Helping Youth Land On Solid Ground
A transitional home and skills-training community for young adults aging out of foster care — rooted in the Roanoke Valley, Virginia.
The Need
They didn’t choose foster care. At 18, they don’t get to choose what comes next.
Each year, more than 23,000 young Americans age out of foster care with no family, no plan, and no safety net. Within four years, half are unemployed. One in four will experience homelessness. The system that was supposed to protect them simply stops — and they are left to figure out adulthood alone.
In the Roanoke Valley right now, nearly 300 children are in care. The clock is already running.
Rock Landing exists so that, when their 18th birthday comes, they have somewhere to land.
The Promise
Four Pillars. One Pathway Forward.
A whole-person model that meets every young adult where they are — and walks with them until they’re standing on their own.
🏠 Housing
Safe, structured, dignified residential housing on a dedicated campus — the foundation everything else is built on.
🛠 Training
Life skills plus ten vocational tracks — culinary, construction, media, music, auto, agriculture, healthcare, entrepreneurship.
💛 Support
Trauma-informed mental health counseling, wellness practices, and consistent adult relationships that don’t end at 21.
💼 Employment
Internships, partnership job placement, and alumni follow-up — because graduating the program is the start, not the finish.
Our Future Campus
From One Generation of Service to the Next
The potential flagship site for Rock Landing Foundation is a campus we know well. For more than 40 years, the property — nearly 2½ acres in Botetourt County, Virginia — has operated as an assisted-living facility caring for our veterans. As that chapter quietly closes, a new one is being prepared.
We are evaluating two paths forward for the Foundation’s first transitional home — the facility is standing, zoning is secured, and the bones of the building are ready:
🏡 Path 1 — Renovate
Honor what has stood here for decades by renewing it. Convert the existing campus into a 25-bed residential and training community for young adults aging out of foster care. The bones are good. The setting is right. The story carries forward.
🌅 Path 2 — Build New
Acquire 50–70 acres elsewhere in the Roanoke region and purpose-build a campus using Quonset and barndominium-style construction — designed around our 10 vocational tracks, residential housing, wellness spaces, and room to grow. Longer timeline. Larger ambition. Ideal long-term footprint.
Proof of Momentum
This isn’t a concept. Rock Landing is already happening.
Real milestones. Real legal status. Real partners. Real property. We are building this for the long haul — and the foundation is already poured.
✅ Incorporated as a Virginia nonprofit
Certificate of Incorporation issued by the VA State Corporation Commission, February 2026.
✅ Registered to fundraise in Virginia
VDACS Charitable Solicitation Registration #700184 — approved March 18, 2026.
✅ 501(c)(3) tax-exempt application filed
Full IRS Form 1023 submitted. Donations welcome now; tax-deductibility retroactive once approved.
✅ $100,000 line of credit committed
Truist Financial Corporation committed funding to support early operations.
✅ Property in hand for Path 1
Founder owns the 2.3-acre Botetourt County property under direct title.
✅ Special-use zoning approval secured
Botetourt County approved the change of use from assisted-living to a youth transitional home — on land already zoned agricultural — giving us full flexibility for our planned vocational and farming programs.
✅ Board and leadership in place
Founder, co-founder, and Board of Directors actively building partnerships across Virginia.
Pathways to Impact
Three Ways Your Investment Changes Lives
Rock Landing Foundation is structured to meet donors and grantors at three different levels of vision — from getting youth housed today to building a community where they can land for life.
Pathway A
Renovate & Launch
$5.5M
Renovate the 2.3-acre Botetourt property. House 25 youth on the existing campus. Launch the program within 12–18 months and begin building operating history for long-term scale.
Pathway B
Build From the Ground Up
$12M
Acquire 50–70 acres and purpose-build a new campus from scratch using Quonset and barndominium-style construction. 50–75 beds at launch, expandable to 100. Every facility designed around our 10 vocational tracks.
Pathway C
The Founding Vision
$35M
Unlock the full Rock Landing Community. 75–100 active program beds plus 25–40 Quonset-style graduate homes — a true intentional community for the familyless, designed to grow to up to 60 homes.
Our Inaugural Fundraiser
Choir Versus
More than a competition — a movement. Choir Versus brings together choirs, communities, and culture to fuel the Rock Landing mission. We are securing founding sponsors now, with the event date to be announced upon completion of our founding sponsor cohort.
Become a founding sponsor — and your name lives forever on the inaugural Choir Versus.
A Family for Life
Rock Landing Ryderz
Our motorcycle club currently forming to launch with our first graduating class — built so that finishing the program doesn’t mean leaving the family. Faith, brotherhood, sisterhood, and the freedom of the open road for the youth we serve.
Join Us
Every Pathway Forward Starts With Someone Saying “Yes.”
Donate
Fuel the mission. Every gift — from $5 to $5M — moves a young adult closer to a future they can build on.
Give Now →Sponsor an Event
Become a founding sponsor of Choir Versus and put your name on a movement before it takes the stage.
See Sponsor Tiers →Partner With Us
Foundations, corporations, faith communities, employers — we are building a coalition. Let’s talk.
Start a Conversation →For Youth & Referral Partners
Are you (or someone you know) aging out of foster care? Join our pre-launch interest list — we will be in touch as the program comes online.
Stay Connected →Rock Landing Foundation is a Virginia nonprofit corporation. 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status pending with the IRS — donations welcome now; tax-deductibility retroactive once approved.
Registered in Virginia under VDACS Charitable Solicitation #700184. A financial statement is available upon written request from the Virginia Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs.