On April 12, 1993 Annie B. Jones Community Services, Inc. (ABJ) was incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 through the vision and commitment of its Founder/ President & CEO Rev. Dr. Vivian R. Jones. ABJ's mission is to meet the physical, emotional, and social needs of children, families, and senior citizens by offering comprehensive health and human services. Services are offered without regard to age, race, creed, color or religious affiliation. Throughout its history, ABJ has shown adeptness in providing human services as well as being an asset to the community. ABJ currently serves approximately 5,000 individuals annually, and 70% of which are youth and children.

ABJ is accredited by the National Council on Accreditation and is licensed to provide child welfare/ Foster Care Family Preservation, outpatient substance abuse treatment services, child and family counseling, HIV/AIDS counseling, Abstinence Education, Teen Reach, Life skills, Tutoring, Mentoring, Cultural Arts/ Recreational Services, Food/ Clothing Pantry, and Employment and Training Services. ABJ is located in the South Shore community, however, ABJ provides services to residents all over Cook County. ABJ has an extensive history of working with youth and providing positive alternative programs such as Hook-a-Kid on Golf, and various cultural arts programs and tours. ABJ has highly qualified staff that love to work youth and they have extensive experience in initiating and implementing youth services.

Ada S. McKinley Community Services' Foster Care Division places children in safe, nurturing environments until permanency with a family or independent living status is achieved.

Other comprehensive supportive services provided by Ada S. McKinley include child care, special education and alternative schools, college preparation and placement, behavior health, community rehabilitation programs, employment training, residential services, and youth and senior citizen programs.

Since 1897, The Allendale Association has been serving children, youth, and families of Illinois and southern Wisconsin, as a licensed child welfare agency and healthcare provider. Allendale has evolved into a residential, educational and counseling organization for disadvantaged males and females, ages 7 to 21. The youth Allendale works with are in sincere need of help. Many of the youth who reside at Allendale have never known a secure, nurturing environment. Many have suffered sever and traumatic abuse, neglect or abandonment. Some of the youth suffer with mental illnesses. The Allendale Association provides youth with safe homes to live in, a school to learn in, and a chance to heal. Our trademarked model of therapy called Counter Response"! Training has become nationally recognized as a successful and innovative method of treating children and adults who suffer with behavioral disorders. Your help can provide guidance, affirmation, and a means of helping a troubled youth realize their potential.

Arden Shore provides a variety of community and residential services in Lake County, IL. Most services are available for both English speaking and Spanish speaking families. We have a traditional and relative foster care program which has the capacity to provide services to Spanish speaking or bilingual families. We are actively recruiting bilingual foster parents in the area and currently have two informational sessions scheduled to explain foster care needs to interested families. Arden Shore has two group homes, a bilingual intact family program for 50 families in Lake and McHenry County, and a DCFS funded program to assist foster care agencies and residential agencies to provide services to children and families in Spanish. This program enables foster care agencies to maintain the case without a Spanish speaking worker, but provides help with communication, visitation, therapy in Spanish and case management services at no cost to the agency. Arden Shore also provides office based and in home counseling in Spanish and English, domestic violence and truancy prevention family groups in Spanish, and in home, bilingual counseling, psychological testing and psychiatric services for any Latino children and adolescents with serious mental health issues who live in Lake County.

Association House promotes a continuum of services to people of all ages and ethnicities. We currently have a staff of nearly 200 individuals, offering culturally and linguistically competent programs to our Latino participant population.  Current programs are offered in both English and Spanish in three main areas:
Child Welfare Services includes foster care, intact, licensing, adoption services, and residential group home;  Behavioral Health Services includes programs for adults with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities, substance abuse services, counseling, after school programs for children and teens and residential services; and Community Center Services includes arts and technology education programs, El Cuarto Año Alternative H.S., emergency social services, computer education and training, an integrated health and nutrition, and adult education in English as a Second Language, Spanish and English Literacy, Pre-GED, GED, Citizenship Preparation, and financial literacy.

Aunt Martha's is a private, not-for-profit service agency. We are state-licensed to provide child welfare, substance abuse treatment, and childcare services.Aunt Martha's continuously strives to assess the needs and priorities of the communities it serves, and then develop the resources to meet those needs. As a result, Aunt Martha's offers a large variety of programs and services designed to provide a full continuum of care for children, teens and their family members.

