The Founder’s Story (feat. Amber Knowles, The Riverside Project)

From the beginning of their relationship, adoption was always a part of our founder, Amber, and her husband’s plan; they even had an adoption fund in their wedding registry! After they stepped into the child welfare system, they felt a desire to support foster parents like themselves—and this vision would quickly turn into something much bigger.

Amber Knowles is our founder and Executive Director. In 2018, she launched the Babysitting Collaborative, which would become The Riverside Project’s first initiative and lay the foundation for everything we do now.

A pediatric nurse practitioner by training, Amber holds a BSN from Baylor and an MSN from UTHealth Houston, and is a TBRI® Practitioner, bringing a trauma-informed approach to her work. Today, Amber combines her background in healthcare and her passion for child welfare to create meaningful change for vulnerable children and families in Houston.

In this episode, Amber shares more about how The Riverside Project began, the challenges faced by every foster parent, a vision for the future of Houston and foster care, and much more.

You can also find this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and more.

Key Takeaways

1. You don’t have to fix everything. There’s too much need in this city for one person to try to fix it all. That mindset will lead to exhaustion, frustration, and ultimately burnout. Instead of trying to solve every problem you see, ask yourself, what’s one thing you have that you can bring to the table? When we all bring what we can, we can start to make a big change for families in our city.
2. Recruitment follows support. How often do we get that backwards when asking people to consider becoming foster parents? Or to offer respite care? Or to become case workers? Rather than taking a stance of “If you do this work, then the help will come”, how radically would things change if we could say “Here are all these resources and people ready to help you if you step into this role”? When we first establish a network of support from the very beginning, the result is that the people will come. We have to get support right in order for people to stay in the fight.
3. Collaboration multiplies our effort. At The Riverside Project, we have always strived to cultivate a spirit of collaboration with other organizations, churches, and individuals. We are not in competition with anybody. In fact, it’s quite the opposite! We are all working toward the same goal—supporting family stability, pulling people out of The River, and making Houston a place where children and families thrive. We are better when we work together, and when different strengths, skills, and stories come together, that’s when we can make the biggest impact.

Resources

• [BOOK] Everyone Can Do Something
• The Biggest Little Farm
• Thanks for listening! Use code “TBRIpodcast” to get $5 off when you sign up for an Introduction to TBRI session. If you work personally or professionally with children who have experienced adversity, learn more about TBRI on our Trauma Training page.

Meet the Guest

Amber Knowles is the founder and Executive Director of The Riverside Project, where she combines her background in healthcare and her passion for child welfare to create meaningful change for vulnerable children and families in Houston. A pediatric nurse practitioner by training, she holds a BSN from Baylor and an MSN from UTHealth Houston, and is a TBRI® Practitioner, bringing a trauma-informed approach to her work. A data-driven network-builder, Amber focuses on solving root issues—not just symptoms—by uncovering practical, upstream, collaborative solutions to complex challenges. She lives in the Houston area with her husband, Drew, their four children, and a goldendoodle named Molly.