Foster families need more than good intentions — they need a team around them. Foster the City is a non-denominational Christian movement of churches working to ensure every child in foster care has a safe, loving home, and their free app is the digital hub that makes that community support possible.^1
Built for three roles — Foster Parents, Support Friends, and church Advocates — the app provides a shared calendar for coordinating practical help (including meals, childcare, yardwork, and errands), a prayer request wall for spiritual encouragement, in-app messaging to keep the team connected, and a curated resource library of podcasts, blogs, videos, and trainings on foster care topics. Support Friends can proactively suggest ways to help, which Foster Parents review and approve before they become active requests. Family Profiles let foster families share details about their household and how their team can best support them, while Placements track important information about each child in their care.^2 An Inspiration and Hope screen offers uplifting spiritual content for every role on the journey, and a new in-app tutorial helps users get started quickly. Comments on Requests and Saved Addresses make coordination faster and more convenient.^2 Advocates get a dedicated dashboard showing onboarding progress, team composition, and support activity across their church ministry.^2
Since launching in 2015, Foster the City has grown to 368 partner churches supporting 527 foster families, welcoming 1,117 children into caring homes, and mobilizing 1,874 Support Friends — all sustained entirely by private donations and a requirement that partner churches align with the Nicene Creed.^3 Foster family retention through the program is nearly double the national average of around 50%.^6 The app is developed by Echo.Church in San Jose, California, and is available in both English and Spanish.^4
Why Christians Love It"Our Support Friend team was messaging and engaged in prayer over the FTC App — so powerful to ALL be connected there and on the same thread. Literally moments after foster mom posted a request for prayer in the messages, she got an email that her prayer was answered. PRAISE JESUS!" — Foster the City Support Friend^5
"I am super excited about the Foster the City App!! I have already gleaned so much… I love that all the resources are right at my finger tips!" — Foster the City Advocate^5
Notable- Celebrated its ten-year anniversary in October 2025 since launching in 2015^11
- 368 partner churches across the movement, with regional coalitions like Foster the Bay reaching 150 churches^7
- Advisory council includes leaders from CarePortal, the Christian Alliance for Orphans, Echo.Church, Life.Church, WellSpring, and Trellis Ventures^8
- Featured in TIME as a church movement to give every child a home^9
- Foster family retention rate nearly double the national average (~50%), attributed to the community support model^6
- Funded solely through private donations — no government funding — and partner churches must align with the Nicene Creed^10
- Spanish language support added May 2025; in-app onboarding tutorial added June 2026^4
- The app is exclusive to churches that partner with Foster the City — individuals can get involved by attending an Interest Meeting^1