These resources form a spectrum of care that includes;Counseling: Traditional individual and family counseling, immediate response and crisis intervention, substance abuse treatment, juvenile justice, and community safety programs. Health: Reproductive, prenatal, pediatric, dental, primary and preventive health care for children, teens, young women and men. Education: Early childhood, life skills training, academic and employment programs. Child Welfare: Foster care, residential care, independent living, and Teen Parenting Services Network. Youth Development & Prevention: Community service, child abuse/neglect prevention, substance abuse prevention, STD/HIV Prevention, services for teen parents, volunteer training and mentor programs, youth leadership and involvement, and support groups.

BCYS is a not-for-profit social service agency providing: Foster Care, ILO, TLP, Mentoring, Teen Reach, CCBVS and clinical services. BCYS has two locations, 800 E. 78th St. and 4924 S. King Dr.

17512 E. Carringeway Drive, Suite D
Hazel Crest, IL 60429

708-647-8554

Camelia Botez

Camelot Community Care is a national nonprofit Child Welfare Agency licensed by the State of Illinois, a member of the Child Care Association of Illinois, and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation. Camelot's current service array includes Foster Care Services at three levels of intensity with accompanying Case Management and Intensive In-Home Counseling. Camelot programs also include Adoption Services, Crisis Intervention, and service referral/coordination. Camelot Communities Care's mission is to develop and provide services, which enable children and families to realize their potential. All programs of Camelot Community Care can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual child and family. The agency also recruits, trains and licenses individuals and couples to be specialized foster parents.

450 E. Devon, Suite 285
Itasca, IL 60143

630-773-1985

Sandy Shamie-Kondziolka

(Central and Northern Cook County) Camelot Community Care is a national nonprofit Child Welfare Agency licensed by the State of Illinois, a member of the Child Care Association of Illinois, and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation. Camelot's current service array includes Foster Care Services at three levels of intensity with accompanying Case Management and Intensive In-Home Counseling. Camelot programs also include Adoption Services, Crisis Intervention, and service referral/coordination. Camelot Communities Care's mission is to develop and provide services, which enable children and families to realize their potential. All programs of Camelot Community Care can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual child and family. The agency also recruits, trains and licenses individuals and couples to be specialized foster parents.

Since 1964, CARC has provided opportunities for persons with developmental disabilities and other special needs to learn, acquire skills, and set their sites on ambitious goals. Our mission is to provide quality services that promote choice, independence and community integration. We operate over 40 programs, offer home-based services and support more than 1,500 children and adults with developmental disabilities or other special needs throughout the City of Chicago. CARC is a diverse, vibrant agency focused on one main goal: to help the people we support realize lifetimes with more opportunities.

Casa Central transforms lives and strengthens communities, with a special focus on Hispanics. Our network of social services propels a diverse population of all ages toward self-sufficiency and a higher quality of life. Through fourteen social service programs, Casa Central services families from birth through end-of life. Programs focus on: children and youth (Youth Options Unlimited, Adolescent Parenting Program, Child Development Centers, Home-Based Headstart, and School-Age Program); Families and Communities (Domestic Violence Intervention, Foster Care & Adoption, Intact Family Services, CAN Training, Community Technology Center, and LaPosada Transitional Housing); and Elderly Services (Over 55 employment, Logan Square/West Town Senior Center, Adult Day Care, Homemaker Services, and Center Home of Hispanic Elderly). Casa Central celebrated our 50 years of service to the Hispanic Community in 2004. Casa Central is accredited by the National Council of Accreditation, and is recognized as the largest Hispanic social service agency in the Midwest.

As a licensed and nationally accredited Child Welfare Agency, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet provides a wide range of services to children and families who reside in DuPage, Will, Kendall, Grundy, Kankakee, Iroquois and Ford counties in Illinois.  The agency offers services through three regional offices located in the cities of Lombard, Joliet, Kankakee. Services include foster care, a full range of adoption services, family support services for relative caregivers, home licensing and monitoring and foster parent support services. Services are available in Spanish.

