Thirteen years ago, Carla Crayton found herself facing a challenge she never expected. In her late thirties and without children of her own, she suddenly became a foster parent to a seven-year-old girl. She had little preparation, no parenting experience, and no roadmap for navigating the foster care system. Like many new foster parents, she was overwhelmed and unsure where to turn.
The little girl arrived with very few belongings. Carla remembers shopping for necessities, gathering clothing, and trying to provide comfort while learning the system herself. What happened next would change not only her life, but the lives of thousands of Wyoming children and families. Just four months later, Carla founded Sheridan Foster Parent Exchange (SFPE), determined that no foster parent should ever have to face those challenges alone.
In those early days, Carla pieced together support however she could. She purchased necessities from Walmart, searched consignment stores, accepted donations, and visited garage sales looking for item’s children might need. What started as a few supplies gathered in her living room quickly became a growing network of support. When she helped those first three foster children and their families in a Walmart parking lot, she had no idea the effort would one day become an organization serving communities across Wyoming.
What began in Carla's living room, Sheridan Foster Parent Exchange has grown into one of the state's most recognized foster care support organizations.
Its first outreach effort was simple: helping three foster children and their families in a Walmart parking lot. From those humble beginnings, the organization has expanded its reach to help thousands of children and families across the state.
A Life Shaped by Foster Care
Carla's commitment to foster care began long before she became a foster parent herself. At the age of eight, she entered foster care and was placed with family members out of state. Like many children in the system, she experienced uncertainty, change, and the challenges that come with family separation.
Years later, she experienced something that would shape her life's mission: reunification. Her family relationships were restored. Today, her foster parents live in Wyoming, her biological mother lives nearby, and her first foster daughter remains close to the family.
That experience gave Carla a perspective few people possess. She understands foster care as a former foster child, a foster parent, an advocate, an educator, and a service provider. She has worked as a court-appointed advocate, collaborated with schools, served as a visitation supervisor, and worked alongside biological parents trying to rebuild their lives.
Because she has lived nearly every side of the system, Carla firmly believes foster care should focus on healing families whenever possible. "The goal is reunification," she says. While adoption remains a positive outcome for some children, Carla believes the primary purpose of foster care should be helping families heal, restoring relationships, and providing parents with the tools and support they need to safely reunite with their children.
That philosophy influences every aspect of Sheridan Foster Parent Exchange. The organization works not only with foster families, but also with biological parents, grandparents, schools, and community partners.
Meeting Immediate Needs
One of the most visible ways Sheridan Foster Parent Exchange helps children is through care kits and crisis bags. When children enter foster care, they often arrive with little more than the clothes they are wearing. Some leave difficult situations with almost nothing. SFPE provides essential items including clothing, hygiene products, toiletries, school supplies, comfort items, toys, and other necessities that help children feel safe and cared for during a traumatic transition.
The organization also assists foster families with clothing, household needs, referrals, emotional support, advocacy, and practical resources. For Carla, the work goes far beyond providing supplies. The goal is to walk alongside children and families from the beginning of their journey through reunification, adoption, or independent adulthood. Over the years, Carla herself has fostered seven to eight children while continuing to grow the organization she founded.
Education Is Prevention
There is one area Carla is very passionate about, and it is this: "Information is prevention." Education sits at the center of everything Sheridan Foster Parent Exchange does. It results in the care, support, and love that is given to all involved.
The organization provides training, mentoring, and educational opportunities for foster parents, biological parents, grandparents, educators, churches, community organizations, and partner agencies. Carla regularly conducts workshops, mentors youth, speaks at conferences, works with school systems, and collaborates with organizations throughout Wyoming.
She believes that when communities understand the challenges children face, they are more likely to become involved and take action. Without education, communities often fail to recognize warning signs until a crisis has already occurred. The consequences can be devastating. Child abuse, neglect, exploitation, trafficking, isolation, mental health struggles, and youth suicide are all issues that thrive in environments where people do not understand what is happening around them. When that happens, children and families are less likely to face challenges alone.
During the interview Carla emphasized some misconceptions about foster children.
