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Non-profit becomes first woman-owned, Black-owned foster placement agency in Kansas

By CNN

Published August 20, 2025 9:24 am

KAKE, DOROTHY’S LANE, CNN

By Sydney Ferguson

WICHITA, Kansas (KAKE) — Local non-profit Dorothy’s Lane is celebrating a new addition to its services it calls a huge win for foster care in Kansas.

Since 2016, the organization has been active in the Wichita area, offering different social services from a food and hygiene pantry to parenting classes and more. CEO Carol Brewer says this is the heart of the organization.

“I just wanted to kind of go more into social service and helping people that needed it, that didn’t know that the resources are there for them,” said Brewer.

Friday, the organization held a ribbon cutting to celebrate becoming a foster home placement agency — the first of its kind in Kansas that’s Black-owned, woman-owned, and offers wrap-around services.

“I think that they’re going to see a huge increase in the Black and brown community, with the Black and brown community, and I think that this is something that has been long needed,” said Brewer.

Brewer says for years the organization has helped families get qualified to foster, but Black and brown families have struggled to actually do it. Of the 120 families that passed the necessary classes to foster since September, Brewer says only 7-10 have had placements.

“The stable homes weren’t being utilized,” said Brewer. “Now, with our agency, we can focus on getting them in there and getting them utilized.”

Brewer says the organization will continue offering court-approved services for counseling, addiction, anger management and so on — the wrap-around services that she says families can get in one place and often help children’s biological families start the necessary work to bring them home.

“So the children don’t fall in between the cracks, and mom and dad don’t fall in between the cracks,” said Brewer. “No other foster home placement agency has that.”

Now Brewer says she’s looking forward to helping those families that have been overlooked and getting more kids out of the system. What’s more, she hopes to inspire others and other organizations.

“I hope it’s empowering to other women, that they take that and they want to do more as well, or they want to even join forces with us. That’s what it’s about,” said Brewer.

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