When was the last time you went on a date that you could describe as life-changing?
For Stacy Johnson, it was 12 years ago, when she told her date that she always wanted to help foster kids because of her own experience of being placed in nine different foster homes between the ages of 2 and 15. Johnson’s date (who later became her husband) said he couldn’t stop thinking about her dream. That same night, he emailed her an e-book he’d found with step-by-step instructions for opening a group home like the one that finally provided Johnson the stability she needed.
Johnson already had been considering leaving her role as a financial advisor after nine years and a move to Texas. She read the entire e-book that night, and a year and a half later opened Central Texas Table of Grace, a shelter for foster kids that has grown to be much more, including the 2025 MDRT EDGE charity partner for the MDRT Foundation.
How it started
For Johnson, the motivation started when she was 13 and asked her caseworker if she could go to a group home, a way to prevent jumping from place to place, and receive care from staff members whose job it was to help. A therapist respected her goal to be emancipated — released from the custody of the state and legally declared an adult — when she turned 16. So, extra staff was hired to tutor and guide Johnson as she worked 40 hours a week to complete her independent study.
“I wanted to do things a different way, and this therapist believed in me,” said Johnson, who was emancipated a little over a year after arriving at the home. “That one man was in my life for six months; it was the difference between me being in jail and me being the founder of a nonprofit and gave me the passion to make things better for foster kids in the future.”
When Johnson started Table of Grace in 2014, the shelter had 13 beds for kids ages 5 to 17, often survivors of child abuse and/or poverty, and needed short-term support while waiting for a foster home. But for the next five years, Johnson saw that not only were there not enough foster homes or facilities available, she also now was getting calls from kids who aged out of the system without being adopted and were struggling. The messages ranged from “I’m under a bridge and don’t have anywhere to go” to “I’m having a baby next week and don’t have a car seat” to “My boyfriend hit me, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Stats are bad,” Johnson said, “but way worse is seeing them play out in real life.”
She covered rent whenever possible for whomever needed a place to live but felt powerless knowing there were more kids than she and the shelter’s 22 staff members could help. Johnson needed an actual program in place.
How it’s grown
So, in 2021 she started Grace365, a supervised independent living program that provides a fully furnished apartment, life skills training (including work with a case manager and classes customized to individual interests), and sometimes even a car for kids who age out of foster care and are in danger of becoming homeless. Ultimately, people ages 18 to 22 who felt, at best, forgotten or, at worst, discarded now sensed they were safe and supported until they could support themselves.
However, the program seemed unsustainable without owning the apartment complex, so Johnson and Table of Grace now own land and are building a campus for 32 kids, from newborn to 17, as well as 24 apartment units for young adults.
Johnson knows that, with rare exception, kids want to be reunited with their parents.
“I have seen kids’ arms used as an ashtray, and they’re still asking for the mom who did it,” she said.
But it’s not her role to determine placement. Instead, she seeks to create a continuum of care so that even if kids need a range of services for years, that support is available locally and there’s no need to change schools. Plus, the new facility serving younger kids can keep siblings together when someone is younger than 5.
At MDRT EDGE in Austin, Texas, USA, attendees will participate in a service project in which they’ll build a variety of kits. The kits can be activity boxes (which might include crafts or other projects), holiday boxes (including items for a door-decorating contest), or pajama packs with clean clothes inside. Won’t be at EDGE but want to get involved? Johnson encourages you to subscribe to Table of Grace’s newsletter and follow the organization on social media. That might sound basic, but Johnson has seen the power of digital awareness.
After a connection shared Johnson’s Facebook post about collecting TVs for young adults, the connection’s clients wanted to talk with Johnson about her work. The result: not just a TV, but a $10,000 check.
“Those people wouldn’t have known about me without the post being shared,” Johnson said. “You never know who you’re sharing it with, for whom the issue is near and dear to their heart, or who wants to be part of something huge that will last for generations to come.”
