Children's Home and Aid

As a leading Illinois family- and child-service agency, Children’s Home + Aid serves more than 40,000 children and families each year through its child-development and -care programs, family counseling, and foster-care-advocacy programs. The organization's roots extend back to 1883, when the Reverend Van Arsdale brought into his home a young girl whose mother was in crisis. The minister's umbrella of care soon spread throughout the country, where he established advisory boards that evolved into regional boards that now help shape public policy for child welfare. Children's Home + Aid focuses on early childhood and juvenile justice, preventing child abuse, and garnering positive child development in strong families.

The organization's Adult Connections program pairs foster youth reaching the age of emancipation with supportive adult mentors who help them increase their independent living skills, as well as provide them with a positive adult relationship. Each year, roughly 30,000 of the 463,000 children in foster care throughout the United States age out of the foster-care system. By lending their time to guide these youth, adults can help to prevent homelessness, food insecurity, and unemployment.