Christian Bale is known for disappearing into movie roles, but the role he’s played for the last sixteen years happened far from any camera. Together California, a foster care village in Palmdale, opened its doors Friday with twelve furnished single-family homes and an 11,000-square-foot community center. Bale co-founded the project with his wife, Sibi, and Dr. Eric Esrailian, and it was funded entirely by donations.
The heart of the village is a simple rule: siblings stay together. Instead of splitting brothers and sisters across different placements or group homes, each sibling group gets its own house and a full-time, professionally trained foster parent. The campus also includes two studio apartments, one set aside for birth parents working toward reunification and one for young people aging out of the system.
California has more than 60,000 children in foster care, more than any other state, and the first families move in next month. Bale said the goal is to turn heartbreak and pain into love and hope and a sense of future. After sixteen years of quiet work, that future is finally here. What do you think, could a village like this work in our community?
About the Author
Ava Hart
Ava Hart is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
