This summer, Kaleidoscope matched 26 foster youth in college with employers across Chicago to gain experience and build their networks in a 10-week internship program called Find Your Future (findyourfutureprogram.com). Additionally throughout the summer, Kaleidoscope and sponsors host career development workshops preparing youth for the real world of work. 
 
Are you or someone you know knowledgeable about resume writing, job interviewing or personal finance? Would you be comfortable sharing your knowledge with young people in a workshop? Contact Abbie See and donate your time for a great cause!
 

 

 
DCFS Director speaks to interns at May 28th kickoff in Grant Park

Special thanks to DCFS, Northern Trust, Dir. Erwin McEwen, P.J. McGuire, Jonathon Levin, Terry Keating and Michelle Jackson for already giving your precious time, money and talent to Find Your Future 2010!
 

We're currently seeking a few big-hearted people with skills in writing orvideography to help tell the many stories that make up Kaleidoscope. Our goal is to create an ongoing collection for our blog and possibly YouTube.
 
Secondly, we're looking for a few people to help sell 50/50 tickets to friends, family, co-workers...even enemies. The 50/50 raffle takes place July 17 and typically yields a $5000 jackpot split with the winner and Kaleidoscope. 

If you're interested in volunteering for any of the above, contact Craig today!

Friends,

You may recall the brush Kaleidoscope and other child serving organizations had with massive funding cuts less than one year ago.

We undertook the unnerving task of laying off one-third of our staff before funding was ultimately restored to the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS). Though we called back our youth workers and services continued, our children got a real taste of what could have happened.

Over a hundred of our children and youth said goodbye to Kaleidoscope, only to have us return a week later and continue our work. This does not make for a trusting relationship, let alone a therapeutic one for children who have already suffered so much pain. But the alternative would have been disastrous for them.

We cannot let this happen again – we need to urge our state representatives to make the needs of our children a top priority.

Right now, state budget negotiations are in full swing. No one really knows when Illinois will have its fiscal 2011 budget in place, but Illinois still has a $13.4 billion deficit and the governor's proposed budget contains massive cuts to education and human services.

Please be an advocate for children before we’re forced to put a reorganization plan in place. Please, contact your local state reps and senators about the budget in the next 24 hours and leave a very succinct message in their Springfield office: 

“As the fiscal 2011 budget is negotiated, I urge you to assure that the DCFS budget that serves to protect abused and neglected children remains funded and DHS services are restored. We must also find solutions to fund the education budget and assure that cuts to special education intended to serve children with special behavioral and mental health challenges are restored. I urge you to advocate for these services within your caucus and whenever you are asked for your opinion on what is most important for the fiscal 2011 budget. Thank you.”

Click here to find your Illinois officials

As of today, there is a potpourri of options being considered to fund and plug some of the holes in the budget I received from the Child Care Association of Illinois:

• The Emergency Budget Act would give the governor power to cut the budget without the general assembly’s approval. All programs would be “subject to appropriations” so that potentially any program, including entitlement programs, could be cut or reduced. He could also hold back funding from state agencies and could adjust service and reimbursement rates as he sees fit.
• The Tax Amnesty program would raise potentially $250M that could go towards the education deficit of $1.3B.
• A $1 per pack cigarette tax increase would plug about $300M of the deficit.
• Liquidating future revenue from the tobacco settlement.
• A $1B funds sweep.
• Additional borrowing of $3.7B in order to cover the state’s pension payment or increases in bonding to cover expenses of last year’s capital budget and for $1B in new capital spending.
• The governor’s proposed “education surcharge.”
• Temporary one-year “business taxes.”
• Lengthening of the lapse spending period.
• Additional federal relief for education funding from Washington.
• A new idea that just emerged late yesterday, in which Illinois would receive $500M cash from ComEd and Exelon in exchange for freezing rates at higher-than-market levels for 4 years and a complete overhaul of the electricity regulatory system. 

Children count on you and indeed each of Kaleidoscope’s supporters to keep legislators accountable to the needs of children, especially those in the state’s care. I will keep you posted on new developments. Always feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Thank you,

Tom Finnegan
tfinnegan@kaleidoscope4kids.org
773-278-7200 x4050

Just because you’re here, reading this on our website, we consider you a friend of Kaleidoscope and a champion for kids. Champions are people who have seen Kaleidoscope’s shared vision and think, “Yes, every child deserves a chance at life, and I want to help build the bright future our children can give the world!”

Through the Seize a Day campaign, we are asking champions like you to buy just one day of Kaleidoscope’s future - the future of the kids we serve every day. Kaleidoscope is donor-dependent. It thrives and survives because champions like you are willing to invest in its mission and vision.

Next fiscal year beginning this July 1, one day at Kaleidoscope will cost $191 more than we are currently raising.

