Christian Bale may have played a superhero in the “Batman” franchise, but now he’s on a real life mission to help some kids who could really use a hero. And for Bale, it’s the role of a lifetime.
The Oscar-winning actor is helping to build Together California, a foster care home designed to keep orphaned siblings together, in the desert community of Palmdale, California. Some organizations estimate up to 75 percent of siblings end up living apart after entering foster care in the U.S.
“And so you imagine the trauma of that, you know? But added trauma to being taken from your parents, and then you lose your siblings, you know, that’s just something that we shouldn’t be doing,” Bale told “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent Tracy Smith.
“It just requires having a heart”
Bale said you don’t necessarily need to have any history with – or connection to – the foster care system in order to be moved to take action and offer help.
“It just requires having a heart,” said Bale, adding that it just takes the basic understanding that as a society we should be taking care of our children.
The inspiration behind Bale’s foster care work came 17 years ago when he looked at his young daughter and imagined her without parents. He began to look into foster care and found Tim McCormick, who ran foster homes in Chicago for decades.
Bale recruited McCormick to help him open Together California, a village in Los Angeles that houses groups of foster siblings. The siblings can stay together in individual houses around a central garden, where they’re cared for by trained foster parents whose only job will be to look after them.
“This is what this site is about. We create a place for authentic goodness to flourish. And it certainly impacts a child, but it impacts all of us. We create a different story of us as a society,” Bale said.
Bringing a vision to life
Architects at AC Marin are helping bring Bale’s vision to life, breaking ground on the construction site in February 2024. While it’s one of their smaller architectural projects, AC Martin CEO Tom Hsieh says it’s one of their biggest priorities.
“I think we’re at a point in our society where we have to help. And for me – you know, as exciting as creating the next high rise, we need to give back to society and community. This is small but I’m tremendously proud of this project,” Hsieh told “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Right now, the village is still a construction site, but Bale says it already paints a picture.
“I love designing. I love architecture,” Bale said. “So I adore the whole design process. And so actually seeing it really – coming to happen is just very, very exciting.”
There’s still a long road ahead. They need to continue to fundraise and find the right foster parents, but it’s finally starting to take shape. They’re hoping to welcome the first kids early next year.
Bale has received numerous accolades throughout his career, but he says opening this center to keep foster siblings together will be among his greatest accomplishments.
“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,” he said.
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