Help Me Help Foster Kids

May is National Foster Care Month

Allow me to change topics for one day and ask you to help me help foster kids and young people who have aged out of foster care (i.e., turned 18) by supporting two organizations that are dear to my heart.

I have been involved with Turtle Nest Village, which serves emancipated foster youth, for seven years; and Kids@Home, which serves youth in foster care in addition to youth who have aged out, for over two years. Kids@Home is acquiring Turtle Nest Village and I am the Chair of the Board of Directors of both organizations.

I've been asking for website help because I am designing one website to reflect the acquisition and all of the new exciting things that we are planning for the coming year or two. The Kids@Home site, I just discovered, has been hacked, and we put a renovation page on the Turtle Nest Village one a couple of months ago, so unfortunately there will be nothing I can direct you to until I get moving on the new Squarespace site I just started. UPDATE: The Kids@Home website has been restored! Visit us at http://www.kidsathome.org/ (and please note that we are not faith-based, though the primary photo does sort of imply that).

Both of these organizations serve kids in South Florida, but one thing that can have ripples of effects throughout the country is that we have two curricula available designed to help anyone who wants to help foster kids, anywhere. One shows you how to start a transitional housing and life-skills program in your area just like our immensely successful program, and the other educates people who work with this vulnerable population about its unique needs.

My fundraising goal for this week is $2,500, and I encourage you to write me with any questions. You can send donations of any amount to:

Kids at Home
1 West Camino Real, Suite 118
Boca Raton, FL 33432

Please e-mail me at mary@marymartin.net so I can keep track. 100% of all donations are tax-deductible, and you will get a letter from Kids@Home explaining that.

Thank you, and feel free to circulate, re-blog, digg and tweet this plea!