Imagine being a 37 year old single lady, going through your day to day life, never having had children and receiving a phone call…the Department of Child Safety is calling to say that your THREE teenage nieces and nephews, one of whom has special needs, are in an unsafe environment and need a home – will you #StandUp and help? She’s never been a parent, she’s scared of the new 24/7 responsibilities, multiplied by three, but how could she say anything other than “YES!”?
Imagine being a grandfather, recently retired, living on social security, you’ve just modified your lifestyle – moving into a smaller apartment, cutting expenses wherever possible to try and make the best of your retirement years. The phone call comes, your daughter has made mistakes, your two grandchildren are in need of a safe place – what will you do? Much of the joy of grand parenting comes from being able to enjoy the good times and not be responsible every single day for decision making, discipline, family meals, etc. BUT how could you say anything but “I’ll change my life to make it work because they are my family”?
These are the people who walk in the door of Arizona Helping Hands every day of the week. These are the heroes who make that decision, who say, “Bring them to me, I will give them love, I will keep them safe”.
Arizona Helping Hands tries to make the struggles of foster families just a little bit easier by providing beds and cribs to give new children placed in foster care a SAFE PLACE TO SLEEP. We provide clothing, diapers and personal care packages to ease some of the financial burdens of unexpected additional family members. We provide birthday and holiday gifts to offset the fact that non-licensed foster homes can receive a whopping $22.50 per year per child for special occasion expenses. We know how important it is to celebrate a child’s birthday, to put gifts under the Christmas tree, to let these kids know that they matter and that others care about them.
It’s not an easy task by any means, it takes courage and fortitude to be a parent under “normal”, “planned” circumstances. Becoming a parent in a moment, choosing to foster a child who has experienced trauma, disruption and other issues often requires so much more. That’s why Arizona Helping Hands does everything it can to help children in foster care. We are motivated to make lives easier for these kids AND to support the amazing individuals who choose to become that ONE CARING ADULT for a child in need.
Imagine being a 4 year old child, sleeping in the park with your two younger siblings and your mom who is trying to avoid the Department of Child Safety. They’re trying to locate her after she’s relapsed once again into a life of drug dependency. Imagine what would happen if there wasn’t a CARING ADULT to step in and provide for those children. I choose not to use my imagination answering that question. Instead, at Arizona Helping Hands we chose to do everything we can to lend our Helping Hands to the families that are created to care for children who are the victims of adult decisions.
Foster parents are such an underappreciated asset to our community. At Arizona Helping Hands, we #StandUp and support them!
We are always in need of gently used children’s clothing, new games, books and toys, as well as birthday wrappings and party decorations. We utilize volunteers throughout the year and are a Qualifying Foster Care Organization for Arizona tax credit purposes. Our FACEBOOK page is one of the most active charity social media pages in Arizona. Find out more about Who We Are, What We Do and HOW YOU CAN HELP at www.azhelpinghands.org.
Dan Shufelt, CPA
President and CEo,
Arizona Helping Hands, Inc.
