One of Oxford’s newest residents is someone who’s made helping foster care children his mission in life.

His name is Joseph Savalle and he, along with his wife Michelle, are the founders of Love for a Child.

“I specifically moved to this area (from Shelby Township) to be closer to the kids that we were helping,” he said.

Founded in 2012 and based in Auburn Hills, the nonprofit organization provides various mentoring programs to youth who are active in the state’s foster care system.

Although Love for a Child has partnerships with assorted agencies throughout southeast Michigan, Savalle said 80 percent of the kids they work with live in Oakland County.

That’s because in June 2017, the organization formally became partners with the Alliance of Coalitions for Healthy Communities, a substance misuse prevention and wellness organization that supports a 19-coalition prevention partnership in Oakland County. Its goal is to mobilize a diverse group of people from all sectors to take coordinated action aimed at building healthier communities.

“Of the 150 children in our program, we personally select 80 percent of them to come from Oakland County, ” Savalle said. “The other 20 percent comes from all over.”

Love for a Child’s programs run all year long.

“We never want to be known as people that stop over for Christmas and birthdays and just give out gifts,” Savalle said. “To be honest, I don’t really believe in that. I believe that is 1 percent of what we’re supposed to do.”

Foster care youth frequently move from home to home and often get separated from their siblings, making it difficult for them to form lasting relationships.

Love for a Child works to change that by having mentors spend three to 12 hours per month with each youth in the program.

“We want to be the constant that stays in their lives,” explained Savalle, who noted the organization currently sees 150 kids on a monthly basis.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services website, there are approximately 13,000 children in foster care in the state.

“Almost 80 percent of them don’t have some form of programming or services offered to them,” Savalle said. “They’re pretty much just fighting to survive.”

Love for a Child seeks to fill this gap by helping them not only survive, but thrive through the guidance provided by mentors.

These mentors are there to celebrate children’s achievements and special events; help them set goals; strengthen their weaknesses be they at home, in school or in the community; allow them to just be kids; encourage them to be their best; guide them toward developing positive behavior; and teach them life and leadership skills.

According to Savalle, 92 percent of the kids the organization has mentored have reported some form of a positive outcome such as behavior changing for the better, improved grades in school and a more optimistic outlook on life.

Love for a Child’s mentors help young people deal with issues such as neglect, abuse, substance abuse, anger, anxiety and depression.

Savalle noted all of Love for a Child’s mentors are required to undergo 15 hours of training “every single year” and “no foster care child is allowed to be seen unless two mentors are physically present.”

Right now, Love for a Child has approximately 52 trained mentors.

Although Savalle is new to Oxford as a resident, he’s no stranger to this area.

For the past 11 years, he’s been running a special week-long camp for foster care kids at the Salvation Army’s Echo Grove Camp and Retreat Center in Addison Township. He started doing this prior to founding Love for a Child.

“We truly choose the children that we believe deserve to be there based on circumstance,” Savalle said. “We personally select cases that are more severe for the camp.”

The goal is to give these young people, who have had their childhoods “essentially stolen” from them, a week of pure fun in an environment where they’re treated like “royalty” and given “a chance to live like kids.”

This year, 40 kids will attend the camp, which will be held Aug. 13-17.

“We had 96 (kids) actually apply,” said Savalle, but Love for a Child can only afford 40 due to cost.

In addition to Echo Grove, Love for a Child began regularly taking kids to Legacy 925 (formerly the Legacy Center) in Oxford last year to enjoy a few hours of fun and recreation.

Savalle noted the most rewarding part of his work is waking up every day knowing that his “purpose” in life is being “fulfilled.” He walked away from “a very mundane marketing job” to help children who “desperately need someone in their lives.”

“I truly believe that the Lord placed me on this Earth for this very reason,” he said.

For more information about Love for a Child, please visit loveforachild.org or call (586) 873-0378.