Fall 2020 Update

Fall 2020 Update

We are living in a difficult time, one that has forced all of us to rearrange our lives. Children and their families in Montgomery County’s Child Welfare System have been particularly hard hit. In September there were 436 children in foster care in the county.  Additionally, there are children receiving services in 95 homes where, despite a finding of abuse and neglect, the situation was not deemed serious enough to place the children into foster care.

The 4MK board continues to partner with social workers in Child Welfare to help. We have been concentrating on families and, particularly, on older foster youth as they move ahead with their lives. The state of Maryland also is focusing on the hardships these young adults face. Maryland is now allowing them to stay in the foster care system for an extra six months, even when they would have aged out at twenty one. This will affect eleven young adults.  But so many of them still need services, including help with rent, support for transportation to school and jobs, and money for basic living needs, and we can help with some of these. 

Here are just a handful of requests Montgomery County social workers asked us to fill in the last six months. We were able to fill all of them because of your support:

Helping with housing costs for ten older youth moving into their first apartments

  • Purchasing fourteen Chromebooks to assist with online learning
  • Awarding nine college scholarships for youth graduating from high school
  • Paying for transportation so a mother could visit her daughter in preparation for reunification
  • Buying a large dining room table for an aunt who had four foster kids placed with her in addition to her own already large family. Now they can all eat together
  • Purchasing bunk beds for four children who now live with relatives after they were removed from their parents’ home
  • Providing special camps and gym activities for foster children whose camps were closed due to Covid-19   
N

Let us introduce to you some young people your contributions have helped:

N is a young woman just leaving the foster care system. She loves graphic design and is a self-taught artist. Her designs for filters were recently accepted by Instagram. 4MK, through your donations, bought her a MacBook, the key tool she needs to pursue both her education and her passion for graphic art.

J

J is a kind and resilient young person preparing to move into her first apartment. She has completed two semesters at Montgomery College in addition to having finished her Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) degree. She currently is focused on working and saving money. With your contributions, 4MK helped pay her rent, and J now is managing her expenses and looking forward to being on her own.

And here is how L expressed her thanks for 4MK:

 “I am a youth in foster care and I had the support of 4Montgomery’s Kids. They helped me when I was pregnant and needed baby supplies. I am thankful because I was not working because of COVID, and did not have anything for my baby. They helped me a lot.”

Over 550 in 5 years!

Over 550 in 5 years!

More than 550 in less than five years! That is how many children and youth have been helped by 4Montgomery’s Kids (4MK) and we can’t thank you enough! In 2015, 4Montgomery’s Kids began this incredible journey of helping Montgomery County’s neediest children and youth receive the goods and services other children get. 4MK provides funding for:

  • extracurricular activities such as summer camp, gym memberships, art classes and sports; 
  • educational support including books, computers and tuition;
  • assistance with rent, security deposits and furniture for youth transitioning out of foster care;
  • help with transportation, including gas cards, metro cards, drivers education and car repairs;
  • job support with the focus on vocational training, uniforms and work clothes;
  • other targeted areas such as gift cards for special occasions, prom attire, clothing and family support. 

The graph is a breakdown of the way your funds have been allocated. 

Get to Know our Social Workers

This month we are saluting the social workers in the Transitioning Youth Services Unit, headed by Shari Zouhairi. These social workers develop and implement plans for youth who must leave the Child Welfare system at age twenty-one. The youth they work with have some of the greatest challenges facing children in the child welfare system.  The workers in this unit help these young people navigate among other things finding jobs, affordable housing and higher education.   They often ask 4MK to support these youth by providing money for housing deposits, transportation expenses, clothing for interviews, and books and laptops for school.
 
Most recently a social worker from this unit asked 4MK to help with the security deposit for a girl who is aging out of the system.  The girl was working and could pay the monthly rent but did not have the outlay for the security deposit. Keeping this girl from homelessness is but one of the miracles performed by the amazing workers in this unit.
 
Our hats are off to these dedicated workers who work so hard to help put these young people on the path to a successful future.  It is our great pleasure to help them do their jobs.

Fall 2018 Update

Fall 2018 Update

“I want to thank you all at Montgomery Kids for all the help. When I was down on the floor, you all came to help and stretched your hand.”

