Our Story

The idea for an organization that would raise awareness to benefit children in foster care was ignited in the heart of Ryam Teran shortly after she and her husband began the process of fostering-to-adopt their daughter. Having to answer several questions from friends and family about her own journey, she realized there was very little awareness about the foster care system, let alone the challenges facing the children who are impacted. Ryam’s research led her to alarming statistics regarding the number of former foster children that end up homeless, incarcerated, exploited or trafficked.

Coming to terms with those shocking facts, Ryam began searching for ways to help change some of those realities. Although filled with vision, out of respect for her daughter’s privacy, Ryam waited until she was old enough to understand and give her blessing before she began publicly sharing parts of their own story and her desire to build the W&W Foundation.

In December of 2018, after a conversation Ryam had with her daughter about the dress she wore the day she was adopted and how every little girl deserves the “magic” of a special dress, the very first W&W Foundation initiative was born and resulted in the donation of over 75 Christmas dresses to little girls through a local foster family agency.

Shortly after, the BRAVE bag initiative was born to addresses the reality that many children are newly placed in foster homes with either a trash bag filled with their belongings or nothing at all. In less than 2 months, Ryam mobilized the donation of over 120 BRAVE bags, filled with basic necessities and a BRAVE bear (for comfort) to be donated to local foster family agencies. The desire to restore dignity and provide emotional comfort to children during such a traumatic and scary time then began a much bigger conversation about the needs of the “whole child”… which leads us to where the W&W Foundation is today, mobilizing a multifaceted community of passionate people and organizations who are ready to fill every one of those needs.