Centers for New Horizons ("Centers") is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1971, that seeks to educate children, strengthen families, and build community. In locations across Chicago's south side, Centers provides high quality programs built on a unique philosophy that emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning, of partnerships with parents in educating children, of culture as key to identify formation and citizenship in the global world, and of health and wellness. Centers is accredited by the Council on Accreditation and is the current recipient of the prestigious Bank of America Foundation's Neighborhood Builders Award. In our Foster & Adoption Services, foster parents are active members of our team in helping children become self-reliant.

Children's Home + Aid is a leading social service agency in Illinois giving children help, hope and opportunity. Each year, it helps about 40,000 children and families overcome overwhelming obstacles such as poverty, abuse, and neglect. Since 1883, Children's Home + Aid has been a compassionate advocate for the welfare of children and families. Children's Home + Aid provides more than 70 social service programs focusing on child development, child abuse prevention and strengthening families. Children's Home + Aid saves children's lives, moves families forward and goes where the need is the greatest. 

The Children's Place Association is a private agency that provides various social services throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Programs include foster care, a residential group home, day care (for HIV affected families), HIV case management, Life-Long Families (for HIV affected families) and mental health. We are located in the community.

ChildServ is a child and family well-being organization. Our programs begin with creating healthy families and home environments through foster care, adoption and residential group homes for teens. To help kids be successful, we also offer child care, tutoring, truancy prevention and early childhood education. To help families find better futures we provide immigration support services, life skills education, parenting support and child advocacy.

Hephzibah Children's Association, established in 1897 and accredited by the Council on Accreditation, is a community-based agency that provides a continuum of innovative programs to children and families. Hephzibah offers a comprehensive school-aged daycare program, a prevention program, a substance abuse assessment and referral program, family assessment and reunification programs, specialized and traditional foster care and adoption programs, a diagnostic shelter program, and a long-term group home program. Hephzibah Foster Care emphasizes communication, consistency, and commitment in caring for children who have experienced abuse and neglect. By wrapping biological and foster families with case management, therapeutic, educational, and supportive services, children are provided with the tools they need to form lasting relationships despite their traumatic beginning to life.

Jane Addams Hull House Association has been in operation since 1889, believed to be one of Chicago's first settlement houses. It promotes improvement in social conditions through the application of our founder's principle of helping people to help themselves. The Association's mission is to improve social conditions for under-served people and communities by providing creative and innovative programs and by advocating for related public policy reforms. Hull House Association provides 100 strength based, social services programs which includes foster care, child/daycare, independent and transitional living, domestic violence, housing resources, small business development, group home and senior services.  The foster care program has been operating since 1994. It is designed to keep large sibling groups together. The foster caregivers are employed by the Association with a base salary of $16000. The Neighbor to Neighbor model is designed around four guiding principles: 1) Provides care that is child centered and family focused. 2) Places brother and sisters together with one foster family in their own community 3) Professionalizes the role of foster caregiver, who are salaried employees. Foster caregiver play an integral role on the team and support birth family connections and efforts 4) Works with birth parents toward family reunification, wherever possible and works concurrently on alternative permanency plans such as adoption or subsidizes guardianship. Most importantly the Neighbor to Neighbor program works for children, keeping them with their brothers and sisters and minimizing their sense of loss, while providing the help and support they need to heal and form healthy relationships. The Neighbor to Neighbor program has approached many states about replicating it's program.

Illinois Mentor/Alliance Human Services are human services agencies that focus on providing quality services to families and children. We provide foster care services to children that have been deemed in need of specialized/treatment foster care homes. We are diligent in looking for those foster parents that are willing to open their hearts and homes to a very special set of children and we work diligently to provide the supportive services needed to make such placements successful.

The Illinois Youth Advocate Program, Inc. (ILYAP) is incorporated as a private, non-profit youth advocacy and child-placing agency providing community-based services for youth and families. ILYAP services combine the advantages of a family atmosphere and cost effective access to support services and community resources as an alternative to expensive institutional care. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services licenses ILYAP as a Child Welfare Agency. ILYAP is an affiliate of the National Youth Advocate Program, Inc. (NYAP).

