With thousands of children entering foster care in Illinois every year, Let It Be Us, the Barrington-based charity, helps match prospective parents with waiting children.
This month SW Lake kicks off a new series on not-for-profit organizations dedicated to women and children. Upcoming stories include organizations providing harm reduction training, an organization awarding grants to local groups supporting women and children, and a relatively new foundation supporting grieving parents.
Let It Be Us recruits Illinois families for traditional, specialized and emergency foster care. To be a foster parent, an adult must first be licensed by the State of Illinois; while it is free, the process of becoming a foster parent can be time-consuming and requires persistence. On average, it can take six months to complete the steps necessary —applying properly, participating in home study, and attending training — to become licensed to foster.
Let It Be Us is a great place for interested folks to start the journey to becoming a foster (and maybe adoptive) parent in Illinois. Its “Foster Care 101” webinar series, along with a “Foster Ready to Adopt” webinar, answer many questions for those interested in becoming a licensed foster parent.
The organization was founded in 2014 by Susan McConnell, a mother of four including three adopted children. Through her journey, Dr. McConnell recognized the need for additional resources to assist both children and families in the foster care system.
In May of 2023, McConnell told SW Lake that “the children and teens we serve are the most vulnerable. When we provide them with a family, we give them opportunities to have beautiful life-time outcomes.”
To learn more be sure to visit LetItBeUs.org. Coming next month, we look at the GPF Foundation.
SW Lake Lifestyle launches the first in a four-part series of stories about local charities supporting moms and children.