A Greater Hope: Founder Eva Ford Honored as “Angel in Adoption” By Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute

For Immediate Release October 18, 2021
Contact Amanda Bell, Director of Development | abell@ghffc.org | 760.979.7516

A Greater Hope Founder Eva Ford Honored as “Angel in Adoption”
By Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute

Victorville/Banning/Barstow, California — Eva Ford, the visionary founder of A Greater Hope, a nonprofit that has helped more than 6,000 foster children in San Bernardino and Riverside counties since its founding in 2002, has been honored as an “Angel in Adoption” by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI). Ms. Ford was nominated for the honor by Rep. Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Ms. Ford, 84, was inspired to launch A Greater Hope by her experiences as a child. By the age of 20, Ms. Ford’s mother had four children in New Orleans, Louisiana. “Hunger,” she said when asked what she remembered most about her childhood as a Black woman in the segregated South in the 1940s. “I remember my grammar school classroom was above the cafeteria and I could smell the food, but not eat it.”

To survive, Ms. Ford led her siblings to eat out of garbage cans and she babysat neighborhood children for 50 cents an hour. She learned to sew and made clothing for the family. She enrolled herself and her siblings in school and stuffed the soles of their shoes with cardboard to cover the holes.

“We were starving, dirty and no one did anything,” she said. Ignored by the community and neglected by her mother, as a little girl Ms. Ford vowed she would stop this suffering for other children.

In 1987, Ms. Ford launched the Greater Hope Society, comprised of three group home residences for foster youth in Los Angeles County. The Greater Hope Society was founded to provide quality care and housing for youth in foster care. In particular, Ms. Ford sought to serve Black-American teenage boys, a population she regularly saw languishing on the streets.

Fifteen years later, Ms. Ford founded the Greater Hope Foundation, now known as A Greater Hope (aghope.org). Greater Hope serves the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino by matching and supporting foster children and families, helping children find forever homes through adoption, supervised visit services that enable children to have healthy visits with parents not living together, and behavioral health programs that address mental health needs and the prevention and treatment of child abuse.

Founded in 2001 by the co-chairs of the bicameral, bipartisan Congressional Coalition on Adoption, which now has 158 members, CCAI works with the caucus to eliminate policy barriers that hinder children from realizing their basic right of a family and more effectively raise congressional and public awareness about adoption, foster care, and child welfare.

Ms. Ford is one of about 70 honorees selected this year whose contributions in the fields of adoption or foster care have had an impact on a national scale. As an Angel in Adoption, she will be attending a virtual gala on October 20 and have the opportunity to meet with members of Congress to share her experiences and offer ideas for policy to support adoption and children in foster care.

Ms. Ford is a successful entrepreneur whose eternal optimism guided by love has inspired A Greater Hope’s current tagline, “Through Love We Thrive.”

In addition to the Angel honorees from around the country, CCAI also honors a select number of National Angels in Adoption whose contributions have had a national impact. The 2021 National Angels are 20-time Paralympic 24-time marathon medalist Tatyana McFadden; Jenny and Dave Marrs, stars of HGTV’s Fixer to Fabulous; and Hoda Kotb, co-anchor of NBC’s Today morning news show.

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A Greater Hope is a nationally accredited community based organization serving hundreds of at-risk adults, vulnerable children and resource (foster) families each year. A Greater Hope provides a continuum of care that includes Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment, Family Development, Therapeutic Foster Care, Treatment Foster Care, Intensive Services Foster Care, Adoption Services, Supervised Visitation and a full scope of Behavioral Health Services. Our goal is that every client, from a 38-year-old single man to three-day-old twin baby girls, finds A Greater Hope.