The local foster care nonprofit Olympic Angels has a new leader in the new year.

Morgan Hanna, a founder of the North Olympic Peninsula chapter of Olympic Angels, has stepped in as the organization’s executive director.

Hanna comes to the role “with a passion for bringing Peninsula communities together to improve the lives of kids and families experiencing foster care,” Olympic Angels representatives said.

She has extensive experience in the foster care community, having served as a Guardian ad Litem (court-appointed advocate for children in foster care) and co-founder of Foster Supports of Jefferson County, another area nonprofit providing tangible resources to foster families and children.

Olympic Angels looks to provide valuable, healthy relationships that mimic natural family supports to children and their foster caregivers on the Olympic Peninsula.

The movement toward community-supported foster care has grown quickly over the last three years, Olympic Angels representatives said, with nearly 200 volunteers supporting hundreds of children in Clallam and Jefferson counties.

“I want Olympic Angels to change the experience of foster care — one kid at a time,” Hanna said recently in a press release.

”We hope to build the support ahead of the need so that every family who chooses to foster finds the community rallied and waiting behind them.

“Children who are going through the hardest time in their lives deserve to feel seen, supported, loved, and treasured.”

The organization intends to expand supports for the increase of children entering foster care on the Olympic Peninsula in the coming year, representatives noted. There are several hundred children in formal and informal foster care in Clallam and Jefferson counties.

While there is a critical shortage of available foster beds on the peninsula, according to Olympic Angels, but Olympic Angels will provide support for long-term outcomes for those families and children in care through their Love Box and Dare to Dream programs.

The Love Box program provides fostering families — caregivers, children in foster care, and biological/adopted children — with community and holistic support, according to the Olympic Angeles website (olympicangels.org/lovebox.html). This support helps caregivers do the important and meaningful work of being foster parents.

The Dare to Dream program (for youth ages 15-22) and Dare to Dream Jr. program (for youth ages 11-14) provide one-on-one mentorship to youth in care.