Whatever It Takes

This continues to be a year that juxtaposes joy with worry. When we think we’ve turned a milestone corner in addressing Covid-19, we are confronted with an extremely virulent variant. While we have wanted to celebrate the resilience of our steadfast and caring volunteers, we’ve had to put that on hold until we can gather in person. While we completely pivoted last year to a distance model for all our services, Friends of Children now is embarking on the creation of hybrid approaches: in-person and online volunteer training, in-office work and telecommuting. Nothing, we believe, takes the place of coming together in real time for collaborating,  developing new ideas–and having the grit needed to support at-risk kids.

Despite the seemingly continual need to shift, one constant remains: Friends of Children always champions the needs of vulnerable children and youth who fall through the cracks in our child-welfare system. We remain dedicated to our truth-action-change methodology that has paid dividends in the lives of thousands of children and young people. The hard work accomplished by staff and volunteers is laser focused on one goal: better outcomes for children.

We are enormously excited that Friends of Children will be a recipient of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption’s national Angel in Adoption Award. Nominated by Senator Edward Markey, we will participate in remote festivities later in October. This feels especially gratifying that Friends of Children as a whole is recognized for its many achievements through the years. As the Congressional child advocate who suggested our nomination said, “They are not your typical awardee. They tell it like it is and never give up, all in the service of helping foster kids. Friends of Children works and is highly respected.”

We are grateful. We are joyful. We know the hard work that remains. And we are totally up for it!

With thanks,

Jane Lyons
Executive Director