Read the full report to learn more.
Incredible Community Support & Inspiration
2022 TFFC Annual Report Overview
From the President
In this year’s annual report, you will find updates on TFFC programs and their outcomes in 2022, along with stories of inspiration that exemplify that incredible support our community offers youth in foster care. We served 832 foster youth, 646 at-risk or underserved youth, and touched more than 700 families with our programming in 2022. We invested over $900,000 in creating opportunities and environments for children and families to thrive, helping students excel in school, youth improve their health and wellness, teens transition to productive adulthood, and families become more stable. I am also pleased to announce that Tidewater Friends of Foster Care celebrated an important milestone in 2021: June marked the 5th anniversary of our founding. So much has changed since the beginning, when we were Norfolk Friends of Foster Care and served just a few hundred foster children.
The State of Foster Care
In total, more than 7200 youth were involved in the Virginia foster care system throughout the year. Despite increases in the number of youth entering foster care, Families First legislation remains an impactful priority at the state and federal level, allowing for greater preventative services and favoring placement with kinship families.
OUR MISSON
To create opportunities and environments for foster youth and their families to thrive.
OUR VISION
To be the most innovative, valuable and inclusive partner in creating community-based support for youth and families in the foster care system.
Tutoring Updates
Tidewater Friends of Foster Care provides one-on-one, in-home academic support to help foster youth overcome learning gaps caused by family disruption. We hire the very best private tutors that go into the home (or instruct one-on-one via live virtual instructional platforms), so that parents are not required to provide transportation and so that children can establish a healthy studying environment at home. Our tutors are highly-qualified, professional educators, contracted competitively to guarantee that our kids are getting the best tutoring services with accountability and retention—our goal is to ensure that our tutors lend not only to academic progress, but the overall stability of the lives of the children we serve.
Through this program we provide free professional tutoring from Pre-K to College, including vocational studies and GED certification. We offer this service to foster care students while in care and, new this year, throughout the rest of their academic journeys. Yes, we now tutor until our students have completed their academic goals, whether that be a high-school diploma, post-secondary certificate or degree, or graduate studies—TFFC is staying the academic course with them.
How did our students do in the 2021-22 Academic Year?
Foster Care Aware
Foster Care Aware continued to add to its growing library of resources and launched FosterCareAware.org as a place to find it all. New in 2022 was the publication of four new digital resource guides on how to make the most of advocating: 1) for those thinking of fostering, 2) for existing foster parents 3) for social workers and 4) for community volunteers and supporters. With our Foster Care Aware events, our outreach campaign, and digital resource guides we reached nearly 4000 people.
Check out all of our available guides and read up on how you can help.
OUR GOALS
1. To ensure every child has a loving family placement capable of meeting their emotional, physical and psychological needs—through targeted outreach and training initiatives for foster parents.
2. To eliminate placement disruption and systemic recidivism within the foster care system—through comprehensive, on-going support of youth and families across all realms of the child welfare system.
3. To improve long-term outcomes of youth involved in the foster care system—through steadfast and strategic investment in enrichment programs that bridge gaps between publicly available resources and those elements essential to a healthy, happy and rewarding childhood.
Expanding Our YMCA Partnership
We expanded our YMCA partnership this year in several remarkably impactful ways. First, we expanded the age eligibility to include children 3 years and older. Previously our minimum age requirement was 6 years old. The impact of this change was to expand access to the benefits of the YMCA for our foster parents, to promote whole-family wellness. When we look at the factors that lead to placement stability, parent wellness and self-care top the list. Furthermore, in a bold move to help ensure the very best case management for children and families in the foster care system, we opened our YMCA program to our foster care social workers as well. Social workers are the front line responders and principal advocates for vulnerable families and we feel it is important to support and care for them so they can show up with their very best for families in the foster care system. The YMCA has been an incredible partner in helping to underwrite these memberships—showing that they are the “Care” in Foster Care!
The Return of Camps!
Camps of all kinds were in extraordinary demand this year. Through the incredible support of our generous donors, TFFC sponsored 297 camp sessions for 125 campers in 2022. That’s a record-breaking camp season for TFFC and a 20% growth from the previous year. We not only sent children to camps during the summer, but new to the program this year, we also added school’s out camp and winter break camps to the mix.
Gifting Projects
2022 Holiday Project Results
Total Number of Sponsors
Total Foster Youths
At-Risk Youths
Total Number of Wishlists Fufilled In 2022
Developement & Investment
In Fiscal Year 2022, more than 94% of all donations STILL go toward our service programs!
Development
Investment
