Our Story...
It Started With One CASA Volunteer and a Question No One Was Asking.
In 1993, Cathy Richman started volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in San Diego's foster care system. For five years, she watched children — especially infants and toddlers — bounce from home to home, forming no real attachments, receiving no real stability, being re-traumatized and falling further behind with every move.
She asked a question everyone else seemed willing to skip:
What if one family stayed with one child — all the way through?
In 1998, she incorporated The Angels Foster Family Agency. In 1999, she placed her first hurt baby in an Angel's home.
Over the next 26 years, Angels has found safe and committed loving homes for more than 10,00 hurt and scared babies and children in three different cities (San Diego, Santa Barbara & Oklahoma City). We have certified over 5,000 Angel's foster families, and maintained a documented success rate in safety and permanency above 99%.
No other foster care model in America has come close
to the successful outcomes Angels produces year after year.
The Model Never Failed. The System Did
In 2024, California's largest foster care insurance carrier dropped coverage for more than 200 agencies across the state. The insurance crisis that followed closed dozens of programs — including Angels Foster Family Network, which announced its closure in March 2026.
It was not a failure of the model. It was not a failure of the families. It was a financial collapse caused by a broken system that had long failed to protect children — and now could no longer protect the organizations trying to fill the gap.
Angels did not deserve to close. The children it served did not deserve to lose it.
Angels 2.0:
The Future Wave of Foster Care
Jamie Thomas has been part of the Angels family since 2008. He and his wife Kim became Angels foster parents, cared for seven severely traumatized babies & children, and adopted two of them — Aubrey and James, now teenagers.
He served on the Angels board, gave the inspirational keynote at new parent orientations for years, appeared alongside Cathy in television, radio, and print media, and created the Birdies for Babies fundraiser.
When he learned Angels was closing, he called Cathy.
They agreed...the show must go on!
Angels 2.0 is the continuation of everything Cathy built — with 26 years of proof behind it, a strengthened model informed by the latest evidence in trauma-informed care, and the full commitment of a team that has lived this work from the inside.
The model is the same. The mission is the same. The hurt babies & children need us more than ever.
The People Behind Angels 2.0
Jamie Thomas
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & ANGELS PARENT
Jamie has 30+ years in trauma-informed care, nonprofit leadership, grant writing, and program development. He holds a Master's in Human Services, where he studied the foster care system exclusively and intensely. He was the architect of California's first Professional Therapeutic Foster Parent Pilot program (2019), Director of Services at San Diego Youth Services, and the creator of Foster Care 2.0. He is an Angels foster parent, Angels board alumnus, and adoptive parent of two.
Kimberley Yager RN
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBER & SUPER ANGELS MOMMY
Kim is a hospice nurse and experienced Angels foster parent who has cared for seven traumatized babies & children from newborn to teenager. She brings clinical expertise, lived foster parenting experience, and fierce advocacy to the Angels 2.0 board.
Cathy Richman
ORIGINAL FOUNDER & INNOVATIVE GAME CHANGER
Cathy created the Angels model in 1998 after five years as a CASA volunteer. Her insight — that infants and toddlers need one stable attachment figure above all else, was radical at the time. That innovative vision led to her game changing Angel's policies of: Commitment to Permanency and One Child at a Time are now supported by decades of brain development research. She continues to guide Angels 2.0 as our founding partner and leader.