The Jewish Children's Bureau provides comprehensive services to children, adolescents and their families throughout metropolitan Chicago. Whether a toddler needs help with speech-language development, a teen living in JCB foster care needs a mentor, or an adoptive parent needs a support group, our experienced staff is available for evaluation, intervention, assistance and support. JCB serves children and their families regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation or ability. By offering an array of therapeutic programs designed to preserve, strengthen and protect the well-being of our clients, we encourage children, adolescents and their families to reach their fullest potential.

Kaleidoscope takes on many of Chicago's most troubled children and youth recovering from abuse and neglect: kids who have experienced numerous previous foster placements, have been institutionalized, have complex mental health needs or multiple disabilities, and who are sometimes aggressive towards their caregivers or peers. Our agency has succeeded over the years in reducing the amount of "placement bouncing" a child experiences because tough cases are identified at the outset and referred directly to Kaleidoscope. Where Kaleidoscope was known in the 1980s and 1990s as "an agency of last resort," we are now the agency that is turned to first, preventing children from going through unnecessary trauma, instability and feelings of displacement and rejection.

Kids Hope United is a private, human service organization dedicated to protecting children and strengthening families. We offer a diverse array of community-based programs and services, including child development, counseling, foster care and adoption. Our services impact more than 8,000 children and families across Illinois.

Kids Hope United believes that all children hold promise. We help bring them hope of a brighter future.

65 East Wacher Place
Chicago , IL 60601

312-346-3383

Tracy Levine

Established in 1865, Lawrence Hall Youth Services treats, educates and provides a home for severely emotionally disturbed and behaviorally disordered children. Children who have no place else to turn. Lawrence Hall is a critical link in the Illinois child welfare system, caring for over 1,200 children and their families, each year.

Life link is a multi-faceted health and human service organization providing quality programs and services to people of all generations, cultures, religions, genders and socio-economic status. We began as an orphanage and "old folks' home" in Bensenville, IL, caring for nine children and two elderly residents. Throughout this last century our programs have evolved, and as society's needs changed to meet the needs of the people we serve. We have also stayed true to the mission set forth by our 13 founders-to provide compassionate services to those in need. As we continue into our next 110 years of services, we will continue to impact the lives of the older adults, children and families we serve, and in turn impact the world around us.

http://www.littlecityadoptions.org

Theresa Moran

Little City Foundation provides services for children and adults with developmental challenges such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome, epilepsy, visual and hearing challenges and emotional disturbance. Services include housing, employment, recreation, foster care, adoption, home-based support, services coordination, media and studio arts, advocacy, and public education. Little City Foundation's Foster Care Program provides quality homes for children with special needs. Foster Families receive extensive and on-going training, frequent respite, considerable in-home support, and assistance in coordinating services for the child. Our professional staff works as a team with foster parents, biological families, and outside agencies to create a nurturing environment for the children in need.

Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois is a human service agency committed to providing high-quality social services responsive to the needs of children and families across Illinois. Founded in 1873, LCFS has been providing hope and help to the least among us for more than 130 years. Today, LCFS serves more than 40,000 individuals of all faiths, races and ethnic backgrounds each year through programs such as adoption, counseling, foster care, residential treatment and a variety of community services. Each year LCFS supervisors more than 700 foster children in homes throughout Illinois.

10 W 35th Street, 15th Floor
Chicago, IL 60616

312-959-4340

Denise McMikel

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois brings healing, justice and wholeness to children, individuals and families at more than 100 locations in Illinois. Through a wide variety of services, LSSI touches the lives of tens of thousands of people each year, restoring hope to people of all ages, races, religions and economic circumstances. For more than 135 years, LSSI has been meeting people where they are, understanding their needs and working with them to create lives of wholeness.

Lydia Home Association is a social service agency whose mission is to honor Jesus Christ by fostering emotional, physical and spiritual well-being in the children, families, and individuals we serve; equipping them for their vital roles in the community. Founded in 1916 as an orphanage, Lydia has become a successful alternative to state-run foster care and family assistance agencies. Lydia's faith-based approach to helping troubled families and children is unique, reaching people in diverse communities with a continuum of clinical and supportive services, from foster care to counseling, residential treatment to abstinence education.

