#282: From Counter-Terrorism to Compassion: Leveraging Technology to Find Families for Foster Kids with Jennifer Jacobs, USMA '93

Service Academy Business Mastermind

Hey team! Before we dive in, I've got some exciting announcements:

1) Join us on August 8th NJ for an exclusive Advanced Real Estate Investing Workshop & Networking Event at the prestigious Park Avenue Club in Florham Park, NJ. This premier event is crafted to elevate your real estate investing skills with institutional-level analysis. Whether you're a private investor, a commercial real estate operator, or work in the commercial real estate industry, this is your chance to expand your network and learn from the best. Space is limited, so don’t miss out! Register here: https://www.10xvets.com/advanced-real-estate-workshop

2) On October 1st we're heading to Charleston, SC for an incredible retreat. We'll kick off with a business mastermind session at the Harbour Club in downtown Charleston. Later, we'll set sail on a harbor cruise and enjoy a fantastic dinner together. On October 2nd, get ready for an exciting inshore fishing tournament with a fleet of fishing boats. It's going to be an unforgettable experience and an opportunity to surround yourself with like-minded successful veterans who are pushing each other to greatness. Register here: https://www.10xvets.com/charleston-event

To learn more and register for these events, visit 10xvets.com/events. Hope to see you there!

Today's Podcast:

“Our vision is that child welfare is enabled, as a system, to support families and children rather than to separate them.” -Jennifer Jacobs, USMA ‘93

Jennifer Jacobs is the CEO and Co-founder of Connect Our Kids, a technology nonprofit dedicated to helping social workers, lawyers, family recruiters, and CASA/GAL volunteers find supportive family connections and natural support networks for America’s most vulnerable. The organization’s advanced tech tools speed up and scale up techniques for finding extended family members and other caring adults for children in foster care. Jennifer has applied her technical expertise gained from working in nuclear counterterrorism as an Army Officer to Connect Our Kids. The organization has affected 18,000 children and found over half a million connections for those children, touching the lives of over 10,000 American families.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Where Jennifer came up with the idea to create Connect Our Kids
• How the technology works to help social workers do their job more efficiently
• Impactful success stories of children being connected with family members and adults in their circle
• Jennifer’s long-term vision for Connect Our Kids and her short-term goals for 2024
• The challenges Jennifer is facing and the support she needs to help Connect Our Kids grow

Jennifer explains that social workers who work in child welfare can use the tools provided by Connect Our Kids to build out a “map” for a child. This helps to organize all known information about the child’s family and other adults in their circle and search for more details on the Internet through the Connect Our Kids People Search technology. By having a tool that searches for and organizes all of the key details, social workers have more time, bandwidth, and emotional energy to do the human work of social work. Due to Jennifer’s smart application of modern technology, Connect Our Kids is impacting the lives of thousands of children and families. Thank you, Jennifer, for creating tools that help foster children be connected to their people.

Connect with Jennifer:

• LinkedIn
• connectourkids.org
• [e-mail]

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Special thanks to Jennifer for joining me this week. Until next time!

-Scott Mackes, USNA ’01