Families Helping Families

Shoe Voucher Program: Through collaboration with the Kiwanis Club of Cedar Rapids and other community organizations, children in foster care were eligible to receive one new pair of shoes through our Shoe Voucher Program. This is for children in foster care ages 4-18 years old. We updated the program requirements and better served our clients by upping our shoe voucher amount and offering children two brand-new pairs of shoes a year through our partnership with Kiwanis and Kohl's. We now offer $50 for ages 4-7, and two new pairs of shoes at their local Kohl's. $75 for children 8-18 years of age for two brand new pairs of shoes at their local Kohls. Last fiscal year we gave out over 708 shoe vouchers to children in foster care across Iowa.

Spread Your Wings: Spread Your Wings is our scholarship program so kids can participate in extracurricular activities. We believe children who engage in athletic activities, music, dance, or similar pursuits develop self-confidence and establish meaningful relationships. This scholarship program is for ages 2-18. Children can sign up for music lessons, dances, sports, and camps. FHF covers membership fees, apparel, and any equipment needed. Each child receives a $500 scholarship for their chosen activities; FHF gave out 255 scholarships this fiscal year, and exceeded our budgeted amount of $25,000 and ended with $31,000.

Clothing Closet: Our Clothing Closet is open and free for families to bring their foster children in to shop for any season. Children in foster care move an average of seven times before the age of 18 and leave their temporary homes abruptly. FHF helps with these transitions and provides families with the essentials that a child may need. Our Clothing Closet provides diapers, wipes, car seats, high chairs, and clothes for ages infant-18 years of age. This fiscal year, our Clothing The closet was utilized more than 1,000 times for caregivers and families to shop.

Back-to-School Rally: A Back-to-School Rally is held each year for our children in foster care to help them prepare and be ready to go back to school and achieve academic success. This fiscal year, FHF served over 375 children for our Back-To-School Rally.

Senior Celebration/Senior Photos: With a graduation rate for foster children of only 52%, FHF takes time to celebrate our seniors through our Senior Celebration. FHF helps with party décor and sends congratulations with a card for this special occasion. Last fiscal year FHF helped 20 seniors celebrate this milestone.

Happy Birthday Bundles: Continuing with the celebrations, to show our appreciation for our children in foster care, FHF put together Happy Birthday Bundles that included party décor, cake for making, and cake accessories needed to bake the cake. This fiscal year, we helped 100 children in foster care celebrate their birthdays.

Soaring Towards Success: Due to the instability of our children moving homes and their traumatic experiences, school often falls behind. We offer a tutoring program aimed at helping these kids in their academic journey and completion of high school. We get these children one-on-one attention for school topics with a tutor in their area. FHF assisted 21 children in this program this fiscal year.

Outer Country Clothing Closet: FHF added a new partnership with Goodwill of the Heartland. We extended our Clothing Closet Services through a program called OCCC (Outer County Clothing Closet), where each child can apply to receive $30 shopping vouchers for their local Goodwill. The participating locations are Bettendorf, Burling, Clinton, Davenport, Fairfield, Keokuk, Muscatine, and Washington Iowa. We assisted over 300 families and children with their clothing options if they were too far away from our Cedar Rapids location to come in and shop in our Clothing Closet.