Methodist Youth Services (MYS) is a not-for-profit, non-sectarian child welfare agency that serves homeless, abused and neglected, and/or delinquent youth under the direction of DCFS and Family Services of the Department of Corrections. MYS, also serves youth-at risk in Cook County by providing services to schools or via specialized programming specifically tailored to meet the needs of a community. With the guidance of the United Methodist health and welfare ministries of Northern Illinois conference, MYS provides clinical, rehabilitation services, and case management services to disadvantaged youth in each of its programs, Independent Living Options and in our Anchor House Shelter Care program.

The Family Focus mission is to promote the well being of children from birth by supporting and strengthening their families in and with their communities. Now in its 30th year, Family Focus continues to offer innovative programs that address the changing needs of the communities it serves. All services are provided to participants regardless of ability to pay. Family Focus operates six centers throughout the Chicago area, which offers innovative, community-based programs that help parents gain confidence and competence as the primary educators of their children. The centers are models for family support programs throughout the nation. Family Focus' Six direct service centers are located in Aurora, Evanston, and Highland Park, IL, and Chicago's Englewood, Hermosa, and Lawndale neighborhoods. The Midwest Leaning Center for Family Support at Family Focus provides and links programs, family support staff, agencies and communities to quality learning opportunities. The Midwest Learning Center provides customized family support training, helps programs access and fund existing learning opportunities, builds capacity of existing training programs, and provides a forum for advocacy and discussion of issues related to strengthening, expanding, and advancing the family support field and strengthening families.

Our Children's Homestead is dedicated to assuring safe and secure homes for abused, neglected and troubled foster children. We believe that each child no matter what circumstances surround them deserves the chance to succeed. Our entire staff is dedicated to providing the services necessary for every child to have their dreams come true. Our staff, foster parents and volunteers all strive to live our mission of One Child One Dream.

Seguin Services is a charitable not-for-profit agency serving metropolitan Chicago, with a mission of "supporting adults and children with disabilities and other special needs, enabling them to be productive, valued members of society."  Seguin helps to find safe and loving homes for children who have disabilities and serious medical conditions.  Seguin creates job opportunities and housing options that lead to greater independence for adults with disabilities. In addition, Seguin operates sixty-one homes where men and women with developmental disabilities live and contribute to their community. Seguin currently serves 150 foster children in over 100 foster homes. Seguin foster care program is specialized and provides behavioral and nursing support as well as respite services.

For more than 30 years, Shelter, Inc. has provided foster care services for the northwest suburbs of Chicago. We would appreciate your inclusion of the following paragraph and a link to our Website in the Cook County/Chicagoland and Statewide Agency links:
"Since 1975, Shelter has provided community-based, emergency and temporary housing for thousands of children and adolescents from birth through age 17 in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, who are abused, neglected, dependent or in need of supervision. Our mission is to help and protect children. We do this by providing 24-hour emergency and longer-term care, by creating community awareness and education to prevent such abuse and neglect, and promoting healthy families to reduce child abuse and neglect. As a nonprofit, licensed and accredited child welfare agency, Shelter provides quality services to meet the needs of the community:
Emergency, Traditional and Home-of-Relative Foster Care Foster care for children from birth through age 17.
Boys Group Home, Palatine The only emergency group home for boys ages 11 through 17 in the Northwest Suburbs Jennings Group Home for Girls, Schaumburg Emergency housing for girls ages 11 through 17.
Older Adolescent Group Home, Arlington Heights The only group home for 16- and 17-year-old boys in the Northwest Suburbs focusing on independent living skills.
Healthy Families Program Home visitation and parenting education program for first-time parents. The only Healthy Families program in the Northwest Suburbs.

SOS Children's Villages Illinois is a non-profit child welfare agency that builds Villages for children who are removed from their biological families due to neglect, abuse, abandonment or inability to care for them. Unlike traditional foster care, SOS reunites children with their siblings to live together with a trained SOS foster parent who provides care, stability and structure.  The SOS Children's Village model allows vital support services to be close proximity of the home and thereby improving our ability to help these children become self-reliant adults.