Every day that Kaleidoscope operates… providing 24/7 therapy, links to neighborhood resources, after-school programs and summer camps, bilingual services, teaching youth how to live independently, supporting foster parents who take in troubled children recovering from severe abuse, neglect and the medical and emotional problems, or throws one of its memorable events… will require an extra $191 in philanthropy… every day.

Here’s the future you’ll help guarantee by buying a day:

·         A generation of young people with the will and know-how to be successful in their own right.

·         A community of people who realize the importance of caring for their neighbors.

·         The virtues an independent, productive, healthy and happy grown person can bring.

In short, you can help build a community that recognizes the importance of our collective future and gives our children the resources to create it.

A tall order? Perhaps. But it’s being nurtured and grown at Kaleidoscope every single day.

Within reach? Yes! But only if you’ll help by buying a day of Kaleidoscope’s future.

By giving a day to Kaleidoscope, you will join with those who help shape better futures for kids by helping us take in children with the most complex needs and connecting them with loving families who can care for them. You’ll help nurture children as believers in their own ability to become independent and goal-oriented young adults. You’ll save lives and change lives by supporting Kaleidoscope programs and cultivating hope in even our youngest children.

Kaleidoscope is an organization that cannot afford to fail. The consequences are too great.

We’ve never done anything quite like this, but we are committed to doing so with Kaleidoscope’s high standard of honesty and transparency. I want you to know that we’ve already done as much as we can do internally to operate leanly while preserving the interests of the children entrusted to our care. Part of this involves our staff. We all keep our wages at 2006 levels, stall new hires as long as possible and contribute what we can of our own resources.

You see, we do our best to be champions for kids too.

Tall orders demand true champions…champions like you. It’s no less than $2 per child per day total to get kids the chance they need and deserve to achieve their full potential – we’re almost there.

So please consider helping us raise the additional $70,000 to close the gap this year.

You can buy as many days as you’d like. Buy a day in honor of someone you love. Ask for a Kaleidoscope day instead of a birthday gift. Or go in with your friends and buy a week.

We’re counting on you – and every single one of our donors – as a champion to help us reach this goal. I hope that you’ll consider how much one day – $191 – can mean to our kids. 
 
Seize a day!!!
 

Donors who gave an accumulated $100 or more in 2009 are listed in the Kaleidoscope Circle of Care. Major donors ($500 or more in a year) become members of the Kaleidoscope Circle of Care Leadership Council. 
 
Click the following link to view these donors as well as those outstanding volunteers who went above-and-beyond in 2009 to shape better lives for kids.

2009 Donor List - Circle of Care
 

We look forward with great optimism to the future. By following the path laid out by the Kaleidoscope board 37 years ago, the staff, board, volunteers and donors are making a better future for the children we serve right here in our communities.

As we all know – so well that it may seem cliché – children are the future. But worn as that saying may seem, it is often minimized. Kaleidoscope maximizes the resources provided by you and others to meet the goals of the Kaleidoscope mission. By doing so, we have affected children with a powerful impact leading to better childhoods and eventually productive, fulfilling adulthoods. Paradoxically and despite knowing that children are the future, support for programs serving at-risk children continues to erode.

Thank you for your support, and thank you for believing in the future of the children at Kaleidoscope.

Currently, Kaleidoscope requires about $3 per child per day in philanthropy to provide the best care and services to children and youth. YOU are part of that philanthropy that makes Kaleidoscope work.

You help nurture children to become independent and goal-oriented young adults. You support Kaleidoscope programs and cultivate hope in even our youngest children.

To save and change the lives of children costs time and money. Thank you for your help.

                                     
Bill Binder, Board Chair                          Tom Finnegan, Executive Director
 

Kaleidoscope's fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 saw $8,193,576 in expenses, with 87.7% going towards programs. You can find detailed, audited financial statements by clicking on the following link or calling 773-278-7200 x4024 and asking for a copy.

FY2009 Audited Financial Statement
http://www.k4k.org/resources/docs/Audited%20Financial%20Statement.pdf 

Kaleidoscope’s Associate Board is an extraordinary group of volunteers dedicated to raising awareness and funds while have fun in the process.

The first term AB created two of their own successful fundraising events, including a wine tasting event and a bowling fundraiser. The AB also raised significant money through a 50/50 raffle. Furthermore, the members of the AB volunteer each year to make possible our annual Kid Art Show, kids’ summer picnic and all-agency family holiday party.

The board and staff are very, very grateful to the tireless efforts of the group, particularly our co-leaders Molly O’Farrell and Mary Larocca, who took the mantle in 2008 to launch a group that raised over $7,000 through Associate Board-sponsored events and other Kaleidoscope campaigns.

Because of their efforts, the 2010-2011 Associate Board comprises an outstanding group of individuals filled with creative ideas and a high level of energy. We’re proud to have Molly O’Farrell back as our Vice Chair while Michelle Stevens has assumed the responsibility of Chair.

Thank you Associate Board!!!

