The name comes from sea otters — a group of otters floating together is called a raft. Sea otters hold hands while they sleep so none of them drift apart. The Raft is the place where people hold on to each other and to themselves. Where no one drifts.
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The Raft provides nervous system support, therapy access, mental health navigation, and community connection to survivors, foster youth, neurodivergent individuals, and anyone who has been turned away or fallen through the cracks of existing systems. The program operates on one principle: whoever wants help gets it.

‍The Catori Foundation figures out how to serve each person and keeps trying until something works. No one is turned away because The Catori Foundation is not equipped — we become equipped or find somewhere that is.

Therapy access — available to all Foundation program participants and community members on a sliding scale based on self-reported income. Cost is never the reason someone does not get help. Walk-ins are seen the same visit. Income documentation is not required at the door. The Raft partners with UCF, Rollins College, and Barry University to place graduate interns in supervised clinical roles — extending capacity and keeping therapy free for those who need it most.

Mental health navigation — not just referrals. Warm handoffs until the person is actually connected. The Raft knows the local provider landscape — community mental health centers, sliding scale providers, telehealth options, culturally competent providers — and stays with the person until they have what they need.

Psychoeducation workshops — community workshops on nervous system regulation, trauma, stress management, and emotional literacy. Open to the public. No registration required. No category needed. Delivered in English and Spanish at minimum, with Video Remote Interpreting available for other languages.

Peer support groups — facilitated groups for people with shared experiences. DV survivors, foster alumni, caregivers, neurodivergent adults, and people experiencing housing instability. Peer support is evidence-based and does not require clinical licensing. Facilitators are trained specifically in how to hold a group safely, recognize when clinical escalation is needed, and maintain appropriate boundaries.

Neurodivergent support — three tiers of support for individuals across the full spectrum.
Tier 1 is universal — sensory accommodations, blue-enriched lighting, biophilic design, and open rooms available to everyone who walks in.
Tier 2 is for individuals who need accommodations to fully participate — smaller group sizes, visual supports, ASL interpretation, sensory breaks.
Tier 3 is for individuals with significant support needs — 1:1 or very small group, AAC device support, ASL as a primary communication bridge, dedicated sensory regulation room, and no time limit on finding what works.
The measure of success in Tier 3 is not whether a standard protocol was followed. It is whether this specific person felt something shift.

ASL and communication access — ASL classes open to clients, staff, volunteers, caregivers, and community members. Video Remote Interpreting available within minutes for any session. AAC devices and communication boards throughout the building. No session begins without a communication bridge in place.

The Otter Club & The Pod — a structured community program for children and teens woven with mental health, emotional literacy, and empathy development. It does not look like mental health. It looks like somewhere kids want to be. Open to any child or teen in the community — not limited to The Catori Foundation program participants.

Crisis support — The Catori Foundation is not a crisis line. But we will never turn someone away in crisis. The first response is always the most available trained person — never a volunteer alone. The goal is that talking to us always feels like the right choice. After any crisis, we reach out when the person is ready. The door stays open.

The Raft building is designed as a regulation environment. Every decision serves the nervous system of the people inside it. Blue-enriched lighting throughout — research confirms it reduces amygdala activation passively. Live plants in every space — biophilic design lowers cortisol and reduces ambient noise. A dedicated sensory regulation room available to anyone who needs it, no diagnosis required. Open rooms with no agenda, no program, no one asking anything. Books, plants, light, somewhere safe to be.
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Childcare is available inside the building for any client or program participant who is in the building. A parent never has to choose between their session and their child.

The Catori Foundation is currently developing a nervous system stabilization tool for deployment across all Foundation programs. It is being built for the moment of overwhelm when nothing else is accessible — and will be available free to every individual it reaches, with no advertising, ever. It is not yet publicly available.

In Florida, foster care ends at 18. For most young people in the system, that birthday is not a celebration — it is a deadline. The paycheck stops. The placement ends. The support disappears. And a teenager who has never had to figure out rent, groceries, a lease, or a tax return is handed a garbage bag and told to go.

The Catori Foundation builds the runway before they reach the edge.

The Adult Living Program operates across two connected components:
Life Skills Learning, which begins at 13, and the Adult Living facility itself, which residents enter at 16. The program is built on one principle: no one leaves without being prepared for what comes next.

Life Skills Learning is an educational curriculum available to any teen 13 and older — whether they are in a TCF group home or in another foster placement entirely. It is the foundation everything else is built on.

Sessions run twice weekly for group home residents and once weekly for community participants. One session per week is shared — foster youth and community teens together in a community center. The additional depth session is for residents only. Foster youth are not in a separate room being treated differently. They learn alongside peers. The additional session is invisible to everyone but them.

