For hundreds of children in Washington’s foster care system, life can be chaotic.

Olive Crest, a nonprofit with a significant Bellevue presence, has a goal to help stabilize lives, promote healthy families and keep children safe. It’ll be hosting an event titled Wine, Women and Shoes in November to raise money for exactly that.

The nonprofit was founded in Orange County, Calif. in 1973 by two schoolteachers who saw distracted children dealing with abuse at home. They began buying properties to house foster children and realized they should turn their personal crusade into a nonprofit. The organization was named after a tall, strong olive tree in their front yard and the idea of a family crest — Olive Crest is supposed to be a potent symbol for healthy families.

Olive Crest expanded to Bellevue in 1999 after a former employee moved to the area and realized how much good it could do for Washington’s children. It currently has more than 300 foster children in homes in Western Washington, with employees in every county west of the Cascades,

Jeff Judy, the executive director of the Pacific Northwest branch, said the impact the organization has on children is significant.

“About 25 percent of our kids go to permanent adoption, about 25 percent are in long-term foster care and 50 percent end up with their biological families or guardianship,” he said. “Now that’s comparable to stats all over the state. What’s important to recognize is in the front end, the typical case in the [Department of Social and Health Services] system goes through five different homes before one of those four circumstances happens.”

Olive Crest works to find safe, stable homes to reduce that number to just one.

The organization engages in four major areas of work, Judy said. The first is to help plug the gap in foster homes.

“Out of 10,000 kids in foster care in the state of Washington, the state can only provide homes for about 60 percent,” he said. “We partner with agencies to find funding or homes for the remaining 40 percent.”

The second category is in the realm of mental health. Children from homes with physical, mental or substance abuse can be traumatized. Counselors work with children, biological parents and foster parents to help heal families. Olive Crest also partners with Agape House, Hope Place and Mary’s Place to make sure anyone else being abused is given help.

Third, Olive Crest provides support for those already in the foster care system. It does outreach to families who might benefit from care and has support groups for families looking over foster children.

Lastly, and perhaps most uniquely, Olive Crest provides short-term care under an umbrella called “Safe Families.” An example was of a homeless woman with two young children living in a public shelter. Safe Families will partner with organizations (most often through churches, even though Olive Crest is ostensibly a secular nonprofit, Judy admits) to let children stay with them for an average of six weeks while the family can repair itself.

Lynn Hoyos, Olive Crest’s events coordinator, said that the last component could have a monumental impact on families.

“If you can’t leave for work without worrying about your children, how do you break that cycle,” she said. “Someone could have moved across the country and then lost their support network. It can be a tough cycle to break.”

Judy said that by taking children out of a chaotic environment (whether that be one with substance abuse, homelessness or something else) the parents can get help, get back on their feet and make things work as a family. Olive Crest helped facilitate this for 183 children in 2015. Judy has four children of his own and has adopted four more into his family.

Judy said that Olive Crest’s $7.8 million budget in Western Washington affects more than 5,000 lives.

Most of that funding comes from the Department of Social and Health Services ($6.25 million) but the other 20 percent relies on private support. Olive Crest partners with foundations and philanthropic individuals but also throws two donor events every year to make up the gap.

One of these, Wine, Women and Shoes, is planned for November 10 at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle.

Hoyos said the event is a fun way for donors to dress up, enjoy wine and watch a fashion show with the work of local designers.

“Wine, Women and Shoes is actually a separate organization that looks for nonprofits focused on women and/or children,” she said. “The women that come to this event, 50 percent of them are repeat guests. These are women with generous hearts.”

The women and their “sole-mates” can purchase wines from a wall of wine, try local foods and buy raffle tickets for a “key to the closet,” filled with $10,000 of jewelry, spa packages and more. Hoyos said that the event, entering its third year, raised more than $245,000 for Olive Crest last year.

By breaking the cycle of abuse and abusive households, Olive Crest hopes it can give children a chance they might otherwise be denied.

“It’s amazing to come to work every day and know that what you are doing is helping children’s lives,” Hoyos said. “It’s incredibly moving to be able to interact with these happy families after we’ve helped them.”