Christian Bale Quietly Built A Village To Keep Foster Siblings From Being Separated
He's dedicated the last 17 years to making sure foster kids are being given a second chance.
Denis Makarenko | Shutterstock Christian Bale is known for playing infamous characters on screen, from Batman to Patrick Bateman. It seems, however, that the 51-year-old is making an even bigger impact behind the scenes. After 17 years, Bale is finally getting closer to his dream of being able to keep foster kids from being separated from each other while being in the system.
The "Dark Knight" star and Dr. Eric Esrailian, a physician and UCLA professor, have co-founded Together California to create a new kind of community for children in foster care. The project, which is the first of its kind in California, is now slated to welcome its first children in late December 2025 or early January 2026.
Christian Bale quietly built a village to keep foster kids from being separated from each other.
"With our Together California model, [the village] is something absolutely new, totally transformative, and something completely needed. Imagine the absolute pain and the trauma of losing your parents or being torn from your parents, and then losing your brothers and sisters on top of that; that’s no way to treat kids," explained Bale, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"And so, we will be the hub for that. I hope that this village will be the first of many, and I hope that people, Californians and Angelenos, know to come join us in opening our eyes to what’s happening right under our noses. These are our children, and we must help our children."
It was back in 2022 when the charity secured a combined $1.7 million in funding from the city of Palmdale, CA, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to purchase a 4.7-acre parcel of land for the project. Just two years later, construction began, and the development will include 12 three-bedroom townhomes, each able to house six children.
The Together California village will also feature a 7,000-square-foot community center offering enrichment programs and services for the foster children and their caretakers, a garden, and open spaces. There will also be studio apartments to provide temporary housing for the kids' birth parents and housing to help transition teens who have aged out of the foster care system.
The idea came to Bale after he and his wife welcomed their daughter.
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In an interview with CBS News, Bale doesn't necessarily have a history with the foster care system or a connection with it, but he insisted that you don't have to have one to be moved by the reality of what so many children go through when they enter the system. There are approximately 391,000 to 400,000 children in the system at any given time.
But for Bale, the inspiration came 17 years ago when he looked at his daughter, Emmeline, and wondered what her life would be like if he and his wife, Sibi, were to suddenly pass away. That, in turn, prompted Bale to look into foster care, where he discovered a startling statistic. It’s estimated that 87% of children in foster care have siblings, yet 75% are separated from at least one sibling.
"This is something that when, you know, I'm closing my eyes for the last time. I wanna look and say...think about, 'Did I do some good? Did I make any changes in the world that were useful?' And this will be one of the things that I'll be most proud of when I, you know, draw my last breath," Bale said.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