The curriculum is complete — not a sampling of practical skills. Every subject a teenager needs before they live alone.

Emotional literacy and empathy. Body language and nonverbal communication. Relational health — healthy partnership, recognizing control patterns, boundaries, consent. Home basics, laundry, cleaning, home maintenance. Sewing and clothing care. Food literacy, cooking, grocery shopping, and budgeting for food. Banking, money handling, credit, debt, and taxes. Healthcare navigation — appointments, insurance, prescriptions, reproductive health. Renter basics and tenant rights. Parenting and child development literacy. Employment readiness — resume, interviews, workplace expectations, first paycheck.

A thread runs through every subject: relational health and domestic equity. Not as a standalone module. As a lens. During cooking — who cooks and why. During budgeting — financial control as a form of abuse. During healthcare — bodily autonomy and advocating for yourself. It is never a lecture. It is a conversation inside the subject already being taught.

Each resident creates their own cookbook during the cooking module — recipes they have learned and developed, documented in their own hand. It leaves with them when they go.

The Adult Living facility is a DCF-approved transitional living placement for residents 16 and older. Residents who qualify for Extended Foster Care may remain through age 21 — or 22 with a documented disability. Residents who do not qualify for EFC may remain through age 21 provided they meet ongoing program requirements.

Residential units are a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and larger shared configurations. Every unit has a private bathroom. Parenting residents — teens who have a child — are not separated from the program. Their children come with them.

Employment — a job or confirmed employment offer is required before move-in. It is required throughout residency. If a job is lost, The Catori Foundation provides a 60-day documented search runway with active support. The program does not pull the floor out from under someone who is genuinely trying.

Credential track — residents 18 and older pursue an approved credential alongside employment.
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Having a job builds the present. A credential builds the future.

The Catori Foundation does not send anyone into the world with only one.

Approved tracks include:
Associate's and bachelor's degrees
Trade and vocational programs
Cosmetology
CDL
Real estate licensure
Medical certifications
IT certifications
Culinary programs
EMT certification, and others.

If a resident's career path is not on the list, there is an approval and appeal process.

The Catori Foundation does not crush dreams.

Escrow — residents contribute a percentage of their income each paycheck. The escrow account belongs entirely to the resident. It is held by The Catori Foundation and disbursed in full upon exit. No portion is forfeited as a program consequence — except where an escrow penalty applies for qualifying violations, in which case the penalty is transferred to the victim's escrow, never retained by the Foundation.

Mental health — licensed therapists on site at all times.

Individual therapy weekly.
Group therapy twice weekly.

Four psychiatrists on staff, each resident assigned to one from move-in through exit — the same person for the entire stay. Seeking mental health support is never documented as a negative. Never used as grounds for disqualification. Never referenced in credential or employment conversations.

TCF Market — a full grocery store experience inside the facility. Shopping carts, organized aisles, staffed checkout. Essentials subsidized and included in the program. Extras available at low cost. Cash and personal debit card accepted. Receipts issued for every transaction. Residents prepare and cook all of their own meals. The store is a Life Skills Learning environment, not a food bank.

Continued Learning — Life Skills Learning continues inside Adult Living for any resident who has not completed the full curriculum. Once weekly, evening or weekend sessions, picking up wherever the resident left off.

Florida benefits navigation — Medicaid to 26, the Florida tuition waiver, the RTI scholarship, and Independent Living funds are benefits most foster teens never know exist. The Catori Foundation ensures every resident knows what they are eligible for and how to use them.

No one leaves without something to stand on. Every resident receives a complete exit profile — not a stack of papers, but an organized physical and digital file of their life.
Personal budget. Personal cookbook. Employment history documentation. Credential track enrollment or completion. Housing plan. Florida benefits overview.
A full personal document file: birth certificate, social security card, shot records, complete medical history, school records, tax records, any legal documents relevant to their history.

The exit profile is non-negotiable. It is not withheld ever. It belongs to them.

The children who come to The Catori Foundation have already lost something. A home. A family. A sense of where they belong. Some have been moved through the system so many times that they have stopped believing anywhere is permanent. The Catori Foundation loves them through it. Every one of them. Without exception.

The Cottages and The Lodge are not programs. They are homes. When a child is asked where they live, the answer is simply: the cottages.

The program operates across two connected placement environments — The Cottages, a community of individual family homes, and The Lodge, a larger communal home for children who need more space around the table. Same belonging. Same safety. Same standard of care. Just different configurations.

The program is built on one principle: The Catori Foundation loves children through whatever they are carrying. More support, never less.

The Cottages is a community of family homes within a TCF-owned complex. Each cottage is a real home with live-in parents, children who feel like siblings, and daily life as close to normal healthy home life as possible. The community infrastructure — playgrounds, shared spaces, clubs, and activities — surrounds the cottages without defining them. Children interact across cottages naturally. Friendships form. A community grows.

