Become a Volunteer Advocate

One of my children had a severe speech impediment that seriously affected his education. I was able to attend school meetings to help the foster mother get the services he needed. He moved to a new home with a foster mother that had no children. She really talked to me and relied on me for some support. She adopted him and his sister and they are doing great. His speech impediment is almost gone. The family keeps in touch with me.

Two girls I worked with came into care due to their mother’s drug use. While they were in care their mother was receiving the support, she needed and was working to stay clean. The girls were incredibly encouraging and supportive of their mother and she was able to stay clean. I was excited when they were able to be reunited with their mom.

I advocated for a child to be placed with her grandparents which at first was not CPS’s recommendation. I knew the child loved her grandparents and they loved her and it would be in her best interest to live with them. I requested a meeting with CPS and as a result of that meeting, the child was ultimately placed with her grandparents and was adopted by them. The child has been with them for over three years now and is happy, healthy, and thriving!

I was pushing for testing of one of my kiddos, knowing he had problems. Took a year and a half but he is finnaly diagnosed moderately autistic, with multipule learning problems. In special classes and moving forward. I attend all his ARDs and all his teachers know me.

My child is having a hard time following rules and has been in several shelters and foster homes. When she is frustrated she knows she can call me to calm her down. She listens to me tell her the importance of spending her time on things that will be important to her later.

Helping mother and daughter learn to SHOW love TO each other. I took pictures of them looking at each other and pointed out the look in their eyes, the smiles on their faces when they looked at each other showed how much they loved each other. We did that each time we met and I noticed their communication improved.

One of the last visits we had before the pandemic, I attended a school play that my kiddo was performed in and sat with her caregivers; her aunt, her uncle and her cousin. The child was so excited to see a "whole row" of people there just to see HER. In less then a year, she went from a shelter to a family.

On my last case, I was able to find an independent adopter for a teen who’s family had abandoned him. I called the school to get an idea of what type of student he was and through those conversations found one of his former teachers who expressed interest in adopting him, and she did, about a year later.