Ways To Help

There are countless children that need help. Many people are called to become foster parents, many are called to be adoptive parents but ALL of us are called to help according to our means.

0. Become a Foster or Adoptive Resource Family – be willing to provide a temporary or permanent home to a child.
0. Child Abuse Awareness training – Participate in learning about the needs of children in Child Welfare Services custody and how your company, agency, or church can help. Arrange for a presentation on foster care.
0. Pre-Service Foster Parent Training – provide meeting space, refreshments, and child care for families in training to become foster parents.
0. Marketing Donations – Donate give-away items, gift certificates, or money to purchase promotional items or advertising to help recruit and reward foster families.
0. Foster and Adoptive parent support groups and training – provide meeting space, refreshments, and child care for foster and adoptive families.
0. Volunteer at or attend National Foster Care Month events in the month of May – events are open to the community.
0. Adopt-a-Case Manger – Companies, churches, or community groups can "adopt" a CWS caseworker or neighborhood unit to provide monetary and moral support for the children and families they work with. Some “adopters” establish ongoing monetary funds or respond to individual requests. Caseworkers have been able to provide children and families with everything from money to pay bills to drama lessons.
0. Blue Sunday (National Day of Prayer) – Usually the last Sunday of April churches are asked to take five minutes out of the Sunday schedule to pray for abused and neglected children and their families.
0.  Children & Youth Clothing & Suitcase Closet - Donate storage space and volunteer time to organize donations. Contribute clothing, personal items, toiletries, and suitcases. Find, sort, organize, and distribute donations.
0. VGAL (Volunteer Guardian Ad Litem) – be trained to become a VGAL so you can advocate for abused and neglected children and represent the child’s best interest in court.
0. Become a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer. In an overburdened system, abused and neglected kids often slip through the cracks among hundreds of cases. CASA volunteers can change that. CASA volunteers typically handle just one case at a time and commit to staying on that case until the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. While others may come and go, CASA volunteers provide that one constant that children need in order to thrive.
0. Free hair cuts or styling – identify hair stylists within your company, church, or temple to provide free hair cuts or styling for foster children, pay for haircuts, or hold a Cut-a-Thon to raise money for this type of program.
0. Food Pantry – create a food pantry at your community program, church, or temple, or find volunteers for existing Food Pantry programs.
0. After-School Child Care or Activities – Provide activities for foster children and families.
0. Special occasion celebrations, toy drives, school supply drives – Create toy drives, prom /winter ball gown donations or donate to existing programs.
0. Independent Living supplies – for youth aging out of the foster care system. Items could include computers, towels, pots and pans, etc.
0. Meeting space, meals and snacks. These are attended by families whose children have come to the attention of CWS to create plans to provide safety, well-being and permanency for the children
0. Teen pregnancy prevention & teen parent support services – after school or weekend programs designed to keep youth engaged in various fun and educational activities.
0. Child & Youth Summer Camps and Special Events – sponsor children in foster care to attend camps or special events. This may involve providing fees, refreshments, etc.
0. Transportation Resources – provide bus passes, rides to appointments, and more.
0. Respite Providers – People who will provide temporary, short-term care for children in foster care or who were adopted from foster care so foster or adoptive parents can have a temporary relief from daily child care.
0. Camp (award up to $300) - access to all kinds of camps.
0. Arts Enrichment (award up to $150) - music lessons, band fees, music instruments, art supplies, dance lessons, etc.
0. Athletics (award up to $150) - YMCA memberships, sports equipment, team fees, team photos, and swimming lessons.
0. Boys/Girls Scouts (award up to $100) - uniforms, fees, patches and handbooks subsidy: a uniform so a kid can play Little League, field trip fees, a graduation gown, a session of summer camp, sometimes even music or dance classes.
0. Education (award up to $300) - tutoring, school trips & supplies, prom expenses, yearbook, class            photos, etc.
0. Recreation (award up to $150) - basketballs, baseballs, bikes, helmets, scooters, skateboards, Emerald Point,/Wet-N-Wild passes, etc.
0. Senior Expenses (award up to $250) - senior photo, cap & gown, class rings, etc.
0. Special Needs (award up to $300) - eye glasses, lenses, special ear plugs for hearing impaired, specialized care needs, etc.
0. Recruit renowned photographers to take pictures of foster children available for adoption. Known as a Heart Gallery, the idea is to get the pictures out into the world with the hope that a loving family will respond.