Arizonans for Children

         Tutor/Mentors (Arizona, Maricopa County) Arizonans for Children: Volunteers needed for Tutor/Mentor Program Duties: Take the lead in supporting a young person through an ongoing one to one relationship. Serve as a positive role model and friend. Build the relationship by planning and participating in activities together. Strive for mutual respect. Build self esteem and motivation. Help set goals and work toward accomplishing them. Assist your mentee in developing academic and behavioral goals and setting rewards for the achievement of those goals Population served: Youths in foster care in Maricopa County. Currently there are 13,400 youths in care in Arizona and almost 7,000 in Maricopa County. Community need/impact: This role will help break the cycle of poverty and abuse. By working with a child one to one, you will improve their chances of successful education, encourage goal setting and help to change their lives and the lives of those connected ...

I t's not too late!! There is still one more week to claim the AZ Foster Care Tax Credit for 2018! There are several tax "credits" you can claim in the state of Arizona that are dollar for dollar credits on what you may owe the state. A tax payer can claim them all! The Foster Care tax credit is $1000 if you file a joint return and $500 if you file single. Find our more about tax credits here: https://azdor.gov/tax-credits To claim the Foster Care Tax Credit click: http://www.arizonansforchildren.org/page/supporting-arizonans-for-children When you choose to support Arizonans for Children 100% of your donations go directly to children's programs and never marketing or advertising. You can designate where you would like your contribution directed. Visitation Center to help families heal. Mentor program to help kids in the foster care system go from statistic 2 success. Special events that give the kids a time to celebrate and just enjoy life. STEM Pi-oneer ...

Arizonans for Children Mentors are amazing people that just simply care.  These volunteers pick their mentee up, a mentee is a child in foster care, and take them out in to the community.  They explore, they discover, they bond and they heal. 8 hours a month and a year commitment to the child changes lives!  Both the mentee as well as the Mentor. From Mentors Eric and Suzy: " This week with our Big Mentee - Batting Cages, Hot Wings, a Museum, Books, and blue Ice Cream! We started at  D-BAT Mesa  for some batting practice, our little buddy loves soccer, but wanted to give the batting cages a try, fun stuff. Next stop, refueling at  Native New Yorker Gilbert & the 60 , little buddy loves hot wings. Then we went to the  Arizona Museum of Natural History  - pretty amazing place, I've lived in Mesa a long time, but have never been there. Our buddy loved the dinosaurs, the panning for gold, the jail, and the Arizona in the movies secti...

As I was giving Amanda with  Arizona Center for Disability Law a tour of the Arizonans for Children Phoenix Visitation Center yesterday we passed this mom and her little one snuggling while watching a movie.  Our Visitation Centers are the perfect place to help families heal.   Mom and baby bonding while the case aid monitors their interactions.   One of my goals is to have classes and workshops for the parents as they work towards reunification.  As I spoke with Amanda yesterday about an event we have coming up where she is presenting I asked if she could share the information with the parents at our centers.  As Amanda explained the educational legal rights of children with disabilities within the foster care system and the role that their bio parents can have; I realized that there was a lot I did not know and it made me wonder if the parents are aware?  The good news, this is what Amanda does!  She is looking at h...

What a weekend at Arizonans for Children!  Technology, technology and more technology! We were very fortunate to be part of AZ Give Camp's Hack-a-Thon where teams of developers volunteer their time and expertise to engineer solutions for non-profits.  The hack-a-thon started Friday afternoon at 3:00pm and went all the way until Sunday at 4:00pm! Thanks to my new best friend Chris Huie, Arizonans for Children participated in this fantastic opportunity.  Our team Tomas, Mandy and Cindy listened to our agency needs, tossed ideas around and came up with the perfect solution.  This team developed an electronic check-in system that will offer faster check in and out times that will translate into more quality time spent on a visit for the families using the centers. This new system also tracks the data creating seamless reports while respecting and protecting the confidentiality of our clients.  All of this was done with the knowledge that cost  is a...

Today is International Women's Day. Arizonans for Children has the most genuine, determined, kind, passionate group of women! Every day these ladies come up with new ways to Help Families Heal; their ingenuity is beyond noteworthy. When this group identifies an issue they take the steps to ensure all needs are met. We work hard, we care, we are methodical and consistent, we smile and laugh, we are wacky on Wednesdays and celebrate every occasion with the families we serv e. We are Arizonans for Children! This group of women....I am truly honored to be surrounded by them! Thank you all for all you do! Kaye McCarthy  - Founder and President Andrea Chavez  - Director of Supervised Visits Pamela Woods  - Supervised Visits Coordinator Belen Lopez  - Supervised Visits Assistant Monique Quinones  - Tutor/Mentor Outreach Coordinator Paige Deist-Goranson  - Visitation Center Coordinator Each a piece of the puzzle that makes Arizonans for Childre...

After months of preparation and planning, worries about rain; the community came together for the 2019 Foster Festival at Enchanted Island Amusement Park.  The event went off without a hitch creating life long lasting memories for kids in the foster care system. Saturday February 23, 2019 saw thousands of children and their caregivers arrive at Enchanted Island.  Some of the kids have been to this event before and knew how fun the day would be while others waited with nervous excitement for the day to begin.  For kids in the foster care system fear often weighs in equal parts to excitement because of the unknown.  They want to trust their caregivers that it will be a fun day but years in the system makes them weary. Getting off the shuttle that brought the kids to the event from the parking structure at Phoenix College they could smell the popcorn and hear the live music playing. The kids were greeted by superheroes from The Dark Empire, The Avengers and T...