It’s a great day to get outside and take a walk to meet your new neighbors. That’s what Dilan Gipson and his dad, Steve Gipson, are doing. 

Steve is the regional director for Benchmark Family Services, a new therapeutic foster care agency that’s about to open in Erie.

It will be at the corner of State and East 32nd Street.

“We deal with a lot of kids who deal with a lot of anger issues, behavior issues - a lot of our youth deal with a lot of trauma,” Gipson said. 

The father-and-son duo are getting to know the people who live nearby.

“I think we knocked on maybe 50 doors so far,” he said.

They are looking for potential foster parents and sharing their story.

Gipson adopted both of his sons from a therapeutic foster agency in his early 20s. 

“I was my oldest son’s school teacher and my youngest son’s social worker,” Gipson said. “I believe there was a need for my kids to have a forever home.”

Dylin is his youngest son. He’s 13. He’s helping his dad get the word out. 

“I wanted to do it so that more people would have information and could adopt a child so they could have a caring home,” he said.

He remembers what it felt like when he was adopted five years ago.

“It felt like there are still nice people in the world and he really cared about me and wanted to adopt me,” he said. “So that made me feel like he really cared.”

He wants other kids to have that same chance, just like his Dad gave him.

That’s why his Dad isn’t wasting any time getting to work.

“There [are] kids out here who are dependent on us to save their souls, and I think waiting won’t help the situation,” Steve Gipson said. 

He wants to open the agency in the next few weeks. Then he wants to meet his goal.

“I would like every kid out here who does not have a forever home…my goal is to bring them in to Benchmark and give them a forever home,” he said.

More information about the agency is available here.