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In this issue: Foster Care Month, Kids' Mental Health, Cooking with Class, Michael Portelli Golf Outing, Pride Parade, Jobs at Shelter and more.

MAY IS NATIONAL FOSTER CARE MONTH

Kids of All Ages Want a Family to Love

May being National Foster Care Month, we asked Erica Schultz, our Foster Care Licensing Specialist, what she would like to tell people about Shelter's programs. Two things immediately came to her mind.

First, the goals of Shelter’s Foster Care Programs are different from adoption agencies. The purpose of adoption agencies is to facilitate adoptions between birth parents and adoptive parents. Adoption is a forever commitment.

Foster Care programs aim to place children in safe, stable, and nurturing environments until they can be reunited with their biological families. When reunification isn’t possible for safety or other reasons, adoption may be one option, though fostering is typically a temporary commitment.

Shelter has three programs: Emergency Foster Care is the oldest program of its kind in the Northwest Suburbs and can be accessed by any child in the community, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Home-of-Relative Foster Care gives children a sense of identity and belonging. Traditional Foster Care can be arranged when there are no relatives available, and a longer-term placement is appropriate.

Erica’s second message is that while most foster parents want cuddly babies, kids of all ages want a family to love. At 14, Honoree escaped to the U.S. and became a victim of human trafficking by a relative.

MAY IS CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH

Kids and the Mental Health Pandemic

Since March of 2020, the pandemic fists have been pummeling children from every direction, just as they have adults, but often in different ways. Before we can learn how to help our kids, we need to know their challenges, and there we have help. For example, psychologist Tali Raviv from Northwestern University published a study involving over 40,000 Chicago Public School children from kindergarten through 12^th grade in April 2021. Caregivers reported their observations of the children in 12 different areas. Positive metrics included feeling relaxed and hopeful, with negative metrics including depression and anxiety.

Not surprisingly, the comparison before and after school closings showed all positive metrics decreasing while negatives ones went up. The most significant jump was in loneliness, while the steepest decline was in positive social relationships.

According to Dr. John Walkup, chair of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Lurie Children’s Hospital, 20% of children had mental health challenges before the end of high school, even before the pandemic. In a 2021 Chicago Sun-Times article, Walkup is quoted as saying,  “We’re seeing more kids who are feeling suicidal, more kids who are worried about the future, we’re seeing kids who have more eating problems. And we’re seeing kids who are coming to the emergency department who have more physical symptoms that probably have a psychiatric cause.”

IN ONE WEEK!

Thank you 5K runners and walkers for helping us raise nearly $10,000 during Child Abuse Prevention Month.

A big thank you to Shelter's Board of Directors for matching $3,000 in registrations and donations!

Whether you came out to our first in-person event in a year or joined us virtually, know that your participation helped children in crisis.

Congratulations to our overall male and female winners!
Edward Kovach (20.11) and Bree Snyder (24.06)

Mark Your Calendar!

If you share our vision that all children grow up in safe and nurturing homes, please support us today. 

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