Christian Bale may be known to millions as Batman, but off-screen, the Oscar winner is dedicating himself to a mission he calls one of the most meaningful achievements of his life.
The 51-year-old actor, alongside physician and UCLA professor Dr. Eric Esrailian, co-founded the nonprofit Together California to build what they describe as a “village” for children in foster care, per Realtor.
Located in Palmdale, California, the project has been nearly two decades in the making and is now finally rising from the desert ground.
Bale’s idea for the project began 17 years ago, when his daughter, Emmeline, was just three years old.
He imagined what would happen to her if he and his wife were suddenly gone — a thought that led him to research the foster system. What he found shocked him.
Roughly 75 percent of siblings entering foster care in the U.S. end up separated.
"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.
For Bale, it didn’t matter that he had no personal ties to foster care growing up in a circus performer and activist’s family in Wales.
"I don’t think you have to have any connection to foster care in your past," he said. "It's just about a basic understanding that, as a society, how can you not take care of our children? So I don’t think it requires a connection. It just requires having a heart."
Bale connected with Tim McCormick, who had been building foster housing in Chicago designed to keep siblings together.
McCormick is now helping lead Together California’s ambitious project in Los Angeles County, which has the largest foster population in the nation at more than 43,000 children.
“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.
In 2022, the charity secured $1.7 million from the city of Palmdale and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to purchase nearly five acres of land. Construction officially began in February 2024, with AC Martin Architects designing the community.
While the project is smaller than some of the firm’s other high-profile work, AC Martin CEO Tom Hsieh told CBS Sunday Morning it’s one of their most meaningful.
"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 said.
The foster village will include 12 three-bedroom townhomes, each designed to house six children along with professionally trained foster parents. A 7,000-square-foot community center will serve as the hub, offering enrichment programs, resources, and open spaces.
The plans also include studio apartments, providing temporary housing for birth parents and transitional housing for teens aging out of foster care.
“I love designing. I love architecture,” Bale admitted. “So I adore the whole design process. And so actually seeing it really – coming to happen is just very, very exciting.”
Funding has come from both public and private donors, including $6 million from the Austrian-American Council West and contributions from high-profile names like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Today, the once-empty plot near McAdam Park is a busy construction zone. By August 1, walls had already started going up on the first homes.
"The walls are not all up yet, but the vision is clear: an innovative model of foster care filled with hope, connection, and the kind of love that helps children believe that dreams can come true," Together California shared in a timelapse video posted to Instagram.
Though it has taken far longer than he ever imagined, Bale says he has no regrets.
"I didn’t think it was going to take that long," he told the Associated Press in 2024. "I had a very naive idea about kind of getting a piece of land and then bringing kids in and the brothers and sisters living together and sort of singing songs like the Von Trapp family in The Sound of Music."
Even knowing it would be a 17-year journey, he said he would have done it anyway.
Bale, who has earned acclaim for many roles, says this project ranks among the most important work of his life.
"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.