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   
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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.

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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.”

Workout for Good

Workout for Good

Workout for Good

What an amazing evening. 

On September 22, 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic,  we hosted a virtual exercise class, led by one of the premier trainers in the DMV, Jennifer Blackburn.  Forty five minutes of heart pumping exercise was preceded by a presentation from two former foster youth who have aged out of the child welfare system but were the beneficiaries of assistance from 4Montgomery’s Kids.  One of the speakers who just graduated from medical school discussed how she was able to concentrate on taking her medical exams knowing that we were there to help her out.  The other speaker told us how she was able to get to school and her job when we helped pay for her parking and her car repairs. 

We never imagined that with all the chaos in the world our donors, new and old, would come together to make this one of our most successful fundraisers ever.  More than 80 people took part in this virtual event.  It is not too late to do even more!!

Thank you!

Thank you!

For over five years now and with the generous support of donors like you – THANK YOU SO MUCH! – 4 Montgomery’s Kids has helped close to 700 foster kids in the county’s Child Welfare System. But today these kids are more vulnerable than ever. Their schools, from elementary to college, are closed. They can’t participate in any of their favorite activities. They are even more uncertain about their futures than they ever were. While this is true of all the children in the county, children and youth in foster care are often in particularly precarious situations during this pandemic.
 
Our wonderful social workers are working remotely, still protecting children. We are working with them to be as responsive as we can to their requests for help. Here are just a few recent ones we have answered. We’ve:
 
– bought grocery store cards to help those having trouble getting food since many families are not working
– provided a laptop for a child who moved from one foster home to another in the midst of all this; she needed the laptop to keep up with schoolwork and her computer was at her old school 
– helped cover rent for a youth who is aging out of foster care and lost her job at a hair salon when it closed down
– helped a mother whose car broke down going to work; we paid to get her car fixed after the mechanic gave a reduced rate
– bought Metro cards, including one for a young woman who works as a nursing assistant but doesn’t have enough money to pay for rent, food, and transportation
– sent in deposits for children who want to go to camp this summer to hold their places until we find out if the camp will open
 
Sure, the past few weeks have been challenging for all of us, but foster kids are among the most vulnerable among us. Thank you to all who gave gifts to 4Montogmerys Kids so that we could help during this particularly difficult time

Moving to Independence

Moving to Independence

A high priority for 4MK has been helping youth move towards independence. Each year, with the assistance of Montgomery County social workers, we offer scholarships to a few students who are moving on to higher education after high school. This year, Kayla and Carson were selected and received their awards at the annual foster care family picnic.

Carson is going to community college and is interested in studying information technology. Kayla will be studying nursing.

While both Carson and Kayla will have their tuition covered by federal and state funds, no money was provided for transportation, books, and all the other extra expenses that go with this next stage of life. Without our funds, the full college experience would have been out of reach for these young people. As you can see from the video, Carson and Kayla greatly appreciated our support. We wish them so much luck in this next step in their adventures.

Foster Children Need Summer Camp Too!!

Foster Children Need Summer Camp Too!!

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.”

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If camp can do this for one child, imagine what if can do for thirty-five. With your help we can sponsor even more.

Peewee Football Champions

Peewee Football Champions

The peewee football team that Jeff, a nine year old boy played on, was going to the national championships in Florida. Jeff’s foster parent was unable to afford the cost of this trip and he would have been unable to accompany his team,Due to your generous contributions, 4Montgomery’s Kids was able to pay for his trip and they won the national championship. In his words, “Thank you 4Montgomery’s Kids!!! We could not have done this without you!!!”

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As always, we thank you our supporters for making our work possible. All the money you contribute goes directly towards helping the children as all administrative costs of 4Montgomery’s Kids are absorbed by our board members. We look forward to telling you about additional exciting ways your money has helped and to doubling our efforts in the upcoming year. Please, spread the word about our work and encourage others to support us with donations and house parties where we can bring youth to talk to you about their experiences and how 4Montgomery’s Kids has helped them.