Part of Carla's work involves challenging misconceptions about foster children and their families. "There is a stigma that foster children are bad kids and that biological parents are bad people," she says. "That simply isn't true." Every child is different. Every parent is different. Every family situation is different. Understanding those realities helps communities respond with compassion rather than judgment.
Protecting Children in a Digital World
One of Carla's growing concerns involves the dangers children face online. Social media, gaming platforms, messaging apps, and digital communities have become a central part of everyday life for many young people. While these technologies offer opportunities for connection and learning, they also create opportunities for exploitation.
Carla frequently speaks about online grooming, child exploitation, and human trafficking. She believes many parents underestimate the risks because they do not fully understand how predators use technology to identify and target vulnerable children. Many young people spend hours each day online, often without recognizing the dangers that may be present. Carla believes excessive social media use can contribute to isolation, anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges, particularly among vulnerable youth.
Parents, schools, and communities are struggling to keep pace with rapidly changing technology while attempting to protect children from growing threats. This is where Carla and SFPE comes in.
For Carla, prevention remains the key. The more people understand the dangers, the better equipped they are to protect children before harm occurs. Carla often emphasizes that predators look for vulnerability, isolation, and opportunity. Social media platforms, gaming communities, and messaging applications can connect children with positive influences, but they can also expose them to manipulation and exploitation.
She believes parents must remain actively engaged in their children's digital lives and that communities need ongoing education about emerging threats. Prevention, she argues, begins long before law enforcement becomes involved.
Confronting Difficult Realities
Carla believes one of the greatest barriers to protecting children is a reluctance to confront uncomfortable truths. "People don't want to know about it, because then they'll have to do something about it," she says. Her response is simple: "Know something, do something. See something, say something."
Child abuse, grooming, online exploitation, and sex trafficking remain serious concerns across the nation, and many advocates warn that Wyoming's location along major interstate corridors has increased vulnerability to trafficking activity and the movement of victims through the region.
For Carla, these realities underscore the importance of education and prevention. She believes communities cannot effectively protect children from dangers they refuse to acknowledge. Awareness is often the first step toward intervention, and intervention can change the course of a child's life.
Yet vulnerable children continue to face significant risks. Particularly concerning are foster youth who age out of the foster care system without stable support networks. Nationally, these young adults face increased risks of homelessness, exploitation, trafficking, and other hardships. Sheridan Foster Parent Exchange works to provide resources, guidance, and connections that can help young people build successful futures.
Building a Stronger Future
Carla has spoken publicly about the need for parents and communities to remain aware of the influence media, social media, online content, and other forms of entertainment can have on children. She believes legislation can play an important role in protecting young people, but lasting change ultimately depends on informed parents, engaged communities, and a willingness to address problems before children become victims.
But she believes legislation alone cannot solve these challenges. Real change happens when communities become educated, involved, and willing to support vulnerable children and families. That belief has shaped her work for more than a decade.
Today, she regularly partners with schools, churches, nonprofit organizations, foster parents, biological parents, grandparents, community leaders, and government officials. She has also helped inspire and support the development of similar organizations throughout Wyoming, creating greater consistency in foster care support and advocacy across the state.
Her goal is not simply to grow one organization. Over the years, Carla has helped inspire and support the creation of similar efforts in other Wyoming communities. As awareness grows, she hopes more organizations will emerge to provide consistent care, resources, and advocacy for children and families throughout the state. Her vision is a Wyoming where every child in crisis has access to support, regardless of where they live. As more organizations emerge, Carla sees hope for the future.
These Children Are Our Future
More than thirteen years after helping those first three foster children in a Walmart parking lot, Carla Crayton continues to advocate for Wyoming's most vulnerable children. Her work has touched thousands of lives, but she believes there is still much more to do.
If communities become more informed, more involved, and more willing to act, she believes many tragedies can be prevented before they occur. The mission has never changed.
As Carla often reminds people: "These children are our future. Just see every person and every child with the grace God gave you."
How You Can Help
Sheridan Foster Parent Exchange depends heavily on community involvement. Residents can help by volunteering, donating, mentoring, advocating, and educating themselves about the realities facing foster children and families.
For information, volunteer opportunities, donation needs, resources, foster parent information, advocacy opportunities, and ways to help, visit their website or email , or call 307-461-9113.