If you’re interested in joining this great group and working towards the end of improving life for some great kids, check out http://www.k4k.org/k4kab 

Delories finds it hard to believe that it’s been 40 years since her close friend died. The pain feels fresh when she recalls that night and getting the news. Even more excruciating is the empathy she felt for her friends’ little boy, “Brandon.” She carried his pain in her heart for five long years, not knowing how much longer those years felt for Brandon. You see, she lost contact with Brandon when he was left in the care of family who could not, and did not, provide him the care and love a little boy needs.

Five years too long…long enough for Brandon to become a ward of the state – that means the State of Illinois was legally Brandon’s parent.

Brandon lost his mother, and then everything he knew. He never got the chance to grieve the loss of his mom, but was forced to immediately face the reality of what he only saw as being left alone in a big world. Not surprisingly, Brandon didn’t immediately warm to his first foster parents…and didn’t get the chance to either before they presumed Brandon just wasn’t a good match. Brandon was moved to his second foster home, then his third. He began acting out, getting into trouble, then moved to his fourth foster home, fifth, sixth…

Brandon became a seriously troubled youth and deemed “specialized” by the state. Back then it was more common for kids to bounce around from one home to the next because the special care and attention kids like Brandon needed wasn’t being provided immediately like it ought to have been. Brandon, like so many other kids, learned to reject the care being offered to them by a foster parent BEFORE getting rejected…it became a defense mechanism.

In that fifth year after Brandon’s mother died, Delories heard from a friend of a friend that “the poor little boy who’d lost his family” had recently been sent to Kaleidoscope. Because he was deemed specialized and needed special attention to help him recover from his trauma, Kaleidoscope took him in to provide him the most stable care possible in a family that would be trained and supported to care for just such children.

Delories contacted Kaleidoscope and, without hesitation, became a licensed foster parent for Brandon by the time he was twelve years old.

And that’s where the best part of Delories’ story begins.

Since that day that Delories took Brandon into her home, she has become the foster parent to over 20 children. If that doesn’t illustrate the size of her heart, she took in two foster children, a four-month-old and then a three-year-old, who weren’t expected to live to see their next birthday. But because of her unconditional care, both are doing remarkably well. Without Delories, these two would have certainly grown up in an institution, if they would have even survived at all. Both now in their twenties, Anthony and Jeanetta remain in Delories’ care as adults with special needs, but are clearly happy as evidenced by their smiles and affection towards Delories and the Kaleidoscope staff.

Most recently, a tiny infant named Demajh was referred to Kaleidoscope who was the child of teenage foster youth herself. The Kaleidoscope staff approached Delories about taking the infant into her home while we all worked closely with the teenage parent with the goal of reunification. Sadly, but believed to be in the child’s best interest, Demajh’s mother chose to terminate her rights as his parent. Demajh would have been placed in another foster home at this point, however Delories asked to adopt Demajh and the Kaleidoscope staff began the adoption process, given her stellar record as a foster parent and knowing the Demajh would be given all the love he needed and a good life.

To be sure, Delories is an exceptional foster parent. Her story inspires others who have the capacity – to both provide and to love – to become foster parents and to adopt foster children. Delories has dedicated the last 35 years of her life fostering children in her own home, creating a large extended family where all know her as “mama.” As a founder of Kaleidoscope’s Foster Parent Association, former President and mother, Delories is an inspiration to us all.

Brandon is grown up now, but in spite of living in Florida and leading a successful career, he still finds time to call and check up on his mama.

 
For two years now, Northern Trust has helped Kaleidoscope enhance programs for foster youth and build awareness for high-need abused and neglected foster youth. This is truly a company that makes a difference in Chicago.

In 2008, Northern Trust became a partner in building new programs and enhancing tried-and-true programs for foster youth - 18-23 years old - who are aging out of the foster care system. In many states, once a foster kid turns 18, they're on their own. Now I know - and you may agree - that when I turned 18, I still relied on my network of family and friends to truly make a full transition into independence. We believe our foster youth are no different.
 
Northern Trust joined Kaleidoscope by providing a supportive grant towards its transitional living services programs. Then, the following year, Northern Trust became a key partner of Find Your Future, Kaleidoscope's internship program for foster youth in college. Both of these grants ensure that foster youth turning 18 are not forgotten, but giving the support they need to become independent, productive and happy young adults.
 
BUT...Northern Trust didn't stop there. Also in 2008, the wonderful people at this great company offered to host Kaleidoscope's popular Kid Art Show. Their prime location gave many more people the opporunity to attend and be part of a great arts program just steps from where they work. Kaleidoscope made many new friends and was able to put the focus on the kids and their talent while the bank provided the venue and catering.

Everyone at Kaleidoscope is eternally grateful to Northern Trust - not to mention the many employees who volunteer and donate throughout the year. So, THANK YOU to our board members Lindsay Amborski, Kathy Soto and the many, many other great people at Northern Trust!
 
We look forward to a great 2010 working together to save lives and change lives!