SOS Children's Villages Illinois consists of two villages, one in Lockport and our newest village located on the south side of Chicago, in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.
SOS Children's Villages Illinois located in Lockport and Chicago are two of three SOS villages in the United States.

UCAN is a human service organization that provides a variety of services and programming to youth and their families in and around the Chicago area. We have several traditional child welfare programs including a variety of foster care programs, independent and transitional living programs, residential treatment and a therapeutic day school that serves students from 1st grade through high school. Our foster care programs include traditional foster care, specialized foster care and foster care for medically complex youth. In addition, UCAN also has a variety of programs geared towards empowering young adults through job and intern opportunities, mentoring programs, educational and vocational services and advocacy. Our extensive outpatient clinical program provides a variety of therapeutic services to individuals and families. A major focus of our organization is working with clients exposed to trauma and violence as well as helping to break the cycles of abuse in families.

Unity Parenting and Counseling, Inc. has a long history of providing low income and special needs individuals and families with culturally sensitive and effective services. Unity is a community-based, not-for-profit agency, which has been operational since the fall of 1983. From 1983 to 1997, Unity operated a transitional shelter for homeless clients, helping them to achieve stability and independence. In fact 90% of these young clients transitioned successfully to independent living in the community. In 1989, Unity launched it's parenting and counseling center designed to teach parents all of the skills necessary for successful parenting. Unity was awarded Foster care contracts by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 1990. In 1990, Unity was awarded a contract for a transitional housing program for homeless youth by the US Department of Housing and Urban Renewal in conjunction with the Chicago Continuum of Care. This program, Harmony Village, is now in its sixth year of operation. IN 2000, Unity was awarded a permanent housing contract by the US Department of Housing and housing to homeless disabled persons and when appropriate, their families. In 1998, Unity was awarded an HIV/AIDS subcontract in conjunction with UGEMA and Southside Help, Inc. This contract allowed Unity to provide outreach and prevention services to high risk youth and adults. Unity also signed on as a Chicago Energy Assistance Provider for the local community. In 2004, Unity developed a fee-for-service adoption home-study program and a counseling/prevention/training program for the Chicago Public Schools. Unity was accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Children and Family services in 2000 and again in 2004.

Universal Family Connection Inc. (UFC) provides comprehensive casework services to Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) wards and their families in an effort to establish what is in the best interest of the child. UFC provides a broad range of services to tackle issues related to the children), biological family, or substitute care givers which threaten the protection, safety and/or permanence of the child(ren). The goal of UFC's foster care services is to assist children who have experience an unsafe, chaotic, or unstable home environment with their birth family. UFC works with foster families to provide the child(ren) with a continuous living arrangement that provides the child with love, security and a stable home life while working toward a permanent living arrangement. A permanent living arrangement (Return Home, Adoption or Independent Living) is unique to each child's needs and best interest. UFC serves children, 21 and under, for whom DCFS has responsibility and whose service needs has indicated that foster car is appropriate an in the child(ren)'s best interest.

Volunteers of America of Illinois currently provides foster care and adoption services to abused and neglected children in the State of Illinois. Volunteers of America of Illinois has helped make a difference in Illinois communities by finding safe, permanent and loving homes for children, which promote their natural physical, emotional and intellectual development. Volunteers of America of Illinois helps heal families by giving them the tools and resources needed to help them improve the quality of their lives.  Volunteers of America was founded in 1896 by social reformers Ballington and Maud Booth. They envisioned a movement dedicated to "reaching and uplifting" the American people. On behalf of the organization, the Booths pledged to "go wherever we are needed and do whatever comes to hand." That declaration has guided Volunteers of America's outreach efforts ever since.

The Alternative Schools Network (ASN) is a not-for-profit organization in Chicago working to provide quality education with a specific emphasis on inner-city children, youth and adults. Since 1973, the ASN has been supporting community based and community-run programs to develop and expand training and other educational services in Chicago's inner-city neighborhoods. In addition to supporting direct services, ASN has been a consistent and effective advocate for community based services whereby the people involved are active participants in developing and running programs - not passive recipients of services. To shape policies and programs, the ASN has built an impressive track record of operating successful education, employment and support service programs.

2411 W. Congress Pkwy.,
Chicago, IL 60612