With approximately 117,000 kids awaiting adoption in the U.S. foster care system, it is always a good time to bring awareness to the need for loving forever families to open their hearts and homes and change the lives of these vulnerable children and teens. This month is National Foster Care Month, and the theme is “Strengthening Minds. Uplifting Families.” This year’s theme aims to educate the public about taking a holistic approach to the mental and behavioral health of U.S. foster children.
After being traumatized by experiencing abuse and neglect, kids awaiting adoption face additional, unintended consequences while in the foster care system. Foster children and teens move an average of three times a year, preventing the opportunity to build consistent, loving relationships with caregivers. Moving often means changing schools, so they lose the support of caring teachers, the joy of friendships, and an estimated six months of academic progress for every school disruption. With so much loss, it is understandable that up to 80% of children in foster care have significant mental health issues compared to approx. 18-22% of their peers (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2019).
Undoubtedly, children and youth in foster care urgently need their mental health needs prioritized, including access to the necessary healthcare and addressing the need for stable, loving relationships. For kids awaiting adoption in foster care, relational permanency is crucial to healing. At Building Arizona Families, we believe one of the most important components for healing from complex trauma is a loving, stable family and safe home providing the sense of family, belonging, and identity that foster children and youth urgently need.
Building Arizona Families offers convenient, informative online seminars if you live in Arizona and are interested in discovering more about U.S. kids awaiting adoption. You can find the most current schedule and RSVP on our Facebook page HERE or reach out directly to Ixcel Baca, Forever Families program manager, for information. Call Ixcel at (623) 696-9537 or e-mail her at ixcelbaca@buildingarizonafamilies.com. You can also find additional foster child adoption information HERE.
Thank you for considering opening your heart and home to a foster child who urgently needs the love and healing that your safe and loving home provides. We look forward to serving you on your adoption journey!
A Note From the President
Meet “T”! Through a generous corporate sponsorship from 
Meet Building Arizona Families, Arizona’s leading adoption agency and our first Champion’s Champion Sponsor! Building Arizona Families helps families around the U.S. adopt newborn babies. They also provide adoption services for Arizona families to adopt foster children around the country. Additionally, they help U.S. families adopt children from Haiti. Building Arizona Families is a non-profit, licensed, and internationally accredited adoption agency founded by one woman who was adopted herself and another woman who has adopted three children. We are grateful for their generous support in sponsoring SIX U.S. orphans whose lives will be forever changed by Building Arizona Families and their tax deductible donation. Find out more about this wonderful adoption agency at 
Meet Dr. John and Dinah Hodgson. The Hodgsons have been making a difference in the lives of vulnerable children for decades, both in the U.S. and around the world. They have served in orphanages and ministered hope to HIV positive children and teenagers, and taught school children in remote villages in Africa.
John and Dinah are located in Ohio, and became the first sponsors for children in the St. Joseph’s Orphanage. When asked if they could sponsor an orphan in Ohio, their response was, “How could we not help?”. We are so grateful for the Hodgson’s championing a U.S. orphan’s opportunity to learn to play music!
There are so many ways for individuals to help change the lives of foster children.
Choose a child or children to sponsor for a year. You can choose to cover the costs of the child’s instrument and lessons, just the lessons, or just the instrument with our music charity. You can also choose to give to the area of greatest need when helping kids with All Kids Need Music. You can make a single gift or a monthly recurring gift. And remember, it changes childrens’ lives and is tax deductible as an additional benefit to you. Please visit us 
Businesses that sponsor music lessons and instrument rental for at risk youth are first and foremost changing the lives of the most vulnerable children in the U.S. As a thank you for the generosity of our business partners, our music charity All Kids Need Music provides an effective platform for businesses to build their brand around their corporate generosity.
Research proves that corporations that give back have a significantly higher brand appeal and loyalty rate. Corporations engaged in social good also positively impact their own employees at work satisfaction and company loyalty. Being a champion for at-risk youth provides the opportunity for employees to stay in touch with their sponsored child, providing a source of joy and sense of being cared about for children who in many instances have been terribly abused and discarded. Please visit us 
