The Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation Supports the Unmet Needs of Local Children in Foster and State Care

Children’s Guardian Fund is grateful for the recent grant that it received from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation.  The $100,000 grant  comes at a time of increasing need. Since 2015, our area has seen the rate of removals double with an average of 70-80 local children being adjudicated dependent by the courts every month.  As of October 2018, there were 1,335 dependent children in the 12th Judicial Circuit. Despite the efforts of the 515 Guardian ad Litem volunteers, over 280 children do not have a voice.
 
The generous grant is going to allow the Children’s Guardian Fund to expand its Normalcy and Enrichment programs and to support the retention of the 515 certified case volunteers as well as the recruitment efforts of the Guardian ad Litem Program.
 
“We partner with the Guardian ad Litem Program to support the needs of children and young adults in foster and state care that fall outside of the daily needs, such as food and shelter, but are just as essential to a child’s social and emotional well-being,” said Executive Director, Svetlana Kaminsky. “This includes school uniforms and clothing, academic tutoring, soccer cleats, summer camps, after school programs, and more.”