every sphere of their lives.

We know one-on-one or couples parenting coaching isn’t accessible to everyone, which is why we are eager to share about other available opportunities and resources with local media. Here are three of our previous news stories and an upcoming opportunity to learn more about The Foster Lane from our founder Sarah.  

The Morning Blend, May 2023

In May of this year, TMJ4’s “The Morning Blend” featured our founder Sarah Salisott and JT Design and Present’s Jeremy Triblett, Prevention Integration Manager at Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division. They discussed upcoming parenting workshops focused on trauma-informed parenting for foster and biological parents in Milwaukee County. 

Coming up in October, Sarah will again be a guest on “The Morning Blend.” She’ll be sharing more about The Foster Lane’s multilingual initiative and why language inclusivity is necessary in social services.

Spectrum News, November 2022

Last November, Spectrum News 1’s Abbey Taylor spotlighted Sarah and The Foster Lane. In this news segment, Sarah announced she received a grant to help fund the creation of workshops to make parent coaching accessible to more families that need it.

Spectrum News, September 2023

Sarah and The Foster Lane were featured in another news segment, this time by Spectrum News 1’s Alyson Bruner. Two busy parents with nine biological, adopted, and foster children have been meeting with Sarah weekly for several months for advice on their constantly changing needs and challenges. By practicing the healthy communication skills Sarah coaches them on, the parents have added more and more moments of joy and peace into back into their family life.

Small Acts, Big Impacts: Changing the Community From the Inside Out

Our core values aren’t empty words on our website. They’re behind everything we do because we want you to know you’re not alone on your parenting journey. By acting on our core value to uplift outside of our traditional coaching sessions and workshops, we're filling our community with hope. Through volunteerism, commitment to nonviolence, and education, The Foster Lane is changing the community from the inside out so we can all find the support we need.

Follow The Foster Lane on Facebook and Instagram to stay current on how we’re uplifting Milwaukee County!