The house in southeastern Sioux Falls looks just like any other family home.
A dining room table with family games, a board with notes that outline where everyone has to be and when for the week, a desk with art supplies and the detritus of family life strewn about.
It’s comfortable and cozy and the everyday-ness is the entire point.
The home is one of two in Sioux Falls operated by Abbott House, a statewide nonprofit.
The concept is simple: Foster parents live in the home and up to six kids – all girls or all boys – live there, too. It’s an intensive foster home model that seeks to provide a typical family experience with all the services and structure that many foster children need. A supervisor oversees it all.
In this case, Jacob and Tehya Bierle, both in their mid-20s, operate the home with one pre-school and five teenage foster girls.
“It’s everything you would expect from a house full of teenage girls,” Tehya said. “It keeps us on our toes!”
She and Jacob are former teachers who worked overseas, but they began to feel called to do more and help children differently than they could in the classroom. They heard about Abbott House – Jacob is from South Dakota and Tehya is from North Dakota – and it seemed like a logical next step for them. So, they moved back and began working as full-time foster parents in 2024.
“We kind of jumped in,” Tehya said. “There are definite challenges working with teens. It’s both harder and more meaningful than I imagined.”
Jacob agrees. “It’s been challenging, but we’ve been able to rise to meet it. Our definition of success has changed,” he said.
Success can be as simple as making sure someone took a shower to celebrating a big milestone. It’s all about recognizing that the small moments add up to the big ones – and that forward progress isn’t always linear.
“These girls are so capable, and bumps in the road are part of growth,” Jacob said. “We want to let them navigate that while also letting them know we expect big things from them.”
Community Appeals
Abbott House has 12 homes like this one – including two in Sioux Falls, and two more under construction. The next two will include attached apartments that allow teens who age out of foster care to live independently while still getting wraparound support.
In these apartments, young adults work and go to school, and pay a small fee in rent. When they are ready to move out – they get that rent money back, and many use it for a deposit on their own place or to buy a used car, said Virginia Wishard Lambert, director of development for Abbott House.
Lambert said Abbott House works with the the State of South Dakota to help provide families for children who might be more difficult to place in traditional foster care – maybe they are older, or have health challenges such as diabetes. They also work with a variety of agencies to help place kids, including Children’s Home Society of South Dakota and McCrossan Boys Ranch.
“We have a supervisor who oversees the homes and helps the families with case management, including making sure the kids get to therapy or get tutoring or school help if they need it,” Lambert said.
The foster parents receive typical job compensation – including paid time off and benefits. They also receive specialized trauma training to help manage the complex needs of the kids.
“We provide all the cars, and we pay all the bills,” Lambert said. “Then it functions just like a typical family – the kids go to public school and play sports. Our parents are amazing.”
Abbott House began a Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Community Appeals campaign on April 1 to raise $3 million to build two more houses with attached independent living in Sioux Falls. The overall campaign is asking for $5.5 million and includes two other homes in other cities across South Dakota.
“We need a 7-bedroom house at a minimum, and not every home has that capacity,” Lambert said. “We are hoping the community appeal campaign can help us build a house of that size with two 2-bedroom apartments attached to it to help support kids as they age out of foster care.”
Young adults learn independent living skills, including budgeting, basic cooking and grocery shopping. They get help with things like getting a driver’s license.
Lambert said she sees the program working.
“It’s changing generations of trauma,” she said. “You see people change.”
Statistics show that 99 percent of kids in the intensive foster home program, like Abbott House, graduate high school. They also are less likely to be involved in the criminal justice system or become homeless.
Eric Klooz, executive director of Abbott House, agrees.
“All the kids we serve in these homes used to be in facilities,” Klooz said. “I would watch these kids for years move through the system, and they started to feel like nothing would ever change.”
He believes being in a more home-like environment matters. He tells the story of a young girl who wrote a letter asking for a family – any family – to help her. She was one of the first to move into one of the homes, and she’s gone on to receive a degree from Mitchell Area Technical College.
They aren’t all success stories, but they are all stories of people trying to move the needle – through programming, foster parenting, hope and home.
Abbott House has an endowment at the Community Foundation, which helps provide ongoing operational support for the everyday experiences that support young people beyond their basic needs.
“When you hear these stories, you really see the difference Abbott House is making in the lives of these young people,” said Andy Patterson, CEO of the Community Foundation. “The endowment at the Community Foundation helps create the kind of experiences that make a house feel like a home, from outings and activities to moments that build connection and confidence.”
‘Chances we never had’
J. is 15 years old and a sophomore in Sioux Falls.
She’s lived with Jacob and Tehya for a year and a half.
She says Jacob and Tehya encourage her to do the things she loves – like drawing, writing and playing games. “I started writing again when I moved in,” she said, noting she wants to encourage others to talk about things.
Her hair falls across her forehead as she talks about the memoir and the illustration she’s been working on for the cover. J. has a desk with books and puzzles and art supplies where she likes to work.
“It’s really nice here,” she says of her home with Tehya and Jacob. She’s been in the same bedroom since she moved in – and not having to move from place to place is something she’s grateful for. “They go out of their way to help you. They give us chances we never had.”
Sometimes it’s big things – a trip to the Omaha Zoo or the Mall of America. Sometimes it’s small things – card games on the kitchen island and puzzles and family walks. It feels like your average suburban family life.
The consistency is the point.
“We have seen so much growth in J.,” Jacob said, smiling at her. “She’s become more sure of who she is and more confident. She’s thinking more and more about the future.”
The three of them keep playing cards. They talk about books. J. says she wants other kids to know there is hope – there are people who want to help.
Jacob says they want to be there for the kids who need them. He and Tehya feel a calling to do this, even when it’s hard.
“We make sure the kids know that we are happy to have them with us,” Jacob said. “How they ended up here isn’t what defines them, and we’re so glad to help them write the next part of their story. Every kid deserves a shot.”
Source: South Dakota Department of Social Services, Abbott House
The Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation has announced its latest rounds of Community Fund grants, totaling nearly $235,000 in support for local nonprofits and causes throughout the area.
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