When young people in the foster care system reach an age when they’re no long eligible, many are partially or entirely unprepared for the path that lies ahead.
Licking resident Mike Brannan has set out on a quest to address that situation. He plans to build a facility on a 40-acre tract off of Boiling Springs Road west of Licking where foster youth who have “aged out” (or become 21 years old) can get prepared.
Brannan said the search for the right place lasted about a year and spanned territory from here to Farmington. The chosen location is largely forested and features classic Ozarks bluffs.
“The property has everything we wanted,” Brannan said. “It fit what we felt like was a sanctuary situation.”
Licking residents Mike and Kim Brannan are involved in a project designed to aid foster care “graduates.”
The goal is to construct cabins (or “dormitories”) to house up to 50 young people and a multi-purpose center to be used for many activities, including worship services, family-oriented meals, assisting with education (for college preparation or obtaining high school equivalency documents) and even classes about various trades conducted by local business people.
“We’ll probably start with about 10 youths,” Brannan said. “We still have to get our feet wet.”
The idea of training young people in trades should present them – and the trainers – with multiple options, Brannan said.
“We think that’s a win-win situation,” he said, “because once a youth is trained, we can help them find a job wherever they might want to go, but if that local employer finds himself with a need, it could be filled right there.”
Brannan said he envisions needing at least some level of staff, but his family members will contribute valuable knowledge skills.
“My wife is experienced in early education, and my mother is retired and has a couple of masters in early education,” he said. “I think we’ll need to bring in some other people, too, but I also see myself doing this full time at some point. I have a business background, so I could run the facility and help teach business practices.”
To help fund his project, Brannan has opened a retail store called “Ozark ReSale Company” in Licking (next door to Checo’s Restaurant) that primarily offers building improvement products such as doors, countertops, jacuzzi tubs, light fixtures and more. The store’s inventory consists largely of overstock items obtained from large retail chains (by a friend who owns several resale stores), but there will also be some “gently used” items secured from motels going through remodeling, along with various other items donated by local businesses and individuals.
“We want to sell things at 40-percent or more off of retail and allow the community to get good buys,” Brannan said. “And 100-percent of the net funds will go toward the program.”
Brannan plans to break ground on the youth “camp” this spring, and multiple scout groups and youth groups have offered to help. He would like to see the facility begin operation in some capacity next year.
“It’s a big push, but that’s the plan,” Brannan said. “It depends on funds, staffing and life. But I have to have a goal to shoot for.”
Brannan and his wife Kim (a fourth-grade teacher at Success) are both Kansas City natives who currently live with their family in a house on the same property where the youth facility will be located. The couple became familiar with this area by visiting to paddle the rivers and enjoy other outdoor endeavors.
Brannan works at a local mill and has extensive work experience in construction, electrical and plumbing. He built the house his family lives in and plans to build his facility’s housing units and other structures.
“So all I really need is materials,” Brannan said. “I can do most of the work.”
The idea of the foster graduate facility isn’t out of the blue, so to speak, as Brannan and his wife have significant first-hand experience in the realm of foster care. Over a period of about five years that ended about a year-and-a-half ago, they hosted 39 foster children at their home in Colorado, for anywhere from a couple of nights to 18 or 19 months. Brannan said the standard length of stay was about six months.
“We were ‘foster-to-adopt,’ so if they became available we could adopt,” he said. “But we were also in emergency placement and we might get a call at two in the morning saying ‘we just removed a child and we need a place to bring him until we figure out what’s going on.’”
One of the motivations behind Brannan’s project stems from witnessing youth who “aged out” in Colorado (at 18 years old) basically being given “$500 and a handshake” before having to venture out on their own.
“That kind of broke our hearts,” he said. “There was sometimes nowhere for them to go. And there’s something universal in fostering and adopting: Everyone wants an infant. As kids get older, percentages of adoptions go lower, and after age 13, they virtually drop off completely.
“So what happens is, a lot of these kids never really have a ‘forever family.’ Part of our program is to have the youth at the camp be a part of our family. For that reason, it won’t be a ‘cattle call.’ They’ll be carefully hand-picked, because they’re going to have to want to participate in a family.”
Brannan said he and his wife’s past also includes taking care of 43 orphans in Sierra Leone, Africa.
“I believe we’re all endowed with certain gifts and talents,” he said. “Ours happens to be working well with youth, and we enjoy doing it. We feel like it’s our responsibility to help out.”
And the help Brannan intends to soon provide will go largely to a group of innocent recipients.
“Most of these kids have done nothing wrong,” he said. “It’s their parents.”
“Most of these kids have done nothing wrong. It’s their parents.”
– MIKE BRANNAN
*According to Mike Brannan, owner of Ozark ReSale Company in Licking and former foster care parent and guardian.
•265,000: Number of kids in who enter the foster care system annually.
•1: Number of children entering foster care on average every two minutes.
•1-of-5: Number of youth who graduate from foster care who will become homeless.
•1-of-2: Number of aged-out foster youth who will be unemployed until at least the age of 24.
•3-percent: Number of former foster care youth who ever obtain a college degree.
•71-percent: Number of female foster care graduates who will become pregnant before the age of 21.
•58-percent: Number of foster care graduates who graduate high school or obtain high school equivalency.
•1-of-4: Number of foster care graduates who will within two years in some way end up in the justice system.
Details about Mike Brannan’s new store in Licking (including photos and prices of inventoried items) can be found on Facebook. The store is currently open Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., with possible expanded hours in the future. For more information or to arrange a donation, call Brannan at 417-217-4287, or email ozarkresalecompany@gmail.com.