We recently connected with Angela Lippens and have shared our conversation below.
Angela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Unfaulted was inspired by a Bible verse that motived us to start this organization. James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts are pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
If God views something as faultless, I want to know about it. As an organization, we want to pursue God’s calling to look after orphans in their time of distress as we chase faultlessness in the sight of God.
The young women we serve have been dealt a tough hand in life. Their childhoods didn’t look the way a childhood should look. All the turmoil, abuse, and neglect they endured was no fault of their own.
We wanted our name to represent the faultless region God is calling us to as well as the women we serve. The name Unfaulted reminds us to seek God in the way we serve. It reminds our women that the injustices done to them are no fault of their own.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I always say I am the least likely person who should be doing this job. I grew up with a supportive family and got my degree in elementary education. After teaching special education for 5 years, I transitioned to working as a children’s minister for our home church.
Seven years ago, I learned about what was happening in the foster care system and saw the devastating results on foster youth as they were aging out of care. One in five will become homeless after 18. Just half will be employed at the age of 24. Young women who spent time in foster care are 80% more likely to be trafficked. And 25% of foster youth will be in prison within two years of emancipation.
Shortly after learning about the statistics surrounding foster care, I had the opportunity to spend time with a young woman who had spent the majority of her life in care and had just aged out. The conversations I had with her completely changed me. Through that relationship, Unfaulted was born.
Unfaulted exists to build a foundation for young adults who have aged out of the foster care system by providing healthy and permanent relationships with caring adults, reliable resources and accessible opportunities that will ensure their well-being and successful independence. It’s critical that we understand the experiences of young people transitioning from foster care in America if outcomes are to improve. As an organization, we address these issues through 3 strategic programs: (1) providing relational support through community, (2) providing education, training, and resource referral, and (3) sharing the gospel.
I am so proud of the young women who are a part of Unfaulted. They have overcome more obstacles than most people will ever face and accomplished so much in their short lives. They are breaking cycles and defying statistics. Some of our biggest celebrations include: the adoption of a 24 year old woman, a member getting a 4.0 in her masters programming, one member starting a group at her college for former foster youth, and many young women finding housing, employment, education and excelling as they chase their dreams. These accomplishments didn’t happen overnight nor were they easy, that’s why we celebrate everything!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I have always had the mindset that if you work hard enough for something, you can accomplish it. While I am a firm believer in excellent work ethic, I have had to unlearn what this expectation looks like.
For someone who’s been privileged enough to grow up in a supportive environment, work ethic, grit and determination can take you very far. I have lived that privileged life of being able to work hard and see result. Through the work of Unfaulted, I have learned that is a privilege, not a rule.
Picture this, you have spent the first 3 months of your senior year at a new high school working harder than anyone else in your class to learn the curriculum, adhere to all the guidelines, and communicate well with your teachers. You are familiar with change. This is the 5th high school you have attended. You have never had any say so in where you would be living, but you know you can work hard in school and graduate! During the middle of a school day, you are called to the office and told you will be moving again to another foster home. All the time you spent learning how to communicate with the set of teacher you had seems wasted. You spent so much energy building new relationships that are now being washed away. You don’t have the same privilege as other students who are able to start and end a school year with the same teachers, friends and school building.
I believe hard work pays off. I believe work ethic is critical to success. However, foster youth are not given the same opportunities of consistency, stability, and security needed to have the privilege of just working hard. They have to work harder, do more, and fight diligently to make it.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Myself and Carin Bird, Unfaulted’s cofounder, started working together in 2015. The first few years of our co-working relationship were filled with casual conversations, on the job jokes and the building of a friendship.
In 2016 I was just starting to learn about foster care and the statistics surrounding it. By 2017, the topic was starting to come up in day to day conversations with friends, family and coworkers. Around this time, I asked Carin to pray for me because I was feeling like God was calling me to do something for foster youth aging out of care. She did more than pray for me, she held me accountable. Occasionally she would check in and ask what I was doing to pursue the calling. I usually had a list of excuses as to why I hadn’t done a whole lot. Carin would continue to check in, encourage and pray for me.
In 2019, Carin and I attended a conference together. I have never heard God’s voice audibly, but that morning, in a way I can’t explain, I knew God wanted me to fully launch Unfaulted and to ask Carin to do it with me. I was nervous. I couldn’t focus on what any of the speakers were saying. All I could think of was asking Carin to partner and how terrified I was that she would laugh in my face.
During our lunch break, I got up the courage to very sheepishly ask the big question. Without hesitation, Carin said yes. I was confused! There was no way she just agreed to partner with me to undertake something I knew nothing about. It felt like we were climbing onto a sinking ship together!
What I didn’t know was what God had been doing in Carin’s life over the past year. One night while in bed, Carin’s husband reached over to comfort her as she was visibly upset. Her heart was breaking after spending a day together as a family. She watched her husband and children play together but as she lay in bed that night, all she could think of was the children who didn’t have a dad to play with. She shared her heartbreak with her husband and a few close friends of theirs. The friends then asked her what she was going to do about it. Carin continued to have these conversations with her husband and even shared with him my idea of Unfaulted. Without hesitation and with full confidence, he told her, “She’s going to ask you to partner with her.”
For all of 2018 and most of 2019, Carin and I both had a heart broken for foster youth, but we were both terrified to act on it. It wasn’t until we had both jumped in together that we were able to look back and realize the path God had been laying all along.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.unfaulted.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unfaultedco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unfaulted
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unfaulted/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/unfaultedco
- Other: https://linktr.ee/unfaulted
Image Credits
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