Making a Difference for the Most Vulnerable Families in Baltimore
As with any other type of emergency first responder, natural gas utility workers are frequently community-focused individuals who care about protecting and serving people around them. Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) employee Bill Blevins exemplifies all of these virtues. Over the past five years, he’s advocated for foster families in his home community of Baltimore, Maryland, including as President of the Baltimore City Resource Parent Association.
Blevins and his wife Caitie first became foster parents in 2019. The couple now has two biological sons and three foster children, including two boys they recently adopted and a baby girl.
“We had our two biological children, and unfortunately were unable to have other ones,” said Blevins. “But fostering is something we’ve always talked about.”
In their first year of fostering, they faced a hard situation when a child they fostered for nine months—one they bonded with and loved—was removed from their home “in a really traumatic way. … That was a turning point for me and my wife. We were either going to stop fostering or look for avenues to get involved and make the process better,” said Bill Blevins.
Bill and Caitie became involved with the Baltimore City Resource Parent Association—a group advocating for foster parents in Baltimore—which had fallen by the wayside after members dropped out. Going strong now for four years, the association has partnered with other groups to offer support services to parents and children while it focuses on working with the city of Baltimore to find solutions to challenges in the foster system.
Their proudest achievement? A policy change that now allows foster parents to travel out of state with children in their care for vacations without getting authorization from the city. Baltimore foster parents are now only required to communicate their plans to the city before taking family vacations, rather than waiting for approval through a bureaucratic process. Foster families in Baltimore have already seen notable benefits from the new policy.
“Being able to change that policy has had a really big impact for foster parents and foster kids by providing stability for the kids, the biggest indicator of success,” confirmed Bill Blevins.
BGE has also supported Blevins’ work. Employees can log up to 750 volunteer hours and get that same amount in funds to support their organization. Blevins also earned BGE’s Powering Community Award in 2022, earning another $5,000 for the association.
“I have a great family and a great extended family, and there are children out there who don’t have that, and it breaks my heart,” said Blevins. “I believe I have been blessed to bless other people. This is the best way to really make a change.”
Our industry, like the Baltimore City Resource Parent Association, is lucky to have incredible people like Bill Blevins.