The four staff members of Inspire Idaho include, from left, Annie Higgins, managing director; John Mitchell, executive director; Andrew Seidlitz, director of operations; and Natalie Harrison, teen engagement coordinator. (Photo taken by Gaye Bunderson)
By Gaye Bunderson
As former lead pastor at City Church Boise, John Mitchell was haunted, he said, by a verse of Scripture: James 1:27. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress … ”
The verse resonated with him to the point he began to feel he was being pulled away from pastoring a congregation. His wife Debbie also felt that the two of them were being called by God to do something different. “We weren’t sure what that would look like,” John said, “but we wanted to let God lead us.”
What they ended up doing five years ago was launching a non-profit to help young people aging out of foster care. “I received a clear calling to work with foster children,” John said, “and I was compelled by the fact that Jesus spent most of his time with the marginalized and disenfranchised.”
Other determining factors included the couple’s two daughters.
“God opened my eyes to the plight of foster kids through my daughter, Melissa. Her devotion to this under-served population helped me to see how vulnerable they can be. Over time, it became clear to me and to Debbie that modern-day foster kids are the orphans God calls us to care for.
“Our daughter Jenna and her husband David were doing just that by fostering kids in their home. As we entered the foster care world with them, we began to grasp more fully what life can be like for foster kids; how trauma and broken promises make many of these kids wonder if they are worthy of love or anything at all. This fact broke our hearts and compelled us to act.”
Debbie came up with the name for the non-profit the Mitchells founded: Inspire Idaho.
John explained the couple explored names, asking themselves, “What would capture what we want to do? What would the kids experience that was different from what they had already experienced, which was mostly abandonment?”
Inspire Idaho now includes four staff members in all, each of them as motivated to help kids as the Mitchells. They include: John, who serves as executive director; Annie Higgins, managing director; Andrew Seidlitz, director of operations; and Natalie Harrison, teen engagement coordinator.
Staff is paid through the help of “a lot of financial partners,” John stated. Seventy percent of funding comes through donations from individuals, and 30% comes from foundations and churches.
John and other staff said they trust the Lord to provide people to serve as mentors. Mentors have generally been referred by someone the Inspire Idaho staff members know and trust. A word that is particularly meaningful for the team is “relational.” To further highlight that, John stated: “We’re a deeply relational mentoring organization, and it shapes everything we do.”
A brief online search finds “relational” defined as: “Significance derived from connections. … The interconnectedness and important role that relationships play in our lives.”
Inspire Idaho was built on, and is flourishing through, that interconnectedness. Staff knows that relationships can change lives. Information from inspireid.org reads: “God created us to live loved and to love others. We grow into our best selves through meaningful relationships. By building trust-filled connections with foster youth, we invite them to grow alongside us and, ultimately, to experience the God who made us to enjoy a priority relationship with Him.”
Staff further feels that lives changed through loving relationships create a foundation that helps future families not repeat the mistakes of past ones, and builds generational stability and positivity.
Mentors undergo an extensive screening process, then there is a 10-week training that includes in-depth, trauma-informed instruction to work with young people who are healing from very difficult experiences.
“Mentors must build trust,” Annie said.
Natalie added, “A mentor is a friend but also a guide to help that troubled young person become a [well-adjusted] adult.” She continued: “We mentor youth in the foster care system who are aging out, and we walk with the youth for years. Volunteers are asked to mentor for at least six months, but it often extends beyond that. The longest mentoring relationship so far is four years.”
One factor that sets Inspire Idaho apart from other organizations is what they refer to as Dual Focus Mentoring. Information from inspireid.org reads: “Many organizations serve foster youth, either before or after they age out of the system at age 18. Inspire Idaho does both. By building relationships with teens under 18, we establish a platform of trust that allows us to continue mentoring them when they age out.”
John explained, “We will mentor foster youth from 14 to 21, and no one in Inspire Idaho wants that young person to relive feelings of being abandoned. It is important that mentors are willing to be a consistent presence in the life of the teen they are mentoring.”
Because many of these young people have dealt with trauma, they are working through complex emotions. Therefore, the mentors need to be equipped to understand how to lovingly process those types of emotions with the youth. If mentors need help navigating these situations, he or she is welcome to talk with Inspire Idaho staff, to learn appropriate coping techniques and diffusion strategies.
All members of the staff are either mentors themselves or serve as coaches to assist the mentors. Annie became paid staff as of February 2, having transitioned from a counseling career – expertise she said she’ll find useful as a leader in the organization.
What if a mentoring situation just doesn’t work out?
Annie: “We do our best to help each volunteer and youth to find the best fit for them.”
As of mid-January, 15 youth were part of the Inspire Idaho community, and eight were being mentored one-on-one; 12 were mentored in 2025.
John encouraged single people as well as married couples to volunteer.
There are activities for the youth and their mentors to enjoy together. There are the life skills classes to help prepare a formerly fostered boy or girl for the world they’ll live in as adults. They’ll learn essential life skills like managing money, cooking, and finding a job. Generally, these are 90-minute small group sessions followed by a meal. Because these are held in someone’s home, it becomes a family-like bonding event.
Some of the think-outside-the-box topics – presented by experts in their fields – include:
Fun, outdoor activities called Connecting Events allow everyone to enjoy themselves and deepen relationships – one-on-one and with other mentors and foster youth. Activities include swim parties, summer barbecues, white water rafting, rock climbing, and a girls-only movie night or holiday party.
All staff members are Christians, so how do they present that to the kids involved? Inspire Idaho staff members are open about their beliefs but do not push them on young participants. According to Andrew, “Volunteers must be followers of Jesus, passionate about youth, and at least 25 years old.”
However, the foster kids aren’t required to meet any faith specifics in order to be in the program.
“We see these kids as image-bearers of God, not projects to complete,” said Annie.
“We come alongside the youth,” John stated, continuing, “Every youth has his or her own story, and we meet them where they are. Lots of their parents are incarcerated, and our goal is just to love them.”
All staff members are in agreement regarding the power of Christ’s love.
Annie: “His love is transformational. We’re not simply trying to make converts; we’re just demonstrating what a transformed heart looks like.”
She also described “a big piece” of what the mentors and staff want to do at Inspire Idaho. “We want to get a young person to what we call their Big Win. We seek out what their Big Win is to them. Maybe it’s graduating high school or getting their first job. Along the way, they’re encouraged to stack small wins in their life while they’re working toward their ultimate goal, or Big Win.
“Inspire Idaho allows us to engage these teens to affirm their value, offer them hope, and equip them to flourish. It provides a way for us to meet these teens where they are, discover who they want to be, and help them create a roadmap to get there.”
Any way it’s viewed, Inspire Idaho is about winning – and winning for young people who often experienced too much loss in their lives.
For more information, go to inspireid.org or contact John Mitchell at john@inspireid.org. (John’s comments about his daughters were taken from inspireid.org. Definitions of ‘relational’ were pulled from online sources.)