These are the words of a young person we have helped . There are over 400 children who have been removed from their homes because of child abuse and neglect. These children suffer trauma from the circumstances that led to foster care. They are grieving for the home and people they left. They are the focus of our work

4Montgomery’s Kids (formerly Montgomery’s Kids) is a local nonprofit agency that helps Montgomery County’s most vulnerable children and youth. 4MK supplements what children who have experienced abuse and neglect, those in the Child Welfare system, receive from the state and county services. Resources we provide help normalize a child’s life experiences, and help youth transitioning out of foster care find housing, jobs, and other resources. We help create a brighter future for these children.

We need your help to continue this work




A few of those young people wrote:

“I just wanted to thank you Montgomery’s Kids. I appreciated everything. If it was not for you guys helping me with the cost for Certified Medication Technician (CMT), I wouldn’t have my current job. I appreciate it sincerely. Y’all are the best!”

“Through the 4Montgomery Kids Program, I received funding for meals when I served as a Student Page for the Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis. Thank you 4Montgomery Kids for your generosity to youth in foster care.”🍔🍟🍕🌮

pastedImage.png
“Thank you so very much for helping me out with school and buying me a laptop. I’m a college student and it’s very much appreciated. “💻🖥🖨

From July 2017 to July 2018 (our last fiscal year) 4MK provided assistance to 122 children. Since July, we have helped an additional 45 children. We supplemented their educations with college books, computers and money for extracurricular activities. This summer we sent 40 children to summer camp. Young people transitioning out of foster care received security deposits, furniture, food, gift cards, and work clothes.


Social workers also have told us how children benefit greatly from the opportunities and services you helped us provide.
“I am so thankful for Montgomery’s Kids who has poured out opportunity time and time again for current and former youth in foster care to succeed toward self-sufficiency. They have blessed youth with financial support for higher education pathway for college/vocational training, housing and employment stability, and personal health care. Personally, it has been especially challenging to locate funds for emancipated youth; however, Montgomery’s Kids has been a tremendous source of help and hope when the need arises. The state needs more organization like them.”

gettyimages-624880084-170x170.jpg
“Providing assistance for “things” has enabled many of my clients to achieve a sense of normalcy in their anything but normal lives. 4Montgomery Kids paid for a parking pass at University of Maryland while one of my clients was a student commuter, bought a new Ipad for a hearing impaired client and purchased gym memberships for several of my clients — and that’s just a few ways 4Montgomery kids helps make a difference in one life at a time!!!”

Spring 2018 News

Spring 2018 News

Spring is here and with it comes our new name, 4Montgomery’s Kids. All your generous support goes for the children and youth in our county who have been abused and neglected.
 
Spring also brings news of our efforts during the past few months. We do this though our wonderful partnership with the amazing County’s Child Protective Services (CWS) social workers who have been passionate advocates for the children with whom they work, and of course you our wonderful donors.
 
Summer Camp
We are particularly excited to be sending more than 35 children to summer camp this year. Summer camp can change a child’s life in so many ways. As a social worker told us: “this young lady had a number of issues, including an inability to make friends. She went to camp, gained confidence, tried new activities, made friends and her mother reported that she came home a completely different kid and, subsequently did extremely well in school in the fall, had a group of friends, and the family has not been involved with CWS again.” 
 
If camp can do this for one child, imagine what if can do for thirty-five. With your help we can sponsor even more.
 
New Projects
 In addition to our ongoing efforts such as funding transportation for a parent living out of state to visit her children, books for college classes, a costume for dance class and gift cards for food for a youth living on his own who was going hungry, we are pleased to announce our new ventures.

• Together with the Jewish Council for Aging and other community partners we are exploring housing in Montgomery County for young people transitioning out of foster care at age 21. The high cost of rent in the county makes it extremely hard for these youth to find local housing. Our
dream is to establish intergenerational housing where young people and seniors can live side by side and assist each other.

• We are partnering with Interfaith Works to provide mentors to youth transitioning out of foster care. Mentors work with these youth to provide guidance and to help them develop the skills they need to live on their own. If you would like to be a mentor please contact us at [email protected].