Meet the team
Becca Bergman; becca@bethevillagenh.org
Becca Bergman and her husband live in the seacoast of NH with their 3 children. In 2017 they said “yes” to exploring more about foster care, becoming officially licensed in the winter of 2018. We have cared for children through long-term, emergency, and respite placements. Becca is a full-time house manager, member of the Foster Parent Advisory Board for DCYF, board member of NH Foster and Adoptive Parent Association, and works daily to serve her home and community. I fully believe in the family restoration process- helping to not only love the child, but their biological family as well. Without a strong support system, we would not have survived fostering. That is the heart behind BTV, I want those that step into fostering to feel supported and loved.
Sarah and Ben Stewart; sarah@bethevillagenh.org
The fostering journey always starts with saying yes. Our first “yes” was to take the foster parent training classes while Sarah was 8 months pregnant with our second child. She got plenty of confused looks as to what this pregnant lady was doing signing up for foster care but here we are almost 2 years later with a pre-adoptive placement of a 3.5 and 5 yr old and it has been quite the journey. We are both high school chemistry teachers and could not do what we do without our amazing community of support. We are passionate about making it possible for others to say “yes” to stepping up and meeting the need to care for vulnerable children and their families in the state.
Jill Guptill ; Jill@bethevillagenh.org
As a former foster child and adoptee, Jill has always had a heart for biological, foster and adoptive families. She believes that creating a support network to help both biological and foster families succeed is so very important, and something that everyone can be a part of. Jill has many years of experience assisting a variety of nonprofit and community based organizations with their financial reporting needs, as well as serving organizations as a board member and volunteer. She and her husband Mark live in the Lakes Region of NH with their two college aged children. They enjoy boating, waterskiing, hiking and traveling.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
In 2017, we (my husband Jon and I) felt God was calling our family to become a foster family. Our first placement was a sibling set, ages 1 and 3. With two kids of our own, we now had 4 children under the age of four! Our family, church, friends, and community began to wraparound us- providing meals, free babysitting, donating items, and general support. We would have never made it through that first year without that support! A village of people had wrapped around us. What I started to see as I became more familiar with the foster care community, was that not all families had this support. Without a good support system, foster families felt more isolated and lonely and they were burning out quickly. What started was a grassroots call to our church and community to help support us and another foster family in our church. Over the next two years, two more foster families at our church said “yes” to fostering knowing they would be supported. We saw other foster families desiring this community and decided what started as a church ministry was growing into a community organization. The heart of Be the Village is to make saying “yes” to fostering easier, knowing you will not be doing it alone while also calling the community to action to care for one the most vulnerable populations. - Becca Bergman, Co-founder