Organizational Development

Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) celebrates and mobilizes the millions of young people who improve their communities each day of the year through service. Established in 1988, Global Youth Service Day is the largest service event in the world, and the only day of service dedicated to children and youth.     Pack A Backpack Drive is […]

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  These thirty days are dedicated to raising awareness about the horrors of child abuse and neglect and taking the opportunity to encourage communities to support children and families.    The foster care system was created as a safety net for children who cannot live with their families for

National Volunteer Week begins today.  National Volunteer Week 2013 is celebrated April 21-27.  It is about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities. It’s about demonstrating to the nation that by working together, we have the fortitude to meet our challenges and accomplish our goals.   National Volunteer

After suffering through broken or non-existent family relationships, we encourage teens in foster care to strive for “independence” and “self-sufficiency”.  We put them in independent living programs and teach independent living skills yet none of us can be completely self-sufficient or independent.  Everyone needs a support system. Our focus should be to help foster teens

Each Thursday in April our blog posts will focus on the theme “Throw-Back Thursday” and I will share past blog posts with you.    Today’s Throw-Back Thursday theme is academic enrichment.   Education is as integral part of the solution to achieve better long-term outcomes for youth in foster care.  Foster youth deserve access to

A professional portfolio and a foster care life book are not the same.   Both a professional portfolio and a foster care can help teens increase self-awareness and self-confidence. Both a professional portfolio and a foster care life book document a teen’s history, celebrate their achievements, and allow them to highlight their skills and abilities. Both

Resiliency = the ability to cope with, adapt to, and overcome challenges   We do not live in a perfect world.  Life will always have challenges, some of which are unavoidable.  We overcome life’s obstacles by remaining open, flexible, and willing to adapt to change.   Teens in foster care very often have encountered more

I was unaware that April 10th was Siblings Day.  I did not know that the Siblings Day Foundation believes that establishing Siblings Day will benefit of families, communities and the nation just like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.  This new knowledge got me to thinking…thinking about siblings separated by foster care.    According to the

Remember the story from a couple months ago of the adoptive mom/photographer’s ‘newborn’ photo shoot with her 13-year-old son that went viral?  Great…keep that in mind and see request below.   Our Pack A Backpack Drive™ to donate backpacks, duffel bags, and luggage launched on April 8th but today I want to add another item to

Today is National Drop Everything and Read Day (D.E.A.R.)   What is D.E.A.R.? D.E.A.R. stands for “Drop Everything and Read,” a national month-long celebration of reading designed to remind folks of all ages to make reading a priority activity in their lives. Because, what’s more fun(damental) than reading, really? When is D.E.A.R. celebrated? D.E.A.R. programs