How To Help

1. Go ahead and get your foster care license and provide respite care to other foster families or do emergency foster care. Emergency care can mean having a foster child in your home for a short period of time. An emergency placement can last anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days.

2. Drive! Many agencies need people to drive children to various appointments. Appointments could be visits with birth family, medical or dental visits, or to a new foster home. Some trips may entail long distances. Call your local agencies and see if this is a need in your area.

3. Walk! Through a new walking event, Walk Me Home, teams can raise funds that will directly benefit local agencies that work with foster children and the families that serve them.

4. Become a Court-Appointed Special Advocate/CASA worker. CASA workers are volunteers that work with the court and the foster homes to see that the children are not lost in the system and that their needs and wants are heard. A special group here in the Cincinnati area is Prokids

5. Become a Mentor (see the Mentor a Child tab above). Spend 3-4 hours a week with a child and make a difference. Have fun! Teach them a new hobby or learn about theirs. Not every child in the One2One Mentoring organization is a foster child, but many are. Help make a difference by taking time for a child.

6. Provide a job and give a chance to learn and grow. Many youth in the foster care system have a difficult time finding work due to the stigma of being a "foster kid". You could help by reaching out to these young people and providing them with their first work experience.

7. Volunteer at a children's home. Children's homes are usually one of the first stops on the foster care journey for many kids, or it could be a stop in-between foster homes. Children's homes are often looking for volunteers to do many different duties. Some may include wrapping Christmas/Birthday gifts, sorting through donations, reading to the children, or even playing games. Find out what your local children's home's needs are and see what you can do to help.

8. Donate items to children's homes or foster care agencies. Many need school supplies, shoes, clothes, or even toys. Suitcases or bags of any kind are often needed. Did you know that many children go from home to home with their belongings in trash bags? Make sure you donate items that are in good repair. If you wouldn't let your own child wear it, don't send it on to agencies or homes. Some places prefer new items so call ahead.

9. Offer a scholarship program for children in foster care or who have aged out of the foster care system. The scholarships will help foster children get into colleges, universities or trade schools.

10. Become a foster care family – even if you are single, unmarried, married, widowed or divorced. Share your heart, Open your home, Offer your help.

If not now, when?