National Foster Care Month

• Post information on your personal/organizational web site.
• Distribute foster care fact sheets, bumper stickers, book marks/inserts, banner and other materials with foster care information.
• Request that your local grocery stores print foster care messages on their bags.

• Hold a press conference
• Write a letter to the newspaper editor and encourage others to do so
• Meet with reporters and the editorial board of your newspaper and urge them to write positive stories about foster parents, recognizing the need for more foster parents and highlighting activities built around Foster Care Month. Educate them about the challenges facing youth “aging out” of care.

Idea for Blue Ribbon Events or Activities (see below)

• Distribute information about foster care needs in your community or compelling stories to newsletters, advocacy groups, bulletin boards, public service announcements, parent/teacher organizations, community centers, web sites and special interest groups.
• Distribute information on ways members of your community can make a difference in the lives of young people in foster care. See "Blue Ribbon Information" and visit www.fostercaremonth.org for distribution examples.
• Tell a youth about Casey Family Programs and the Orphan Foundation of America’s scholarship program wherein foster youth can receive assistance up to $10,000 for post-secondary education, including vocational/technical training. For more information about this and other scholarship programs, visit www.orphan.org.

Ask a community member to:

• Create a display in their shop that spotlights foster families.
• Offer special discounts or gifts to customers who are identified as foster families.
• Sponsor a meal, party or celebration for foster families in the community.
• Include an article in their company newsletter encouraging employees to find out how they can become involved in the lives of children and young people in foster care.
• Sponsor a scholarship for a young person who is making the transition from foster care to self-sufficiency.
• Create a training program for a former foster youth.
• Sponsor a sibling group for a week at Camp To Belong, a national nonprofit that provides reuniting events for brothers and sisters placed in different foster homes. Their flagship event is a 1-week summer camp. For more information contact Lynn Price at 303-791-0915 or 888-7BELONG: www.camptobelong.org

• Recruit members of your organization, church, workplace, neighborhood or community center to volunteer to support foster families or to become foster parents.
• Request the assistance of your religious and business leaders in building Foster Care Month awareness in the community.

Organize an event such as a dinner, coffee gathering, picnic, auction, etc. Invite foster families, community activists, elected officials and your friends and encourage them to hold their own events.

• Request that your governor, state legislators and mayor proclaim the month of May as Foster Care Month. Send personalized letters (see enclosed sample letters) to your elected officials with information about the foster care system in your own community.
• Notify your U.S. Representative and Senators about activities.