Foster Care to Success Foundation: Continuing to Care

Children in the foster care system need a lot of help. Many of them go from one foster home to the other and have to re-adjust to a new environment every so often. This lack of stability in their lives makes it difficult for them to live normal lives as adults. The worst part is that once they turn 18, they are removed from the system and are expected to live life on their own as responsible adults. This is where the Foster Care to Success Foundation comes into play.

The foundation was founded by Joseph Rivers in 1981. Having lived in an orphanage for most of his life, he understood what it was like to “age out” without a family or organization to support him. The group started small with a handful of foster care graduates helping teens who were near legal age by preparing them for what they should expect once they are considered adults and are no longer supported by the foster care system. Using the basement of a Washington DC community center as a meeting place, Rivers, the foster care veterans, and a handful of volunteers met with these foster children and helped them with their basic needs such as housing, transportation, and employment opportunities as soon as they turned 18. Rivers passed away in 1990, but the foundation continued to grow under the new executive director Eileen McCaffrey.

Today, Foster Care to Success does more than just prepare foster kids for adulthood and provide them with their basic needs once they reach legal age. Aside from employment opportunities, they also provide scholarship grants, book money, stipends, and emergency money for deserving foster kids. They have also influenced the government’s public policy and that of other child welfare organizations on how they treat foster youth nearing adulthood.

Food Allergy Research & Education, Inc. (FARE): Enjoying Life Notwithstanding Dietary Restrictions

Food allergies should not be ignored because this condition can be potentially life threatening. While most people suffer from discomfort brought about by an allergic reaction to the food they eat, many people die from anaphylaxis. This problem does not just affect adults. One in every thirteen children also suffers from one form of food allergy or another.

FARE or Food Allergy Research & Education is a non-profit organization which was founded in 2012. The organization was the result of a merger between two respected organizations that dealt with food allergies – the Food Allergy Initiative and the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. FARE was founded in order to help people with food allergies maintain a good quality of life despite their dietary restrictions. They also help in enhancing the patients’ access to healthcare, treatment, and accurate diagnosis. Lastly, the organization aims to support research endeavors that would find ways to treat this condition.

Kids Beating Cancer, Inc.: Helping Children Suffering from Cancer

Cancer is a disease that can affect anyone – even children. In the United States alone, more than 10,000 children below the age of 15 and around 3,700 teens aged 15-19 are diagnosed with cancer each year. There was a time when children diagnosed with leukemia are given only months to live, but luckily, due to advances in the field of oncology, the mortality rate of childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer has dropped significantly over the years.

Kids Beating Cancer is a non-profit organization that helps children who are going through treatment for leukemia, cancer, and other life threatening illnesses which are similar or related to cancer. The organization was founded in 1992 by Margaret Voight Guedes. She created this organization in memory of John Voight, her son, who passed away due to leukemia that same year. Since then, Kids Beating Cancer has achieved so much and done a lot towards helping sick children not only in Central Florida, where the organization is headquartered, but all across the United States as well.

One of the organization’s biggest contributions to helping children with cancer was the creation of a pediatric marrow transfer center in Central Florida. Before the center was created, parents would have to travel to other states just so their children could get a bone marrow transplant. This resulted in separation of families which usually leads to divorce due to the excessive stress the family unit has to go through in order for their sick child to get the help he or she needs.

Today, Kids Beating Cancer and the Kids Beating Cancer transplant center at the Florida Hospital for Children have served over 7,500 sick children. Through the years, Kids Beating Cancer has also recruited almost 40,000 potential marrow donors, which makes finding matches for the patients much easier. The organization has also raised more than $11 million in support from the private sector to date.

Women’s Way: Empowering Women

Women have been fighting for equality and protection from abuse and exploitation for a long time now, and it seems that the fight is far from over. Issues like wage equality, domestic violence, rape crisis, and other issues affecting women are still prevalent even in today’s advanced society. Despite the long and arduous journey still to come, women have already made large strides in terms of having their voices heard. Women’s Way is an organization that helped pave the way for that.

Women’s Way was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the mid-1970s by several women serving different causes related to women’s rights. Their individual organizations did not receive as much support as they would hope for. As a collective group, however, they were able to get their message across loud and clear.

Women’s Way has come a long way since it was founded and has educated the people in the region and the entire nation about women’s rights. They have also given grants to many organizations that help women rise up.

Rebuilding Together Alexandria: Rebuilding Homes, Rebuilding Lives

A person’s home is his or her sanctuary – a place where they can relax and feel safe. Unfortunately, for many people living in impoverished communities, the place they call home does not feel like it. Many repairs and renovations need to be done in order for it to be suitable to live in – and that’s what Rebuilding Together does.

Rebuilding Together is a nationwide non-profit organization that helps with the repair and improvement of homes. The home rebuilding program began in 1972, when a man from Midland, Texas challenged his Sunday school class to help in rebuilding and repairing homes in their area. Soon after, the program expanded outside of Texas and spread out throughout the United States.

