The Riverside Project

It’s been such an incredible time together as a team at !

We’re so grateful for the opportunities many of us had to present in workshops and on panels, and to learn alongside so many incredible people who are also working to support vulnerable children and families.

AND the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta was every bit as good as we hoped it’d be 🐧🙌

We can’t wait for next year!

Picture a city where every child and every family has someone who shows up when life gets difficult.

That vision isn’t theoretical for us. We know it’s possible.

We know Houston can become a city where families don’t have to navigate crisis alone. Where churches, nonprofits, and neighbors work together so children grow up with stability and hope.

We have a big vision for the next 5 years that focuses on proximity, involvement on a neighborhood-level, and growing inward and downward rather than outward and upward.

Lasting change doesn’t happen from a distance... it happens when we decide to move closer to the challenges people are facing. 💙

Meet Jessica! 💙

Jessica VanHouten is our new Southwest Houston Trauma-Informed Training Coordinator, and we are so grateful to have her on the team!

As a Licensed Professional Counselor, and as a foster and adoptive parent, Jessica brings a unique combination of professional expertise and lived experience to this work.

She’ll be building relationships with schools, churches, nonprofits, and community organizations to help make trauma-informed training more accessible throughout Southwest Houston.

We’re excited for all the ways her experience, perspective, and passion will help continue to make Houston a place where families heal and children thrive.

We're so grateful to have you on the team, Jessica! 🙌

Le’Otis Boswell Johnson is a Juvenile Defense Attorney and the co-founder of Sons of Sophistication. His experience includes a double major in Criminology and Psychology, serving as a Guardian ad Litem for youth in both Child Protective Services (CPS) and the Juvenile Justice System, and working as a Staff Attorney with Foster Care Advocacy Center.

He strives to create spaces that give all kids, regardless of their circumstances, a fighting chance to discover and reach their full potential.

This episode is a powerful listen for anyone involved in the foster care community because we know that foster care is not an isolated issue. Multiple factors often overlap with involvement in the child welfare system, including family instability, incarceration, poverty, and homelessness. Understanding those intersections is an important part of understanding what children and families need, and how we can respond more effectively.

In this episode, you’ll hear about the connection between trauma and a child’s involvement with the legal system, the importance of humanizing everyone in the courtroom, how education can play a crucial role in providing life skills, and much more.

Watch or listen here: https://riversideproject.org/podcast/leotis-boswell-johnson-53/

"I still remember one particular day we got the call. My spouse and I, licensed foster parents, had been caring for sweet baby J for only eight weeks. We knew he wouldn’t stay. And also, he was a newborn, so nights were exhausting.

We were excited to know his next steps and fully believed that reunification (when a child is reunited with their biological family) was always plan A, but we were never fully prepared for the call that meant our family had to say goodbye..."

If you’re a foster parent going through reunification, or preparing yourself for when it happens, here are some things you should know: https://riversideproject.org/blog/navigating-reunification/

Houston’s foster care challenges are too complex for any one organization to solve alone. Real change requires alignment across systems, sectors, and communities.

This is why we work to break down silos and build strong networks between child welfare agencies, nonprofits, schools, healthcare providers, and churches.

By connecting these efforts, we create a proactive, coordinated response that reaches families before crisis and surrounds them with lasting support.

To reach families where they are and respond with greater speed and relevance, we’re shifting to a localized strategy, embedding regional teams within the ZIP codes and communities they serve.

See how: https://riversideproject.org/blog/strategic-plan/

Houston is home to more than 38,000 nonprofits, government agencies, churches, and community groups, many working tirelessly to support vulnerable children and families.

Yet without shared infrastructure, these efforts often operate in silos, making it harder for families to access timely, coordinated help.

This is a major influence for our 2026-2030 Strategic Plan. The upcoming years mark a pivotal moment as we move from a centralized model to five regionally embedded teams serving distinct areas of Houston.

This neighborhood-focused approach allows us to move closer to families, mobilize churches more effectively, and unite fragmented systems into a coordinated, relationship-driven network of care.

We've laid out the entire plan for you to see. You can find it right here: https://riversideproject.org/blog/strategic-plan/