Each cottage has two parent adults — a couple of any configuration, or two single adults of the same sex. They are not rotating caregivers. They are not staff. They are parents — live-in, trained, consistent, and committed for the duration of the child's placement. While the child is held by The Catori Foundation, that is their family.

Cottage parents complete the full TCF Foster Parent Training Program before any placement — not after. Special needs trained cottage parents complete additional specialized training specific to the child's needs before that child arrives.

The Lodge is a larger communal home located as close to The Cottages as possible — ideally adjacent or on the same grounds. It holds more children with more structure, because larger groups require predictable routines and clear expectations. Structure is safety, not punishment.

The Lodge parent adults hold a clinical background — a degree or certification in therapy, psychology, counseling, or social work. They are parents informed by clinical knowledge, not clinicians acting as parents. The Lodge children share community spaces, playground, and activities with The Cottages children. No child is marked as different based on which track they are in.

The placement bends to the siblings — not the other way around. If one sibling requires a cottage, the whole group goes to a cottage. Siblings are never split between tracks for administrative convenience.

Placement and parenting — a real home with consistent parents who know each child specifically. Breakfast, school, homework, dinner, bedtime. All of it. Each unit has its own rhythms, traditions, and rules within TCF community standards. Children are children, not residents, not cases, not placements.

School stability — same school, same friends, same continuity. Placement stability means school stability. Cottage and Lodge parents advocate at school the way any parent would. The TCF Child Advocate steps in when a stronger voice is needed.

Mental health — every child receives a mental health screening within 24-48 hours of arrival, conducted individually even within sibling groups. Same trauma, different responses.

Individual therapy weekly.
Group therapy twice weekly.
Younger children receive play therapy.
Family therapy available for bio families, extended families, and adoption track families.

The TCF Child Advocate — every child has a dedicated advocate whose only job is to make sure that child feels heard, safe, and taken care of. Independent from cottage parents. Trained as a Florida Guardian ad Litem volunteer — giving them formal court standing to represent the child's best interests. The advocate attends DCF meetings, court hearings, and placement reviews as the child's voice. They are the person who catches what nobody else sees.

Bio family engagement — The Catori Foundation actively supports healthy family relationships where they are safe and appropriate. Bio families are partners in a child's wellbeing, not obstacles to be managed. Family therapy is available to work through what caused the separation and what needs to change. When reunification is not the goal, the Foundation actively researches extended family history — not just who exists, but who is safe.

Adoption — The Catori Foundation protects children from the uncertainty of the adoption process entirely until the adults have done their part. A child does not know adoption is being pursued until a family has been fully vetted and has committed to choosing them specifically. Not a child. This child.

Community programs — clubs, sports, arts, music — whatever the children are drawn to. Holidays celebrated across every program, equally. Every child's birthday celebrated. Every holiday represented in the community given space.

Aging out support — the family relationship does not end when a child turns 18 and the legal placement does. Cottage parents remain their family if wanted and agreed upon — calls, Sunday dinners, support when things fall apart.

Every teen is prepared from age 16 with employment, escrow, and a housing plan built on their actual income and the current market.

The Catori Foundation never responds to a struggling child with less. The escalation model moves toward more support — additional therapy, smaller groups, psychiatric evaluation, and if needed, temporary inpatient care.

When a child goes to inpatient treatment, their placement holds. Cottage and Lodge parents maintain the relationship through it — visits, calls, letters. The child knows they are coming back. That bed is theirs.

When a child's behavior or emotional state signals they are struggling, The Catori Foundatinon's response is always more support — never less. The escalation model is not a discipline system. It is a care system. Each level adds something. Nothing is ever taken away.
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Level 1 — Additional therapeutic support. Increased check-in frequency with the child advocate. Cottage parents and therapist in closer communication. The child is seen more, not managed more.
Level 2 — Targeted intervention. Therapy frequency increases. Behavioral support plan developed with input from the child, cottage parents, therapist, and advocate. Every person at the table is working toward the same thing.
Level 3 — Professional escalation. Intensive Outpatient Program — the child remains in placement and attends structured programming outside. Psychiatric evaluation if not already completed. Medication review if applicable. Full team meeting: therapist, advocate, cottage parents, program lead, and DCF case worker.
Level 4 — Inpatient or residential treatment. Temporary, therapeutic, and the placement holds. Cottage parents maintain the relationship throughout — visits, calls, letters. Discharge planning begins immediately upon admission. The child knows they are coming back. That bed is theirs.

The placement is never terminated because a child is struggling. TCF keeps trying until something works.