The city of Alexandria in Virginia was one of the cities that adapted the Rebuilding Together program. The Alexandria chapter of Rebuilding Together was initially called Christmas in April and was spearheaded by Barbara Joseph. The first project of Christmas in April was the renovation of two shelters for the homeless and eight homes badly in need of repair in 1987. The first Rebuilding Day was well attended as over 170 volunteers came and helped out with the renovations needed. The project was indeed a success and Rebuilding Day became an annual event that the volunteers and beneficiaries of the organization look forward to. Barbara Joseph has attended each and every one of the Rebuilding Day activities except for the one held in April 1995 when she spent the day recruiting nurses to help out for the next year’s event.

Christmas in April changed its name to Rebuilding Together Alexandria in 2004 to align itself with the Rebuilding Together National Office. The change in name also meant that they have adopted many of the core organization’s other projects such as A Home of Your Own, the Veteran’s Housing Initiativ, and the Green Housing Initiative.

New Hope for Kids: More Than Just Granting Wishes

Having feelings of grief and hopelessness are just some things that children shouldn’t have to go through, but the sad reality is that even children can experience having these feelings. Facing the loss of a parent or having to fight a life-threatening disease can cause a child to grieve or feel hopeless and one organization in Central Florida has been working to help kids in this situation.

New Hope for Kids was established in 1996 and has two major programs running at the moment. The first one is The Center for Grieving Children which helps children cope with the loss of a parent, sibling, or any loved one that has passed away. New Hope for Kid’s second program is called Wishes for Kids. It is a wish-granting program that gives kids and teenagers up to the age of 19, who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, a chance to get one of their wishes granted.

Youth For Tomorrow: Helping Troubled Youth Overcome Life’s Obstacles

There are many reasons why promising youngsters take a turn for the worst and find themselves in difficult predicaments when they reach adulthood. The children are not to blame for problems such as growing up in dysfunctional families, having a learning disability, living in neighborhoods where drugs and crime are prevalent, or having a chemical imbalance in their bodies. These problems, however, should be addressed as early as possible in order be able to help these kids live normal, productive lives as adults.

Youth For Tomorrow (YFT) is a non-profit organization that aims to help high risk adolescents cope with the issues that they face from day to day. They provide educational, behavioral health, and residential services to children, as well as their families to ensure their health and safety. The organization also aims to teach these children the necessary life skills in order to have a better future.

YFT welcomed its first set of young male residents in 1986 after they had acquired a piece of property and constructed a home for these boys to live in. As the program grew, so did the YFT campus. They eventually constructed a home for female residents and soon the number of girls living in the YFT campus grew to almost half of its population. Aside from additional homes for both the boys and the girls, YFT also constructed the Joe Gibbs Center for Academic and Physical Education which was completed in 2003.

YFT strives to provide a well-rounded service which not only takes care of the residents’ physical needs. They also strive to meet their spiritual, emotional, and educational needs. YFT also takes in children and adolescents from different cultural and societal backgrounds, and so the organization makes sure that their staff members are made aware of these differences and are respectful of them.

Morris Animal Foundation: Keeping Animals Healthy

Like people, animals also suffer from diseases that are debilitating and sometimes even life threatening. The Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) was established in 1948 to help improve the health and lives of animals.

MAF’s founder, a veterinarian named Dr. Mark L. Morris Sr. was a pioneer of creating diets that helped manage or treat diseases in animals. His interest in this field began when Buddy, one of the first guide dogs was brought to him because of kidney disease. Dr. Morris formulated a special diet for Buddy and soon, his health began to improve. The doctor and his wife began to can the formulation for distribution. They eventually partnered up with the Hill Packing Company and together they created the Hill’s Pet Nutrition Prescription Diet. The royalties Dr. Morris got from selling the product was used to set up the Morris Animal Foundation. Today, the organization funds and supports some of the most important scientific studies in veterinary medicine.

Do Something, Inc.: Empowering the Youth to Make the World “Suck Less”

The youth are the future, and what better way to ensure a better tomorrow for them than to have them work on making the world a better place for themselves? Gone are the days when children are just seen and not heard. Today’s young people want to make a difference and it’s about time that they get that much needed encouragement to help them stand up for what they believe in. This is because everyone – both young and old – will benefit from a world that “sucks less”.

Do Something is a non-profit organization that facilitates youth action in a fun and enjoyable manner. Members can join a number of different campaigns that tackle a variety of issues that affect today’s youth. The campaigns can be as simple as spreading awareness through social media or they can involve a little more coordination and planning like organizing a book drive or a sports club. The issues tackled by members of Do Something also vary from problems that the youth face in their schools and communities like bullying and harassment to much broader issues like illiteracy, discrimination, and life threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer.

The Do Something movement began in the United States, but has now spread like wildfire. Youth organizations in 9 countries have already started a Do Something program with a 10th country joining the fun this year. Some of the countries that currently have young people working hard to change the world are the United Kingdom, Canada, Ghana, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Indonesia.

The members of Do Something are young people aged 13-25. People above that age range are considered “old people”, but are still an integral part of the organization. Do Something accepts donations and sponsorships from individuals and corporations alike in order to fund the campaigns run by their members.