4KIDS identifies, trains, and licenses foster parents by administering the foster care licensing process, which includes CARE training, a foster parent training course required by the State of Florida, home visits, extensive background checks, and other important steps to ensure the safety of the children placed in their home. Additional support, such as counseling, childcare, meals, and annual events, is provided for foster families and the children in their care.
It is imperative for children who have faced trauma to be placed in a safe and stable home for the immediate and long-term development. The longer a child continues without stability or are moved from placement to placement, the more likely they are to become a statistic. The Justice Policy Journal reports that, “90% of youth with 5+ foster placements will enter the justice system.” Florida’s stability rate hovers at 5.05 moves per 1,000 days. 4KIDS has been able to bring this down to 1.45 moves per 1,000 days. This means that our children, across all of our programs, are remaining where they were initially placed, thus reducing their trauma, and allowing our parents and house parents to stay connected with them while continuing to help them heal. This is also true of our sibling group and teen girl’s homes. Our desire is that even after they are no longer in care, they will continue to remain impacted by the support and love they experienced in one of our foster homes.
Grant funding in the amount of $50,000, would help to sustain efforts to recruit, license, and train foster families so that more children can have a safe, and stable place to call home.
2b. EPIC Therapy Broward and Palm Beach $100,000
4KIDS humbly requests your consideration of a partnership and grant award in the amount of $100,000, to provide therapeutic care and healing for the children who need us most. Trauma-informed therapy services are typically delivered in one-hour sessions and the cost of a one-hour therapy session is $100 for each session. Presently, Medicaid and other insurances cover up to one hour of therapy per day, with a maximum of 26 hours for each client per year. However, because of their unique needs, our clients may need extended therapy hours and/or additional therapy sessions that are not covered by Medicaid. We would use awarded funding to scholarship children not covered under Medicaid, or who are in need of additional therapy hours.
2c. Transitional Independent Living (TIL) 2:25 Amount $25,0000
Formerly known as Spirit of Success Institute or SOSI, TIL2:25 is a response to the lack of resources available to children aging out of foster care, the TIL2:25 program helps young adults meet the challenges of life by providing services aimed at developing the life skills necessary to live independently and thrive. TIL2:25 participants take residence in one of our four family-style TIL2:25 homes for two years where they to commit to 40 hours per week of a combination of working, volunteering, and/or attending school. TIL2:25 youth also receive life skills training, guidance, and wraparound services, such as mentoring, tutoring, and counseling from staff and live-in resident advisors.
Former foster youth are at a higher risk for unemployment, welfare dependency, and homelessness. Each year, more than 23,000 kids will age out of foster care. After reaching the age of 18, 20% of the children who were in foster care will become instantly homeless. There is less than a 4% chance for children who have aged out of foster care to earn a college degree at any point in their life. Nationally, 30-35% of incarcerated individuals were once in the foster care system. In Broward County, this means that 60 of the 200 youth who “age out” annually, are at risk of incarceration.
While these statistics are daunting, there is hope. TIL2:25 steps in where foster care leaves off and provides a family-like community that many of our residents have never experienced. It breaks cycles of abuse, abandonment, and neglect. The State of Florida recently began transitioning away from institutional group homes in favor of family-style living. For the past 17 years, 4KIDS TIL homes have shaped an environment of warmth and connectivity for youth from different backgrounds in a way that provides them with a family to carry with them after they graduate from the program. In fact, many of our residents continue to maintain close ties with their RAs and former roommates years after they move on from TIL2:25, with many alumni continuing to attend social gatherings and fellowships throughout the year. One of our former RAs, put it this way, “There is something powerful about the ability of four young adults who have never met, each of whom have gone through adverse experiences, and two resident advisors, to all live under one roof and become a family.”
A $25,000 grant from The Carl Angus Desantis Foundation would be used to offset expenses from all areas of the TIL2:25 program. This would include food for fellowship and life-skills training events, housing supplies, salaries, clothing, etc.
2c. His Caring Place Amount $25,000
Through the His Caring Place (HCP) program, single mothers are provided safe, stable housing, and the developmental tools necessary to care for their children, preventing removal. The program builds healthy families and strives to stop cycles of abuse and neglect by providing wrap-around support to mothers and equipping them with the skills needed to live independently with their children. HCP Mom’s Program is designed for moms of at least 18 years of age, with a focus on those who are 18-25, with children 2 years old or younger.
According to the most recent report available through the Center for Disease Control, Florida ranks number 7 in the nation for percentages of births attributed to single mothers. Florida Health Charts, a government reporting website, confirmed Broward county accounts for 43.1 % of births to single mothers as compared to the state rate of 42.7%. A pre-pandemic 2016 report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, ranked Florida 44th in the nation for Children and Family Economic Wellbeing. Since that report, the economic situation for Floridians living at or below the poverty level has continued to deteriorate. The United Way’s Asset, Limited, Income, Constrained, Employed or A.L.I.C.E. report provides a relevant and direct look at the housing and living crisis currently experienced by female-led single parent households in the state of Florida.
The 2022 A.L.I.C.E. report shows that 435,807 or 36% of children in Florida live in a single parent household falling under the poverty level while 512,602 or 42% of Florida’s children live in an A.L.I.C.E. household, virtually one crisis away from poverty. Of the population counted as living under the poverty level, 56% were Hispanic, 63% were Black, 75% of were headed by someone under the age of 25 years old and 78% were headed by single mothers. Before the pandemic, higher housing costs and wage disparity drove the A.L.I.C.E. population in Florida up by 65%. Since the pandemic, we have seen the housing market, the cost of child care, basic needs such as food, transportation, and health care rise to almost twice the rate of inflation according to the Consumer Price Index. Thus, there is an apparent need for the His Caring Place program to provide safe, transitional housing for young single mothers.
A $25,000 grant from The Carl Angus Desantis Foundation would be used to offset expenses from all areas of the His Caring Place program. This would include food for fellowship and training events, supplies, salaries, clothing, etc.
