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.

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.

Children's Home + Aid saves children's lives, moves families forward, and goes where the need is greatest. Founded in 1883, Children's Home + Aid continues a mission of giving help, hope, and opportunity to children with a variety of emotional, physical, and behavioral needs. Each year we help more than 40,000 children and families in Illinois through a wide range of services like adoption, foster care, education, counseling, and child abuse prevention.

A private, nonprofit, and nonsectarian social service agency, Children's Home + Aid champions the welfare of children and their families and is recognized as a leader in providing quality services.

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.

Catholic Charities is a nonprofit organization with programs and services designed to meet the need of abused and neglected children, and to respect the diversity that they represent. It is believed that all children should grow up in a permanent, nurturing and stable environment where they can look to caring, responsible adults for love, security, guidance and a chance to develop to their full potential. 

All individuals involved with the Catholic Charities Foster Care Program are treated with dignity and respect. They receive services without regard to their race, color, national origin, religion, age, gender, ability or disability, or any other discriminatory factors. Children and youth in the foster care program can be between the ages of birth and age 18.

The Lake County Catholic Charities Foster Care Program provides:

A. Foster parent recruitment and development for licensed foster homes. Foster parents education and support including the publication of a foster parent newsletter and Email contact system.

B. Case work services to foster children, natural parents and foster parents while a child is in a foster home placement-relative and non- relative. Services include intake assessment and permanency planning for children in care through task centered goals-oriented case work. Casework services are on an ongoing basis with a child/worker ratio of fifteen children to one worker.

C. The program provides placement services to involves children and service to support rehabilitation toward return of child custody. When return of custody is not possible, the program provides permanency and placement in adoption o alternative guardianship.

There is a particular need for foster families interested in caring for teens, siblings groups, minorities and bilingual children.

If you join the Catholic Charities Foster Care Program you will become part of a teem who works with at-risk infants, children, young people and their families to give them another chance at life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.