Connection
Matters
Some issues are hard to ignore, especially when they keep moving into your heart and home. For my husband, Steve and me, the issue we can’t ignore is children and young adults without stable, trustworthy family. In 2007, when we first entered the foster care/adoption world, we were a small family with one biological daughter. Our reasons for adopting were simple: we wanted to add to our family and our daughter, Kristan, wanted a sister. We had no idea how much our lives were about to change.
Today, we have eight young women who call us mom and dad. They are each unique individuals with beauty, purpose and potential. But they didn’t always believe that about themselves. Six of our daughters have entered our lives between the ages of 11 and 18; each have faced more rejection, abuse and neglect in their lives than any person should. Their stories are heartbreaking.
Through our family’s journey, we’ve discovered a burning passion in our hearts for youth and young adults who have no one to belong to. We’ve experienced first-hand the power of belonging. The simple things like calling home for a recipe, having someone to call when you’ve gotten a speeding ticket, knowing that there’s someone in this world who knows what your favorite meal is and will cook it for you…. every child deserves those things.
The issue of youth and young adults without anyone in their life to lead them, love them, guide them and believe in them is real. We know, it’s moved into our home seven times over and we’re eternally grateful.
Connections Homes is about belonging. Our sons and our daughters deserve to belong to someone – forever.
We can’t tell you how much we appreciate each of you that have said “Yes!” to joining us in this journey. Together, we’re going to change lives forever. We wouldn’t want to do it alongside anyone else.
God Bless You!
Pam Parish
Connections Homes
Founder & CEO
Pam Parish
Founder & CEO
Our Family
Board of Directors
Joe Thomas, Jr.
Board Chair
President & Managing Member, Five Star Realty Partners, LLC
Robyn Smith
Vice-Chair
Executive Vice President of Human Resources, Jackson Healthcare
Julia Amendola
Treasurer
CPA & Firm Manager, Worth & Associates
Linda Burns
Secretary
Lifestyle Consultant
Melody Frcek
Past-Chair
Vice President of Property Management at OA Management
Jerry Rick
Director
Executive Director, Arbor at BridgeMill
Chrissy Strohmeyer
Past Chair
Co-Founder & Managing Partner - Sourced
Paige Berry
VP, Customer Solutions, DefenseStorm
Our Team
Pam Parish is the founder and chief executive officer of Connections Homes an organization birthed out of her personal story as a mom to eight daughters (all currently between the ages of 22 - 26)—one birth daughter and seven adopted daughters from various circumstances (foster care, aging out of foster care, adoption disruption, trafficking, and homelessness). She has more than 10 years of experience in foster care, trauma-informed care, and crisis parenting. She is also the author of three devotional-style books used worldwide as a standard for helping families prepare for foster care and adoption (Ready or Not, released in 2012), to “stay in the game” when they are tired and worn out (Battle-Weary Parents, released in 2015), and to understand the importance of the gift they can be in a child’s life who has no one (The Gift, released in 2018). Pam is a wife to her high school sweetheart, Steve. They are the parents and grandparents of eight young adult daughters, three sons-in-law, and four grandchildren. They live on a small 12-acre farm just outside of Atlanta where all of their free time is spent with animals, in gardens, and around the firepit.
Janna R. Gardner, RN, COHN-R serves as the Executive Director for Connections Homes Dallas an organization that empowers youth without a family to thrive in life and impact the world from the security of a healthy connection. Janna comes from a healthcare background where she founded and grew a nonprofit healthcare ministry to an annual revenue of over 10m in fourteen years. She has been a youth advocate for decades and has lobbied at the state and national level for youth health care access. Additionally, she has supported youth by directly providing access to much needed healthcare, food sustainability, and mental health services. Janna is a registered nurse and has served on various boards throughout her career which have included Louis Herrington, Baylor School of Nursing, Suntide Home Owners Association, Vickery Brain Trust, and organizations within her children's schools. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including sharing the D Magazine CEO of the Year Award with Texas Health Resources based on community collaboration, Altrusa Woman of the Year, and Nonprofit of the Year.
Our Values
Connections Homes was founded on Jesus’ words from John 14:18, “I will not leave you alone (comfortless, orphaned), I will come to you.” As an organization, we believe that no one, especially a young person whose life circumstances are no fault of their own, should be alone in life. Our values as an organization move us continually forward in finding loving, lifelong family like relationships for youth who are alone due to broken family systems.
Our values reflect our heart.
We honor God and others by demonstrating lve and compassion in all we say, do and procative as individuals and as an organization.
We empower one another to be the best version of ourselves possible in this world by sharing our experiences and tristing one another with respponsibility and ownership that leads to success.
We practice accountibility by taking ownership & respondibility for our commitments and following through with our actions.
We value relationship with other and acknowledge the omportance of maintaining good relationship through communication, togetherness and mutal respect.
We model transparency in our lives by being upfront and open about our actions, intentions and expectations.