Volunteer Your Time!

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Every day is another opportunity!

to change a community by helping a child.

Are you ready for YOUR opportunity?

FACES of Virginia Families: Foster, Adoption, and Kinship Association seeks caring, compassionate community members with a day, a week, a month, a year, or a lifetime to help make Virginia communities the best they can be! And, it starts one child at a time.

Virginia has over 6000 children in foster care without a permanent place to call home. Communities are working every day to reduce the number of children in the foster care system. The work includes working to support birth families; identify relatives willing to provide homes; and increase adoptive homes.

Engaging birth families is an important effort in Virginia. These families are often facing multiple challenges from economic to physical or emotional health. Communities across Virginia are attempting to identify resources to help these families meet their needs for housing, food, employment, medical care, counseling, and treatment. Do you have a resource to help a birth family develop a means for providing a safe, nurturing home to their child? Contact your local department of social services and let them know about any resources you have for supporting families.

Providing a permanent home for a child in foster care. There are times when a child will not be able to return to their birth home. In these situations, the child needs a forever family. Have you considered adoption? Children and youth in foster care will have very specific needs for patience, nurturing, and skills development. All families must go through training and evaluations to determine their readiness for meeting the needs of children in foster care. Are you ready to get started? Contact your local department of social services.

Community members are finding time to volunteer to foster success. Not all families are able to provide permanent homes for children unable to live with their birth parents. These families are still finding ways to help. Maybe your opportunity to improve your community lies in the potential of just one child. Check out these ways to get engaged in your community:

  • Collect backpacks and school supplies. Invite your faith community to collect backpacks and fill them with school supplies and a note of encouragement to a child. FACES will be happy to help with storage and distribution.
  • Organize a suitcase drive. Did you know that most children entering foster care have had their belongings stuffed in a garbage bag when they were removed from their home? A suitcase drive helps to supply child protective workers with resources for children they must move. An added bonus is when that suitcase comes complete with a teddy bear, some personal care items, and a diary. FACES can help with storage and distribution.
  • Set up a Gift Card day at your local library. Did you know that children in foster care are generally only provided $350 per year for clothing? You know how kids grow and this amount barely makes a dent in their actually clothing needs. Consider contacting your local library and ask to publicize a gift card day for kids! Your project can encourage community members to drop off gift cards for local clothing and shoe stores, so that these children can get the clothing they need. FACES can help!
  • Develop a caring community of the future by helping kids help kids. Children should learn early the satisfaction that can come from helping others. So, consider a Toy Drive for Kids by Kids. Involve your child's soccer team or dance class. Ask the coach or instructors to send flyers home with children encouraging children to do extra chores for one week to earn enough money to buy a new toy for a child. And, you may want to consider doing this at times other than December! FACES can help with storage and distribution ideas.
  • Contact a local business about developing a mentor to work program. Youth in foster care need positive work experiences, and often need support in developing good work and social skills. A mentor to work program can help youth develop the skills they need to be productive adult members of your community.
  • Ask your local YMCA to host a discount membership drive for foster families. These families are only reimbursed a portion of their expenses for providing homes to children. A discounted rate could help them provide opportunities to children for positive social and physical development.
  • Consider offering scrapbooking workshops at your local department of social services. Children in foster care often experience numerous placements while in foster care. These placement changes often makes it difficult for them to keep up with their history and remember positive experiences. Scrapbooking can be a way for them to develop lifebooks which will give them a way to record and recall the important events and times in their lives.
Click here to volunteer today!

Contact us for support, speaking engagements, storage, and distribution:

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Or toll-free: 877-823-2237 (877 VA FACES).

FACES is here to help you help kids! Contact us! Together we can change a lifetime!