Needed: Male Mentors to Change the Life of a Foster Child

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Children's Home Aid is looking for kind and reliable males who are willing to be a role model for the residents at the Rice Child Familiy Center. Boys living at the Rice Center have usually been through severe abuse and neglect, and frequently their only male role models have been staff who are paid to work with them or fathers who have been absent for some/all of their lives. The boys at the Rice Center need thoughtful and intelligent males to be an example of what adulthood could look like for them. They need examples of men who respect women, who care about others without appearing weak, who talk about how they feel without fear, and who can listen to what's going on in a child or teen's life with hope for their future and without judgment.

A foster friend is a caring and committed older individual in a young person's life. By spending a few hours a week sharing activities, listening, encouraging, challenging, and building skills and self-reliance, volunteer mentors can help children from achieve success. Research conducted by Private/Public Ventures based on the Big Brothers Big Sisters model (P/PV, 2000) found that youth who are successfully matched with an adult are 52 percent less likely to skip school, earn slightly higher grades, and feel better about how they are doing in school. Mentoring has proved to be a powerful tool for helping young people fulfill their potential.

Children's Home Aid protects, educates and counsels children and youth to improve their lives. The agency provides services to nearly 400 foster children in the Chicago area. These children are experiencing overwhelming obstacles such as mental illness, homelessness, abuse and neglect. They have seen the ravages of poverty and drugs, and many suffer the painful loneliness caused by separation from their families. These obstacles are especially difficult, as many of them have the absence of a caring adult. The agency is greatly in need of "foster friends" to serve as positive role models for our youth in the residential treatment program. Currently all our Foster Friends are placed with our neediest children at the Rice Child & Family Center in Evanston.

Volunteer hours are Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 and weekends.

In order to ensure the safety of our clients and staff, regularly scheduled volunteers participate in a screening process including an in-person interview, a health screen & TB test and fingerprinting background check.