Dear friends,

Last year, we partnered with private foster care agencies, the business community, United Way of Greater Cincinnati and others to run a year-long foster parent recruitment campaign dubbed “Everyday Heroes.” The campaign resulted in more than 70 new foster homes with dozens more in the pipeline at year’s end.  

By no means is our problem solved. We have 850 foster children in custody on any given day, and the JFS network only has 200 homes. That is down from 400 five years ago.  

We are very thankful we have access to private agency networks, but their recruitment numbers are down also. Every day we deal with difficult issues resulting from a shortage of foster homes: sending nearly 30 percent of our children out of county; splitting up sibling sets; placing several unrelated foster children in the same home. 

That is why I am excited about a new partnership we have formed this year, as well as several agency activities planned for May, which is national Foster Care Month. 

We are now working with The Greater Cincinnati Coalition of Care, a group of Cincinnati-area churches concerned and committed to positively changing the lives of local foster children. This group has planned a number of events for the weekend of May 29, called Every Child’s Hope, designed to raise awareness around the need for foster care and adoptive parents. The events include nationally-known speakers, workshops to learn more about foster parenting and a concert by a comedic entertainer who has performed coast to coast, including the Grand Ole Opry. You can read more in this issue.  

More importantly, the group has committed to every church wrapping itself around at least one foster child. I am extremely grateful to see this community tackling the foster care problem. It is, indeed, a community-wide issue. Abused and neglected children who do not have some sort of loving intervention are more likely to be unemployed, dropout, become teen parents or turn to a life of crime. 

Along with the Every Child’s Hope weekend, our Everyday Heroes collaborative will host Foster Care on the Square from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 19. Stop by to learn more about foster parenting.  

And, our agency is launching a touching commercial and a new Web site, www.hckids.org, to help with recruiting efforts. 

It is exciting there is so much momentum around foster care and so many people joining us as we try to help our children to a better place in life. But the real momentum will come when we see the number of foster homes rise. If you have been on the edge, considering it for some time, this is the time to take the leap. Call (513) 632-6366 or visit www.hckids.org. We need you more than ever.

Sincerely,

Moira