We are 10 years old. First board: friends & contacts of board members. Not all were successful members. We developed recruitment process, ask prospective members be involved w/ us at least 6 months before being considered for board. Works but we haven't had enough prospective members. Two rolling off in Jan. (we were already down). Bd Dev committee not active since previous chair left board. We'd like to recruit mbrs w/ more connections (& not afraid to use them) but we need help getting there
DCFYI helps teens in foster care develop what become lasting and life changing relationships with amazing adult volunteers. We are weathering the pandemic with our finances intact. But we are also only serving some of the area teens who could use this support (now more than ever). We could be more effective and serve more teens if we can find new board members who can help us raise additional funding and achieve our strategic growth goals.
Executive Director
Family & Youth Initiative creates community and lasting relationships for teens and young adults in foster care.
Family & Youth Initiative's innovative approach brings adults and teens together to form a community: raising comfort levels, breaking down barriers, and resulting in teens being matched with adult mentors, host parents and adoptive parents. We normalize adoption and increase the number of teens who are adopted. We create opportunity for adult-teen relationships to form naturally and comfortably.
Our programming has the following core elements:
* Events that bring together adults and teens to share a fun activity and build relationships.
* Mentors who spend at least eight hours a month with a teen for at least two years.
* Host parents who welcome a teen into their home for weekend visits and serve as the youth's adoption "advocate," helping him or her meet other adults to expand the circles of people who know the teen and increase opportunities to find an adoptive family.
* Opportunities for prospective adoptive parents to get to know teens waiting for families.
