Elevating Connections offers community and connections for siblings and teens in foster care

In 2015, Stacy Sanders, founder and executive director of Elevating Connections, and Tamisha Macklin, an advocate who had lived experience in Colorado’s fostercare system, started Elevating Connections. The purpose was to address the need for siblings who were separated by foster care to have opportunities to reconnect throughout the year to help strengthen their bond and maintain their relationships. They decided there was also a need for siblings to get together regularly, not just during their annual summer camp. The non-profit has since grown to an organization that hosts over 50 events each year for siblings separated by foster care, as well as for teens/young adults who have experienced foster care and welcomes around 125 young people every year.

“We always ask, ‘What’s something that you would love to do with your sibling? What types of food do you all want to have together?” said Crystal Allen, Sibling Connections Program Coordinator. ” We just try to get as much input from the kids as we can and if we can make that happen, we will make that happen,” she added.

Elevating Connections hosts two free sibling connections events each month. There are a wide variety of events and opportunities, including a visit to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, a silent disco, outdoor events at parks, indoor rock climbing,and bowling, as well asa wide variety of art-related activities that are led by professional artists. The sibling events are for children and youth ages 5-18. 

The organization hosts one event in the Denver metro area, occasionally branching out to North Denver and Boulder, as well as one event in Colorado Springs each month. Crystal hopes Elevating Connections can eventually partner with youth-serving organizations in other parts of Colorado so those communities can begin doing sibling connection events of their own. 

“We did a silent disco where each sibling group got to pick their own playlist and then they had the headphones on and they could switch between channels,” Crystal shared. “We’ve found recently that music is just such a great connector for kids and such a great regulator, too. We’ve started having the kids make their own playlists for each event and they’ve really gotten into that so we decided to do the silent disco and it was so fun.” 

In addition to the sibling connections events, Elevating Connections has another program called Empowering Youth Expressions. Seven years ago the program started out with writing and poetry workshops for youth ages in foster care 14+, culminating in an annual poetry jam. The program has since grown, and now also offers arts programming for older youth in foster care in addition to hosting monthly community dinners. The organization also hosts an arts festival called “Not Just Another Arts Festival” where participants shared their poetry, music, and art they created through the program.

“The community dinners have just become one of my favorite events to go to because you get young adults and teens from all over that come together to help support one another,” Crystal continued. “They help design the events. They came up with the idea of doing a prom for youth who have experienced foster care, that’s something that is coming at the end of this year in partnership with C.A.R.E.S, an awesome youth-serving advocacy organization. They’ve just created this tight-knit community/family that I just love being a part of. It’s an honor that they let us hang out with them.” 

New this year, Elevating Connections recently partnered with Musical Mentors Collaborative (MMC) in Denver to offer 12-week group music classes to children, youth, and sibling groups that have experienced foster care. These free classes build confidence, community, and self-expression, allowing the youth to explore drumming, ukulele and keyboard. New this year, they are starting a support group for foster and kinship caregivers who are facing challenges around sibling relationships, and are also planning on hosting “family weekends,” featuring camp activities for families of sibling groups.

Additionally, every summer Elevating Connections hosts a group of 30-40 siblings separated by foster care for Camp Connect, a summer camp at YMCA Camp Shady Brook in Deckers, CO. The five day, four-night camp features classic summer camp activities like archery, horseback riding, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding, swimming, performing arts and visual arts. During the day there are activities for siblings, while  at night there are activities for the whole camp to participate in together, like dance party night and variety show night, as well as a carnival night, complete with inflatables, a dunk tank, a fire spinner, temporary tattoos and snow cones.

“I’m at every sibling connecting event and those are two to three hours, which are two to three hours long, but there’s just nothing like seeing kids being able to bond for a full week and really getting to know one another’s interests and just making all of these memories together at one time, surrounded by trusting adults that are their cheerleaders all week,” said Crystal. “Seeing the change from when the sibling groups arrive to when they leave just never ceases to amaze me.”Caregivers looking to sign children and youth up for Elevating Connections events and Camp Connect 2026 can sign up on their events page. Elevating Connections also accepts donations and is always looking for caring adults to volunteer their time to help with their programming.