Calling all One Family Illinois advocates, corporate partners, donors, volunteers, and friends. Now is your chance to join us in raising awareness as a brand ambassador by using your social influence for our #Voice4FosterCare campaign, which will run during Child Abuse Prevention Month in April and Foster Care Awareness Month in May.
During the next few months, One Family Illinois is turning up the volume, adding more voices to the mix, and taking our mission to the streets. We invite you this April and May by lending your voice to the ever-important conversation about foster care. Groups both large and small, as well as individuals can make a huge impact by participating as a brand ambassador and using your social influence to help raise awareness about the ways One Family Illinois is working to combat child abuse and unite siblings in foster care.
Raise Awareness: Be a Brand Ambassador and Use your Social Influence for Superheroes
Nurtured by Foster Parents and the resources and support staff in the Villages, the boys and girls in our care accomplish great feats of courage and ambition on a daily basis. Just like superheroes, they are not defined by their past, but look forward their futures and the many possibilities ahead. However, even superheroes need role models, leaders, and advocates. Our extended community is so vital to supporting and fulfilling our mission, which is why we ask you to join us in awareness raising during April and May.
“Each child we serve has the amazing capacity to rise above the toughest of circumstances brought into their life. The smallest accomplishments become momentous occasions and cause for celebration,” said Tim McCormick, CEO of One Family Illinois. “By lending your voice, we can create an exponentially larger conversation about the One Family Illinois mission and the work we are doing to reshape what it means to be a child in care.”
You can help us spread the word outside of our Villages and in the larger community. Throughout the next two months, we will be participating in Child Abuse Prevention Month and raising awareness during Foster Care Awareness Month with various Village events and activities. In April and May, important dates include:
April
- April 1 – 30: Child Abuse Prevention Month
- April 1 – 2: Planting Pinwheel Gardens
- April 5 – One Family Illinois Children Superhero Day Service Project – Thanking Our Teachers
- April 9 – Wear Blue Day: #WearingBlueForSOSIllinois – join us by sporting blue and snapping a photo to share on social media
- April 10: National Siblings Day: #SuperSiblings – we’ve got them, and we know you do to, tell us why you think your siblings are super
- April 14,15, &16: Sip & Paint – theme is “Safety”
- April 28: Navigating the Child Welfare System Workshop (Birth Parents, Foster Parents, and Staff)
- April 28: National Superheroes Day: #RaisingSuperheroes – our superheroes will share their superpowers and thanks for all the superhero teachers who helped our children continue learning, especially during this unprecedented time with notes of thanks to our teachers.
May
- May 1 – 31: Foster Care Awareness Month
- May 1 – 31: Foster Parent Appreciation Month
- May 4 – National Foster Care Day – Wear Blue: #WearingBlueForSOSIllinois
- May 8 – Birth Mother’s Day: #BirthMothersDay
- May 9 – Mother’s Day: #MothersDay
How You Can Help
This year, help share the One Family Illinois mission with your co-workers, friends, family, and the Chicago community in a number of different ways. Join the conversation to support the superhero children at One Family Illinois—and all children in foster care. Get your copy of our Social Infuencer Digital Tool Kit that includes ten different opportunities to get involved, key dates, and plenty of information to share with your networks. These ten opportunities offer different levels of time commitment, which allows you to support in a way that works with your schedule. After deciding how you would like to help, contact Kristine Kavanagh at (312) 372-8200, ext. 1102.
Let’s raise awareness together about the importance of believing in and #RaisingSuperheroes. With your help, we continue to build the future of foster care. Your support helps the children in our care overcome obstacles and break through barriers. Your voices will educate and amplify the conversation about the ever-changing landscape of foster care. With your help, together, we are breaking new ground.
Downloadable Graphics for Turning Your Facebook Blue
