Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation Makes Grant Possible

Brenda Todd, Chapter Director for Safe Families for Children
DuPage/Kane/and Kendall Counties

AURORA, IL, USA, May 31, 2024. The Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation—an organization which seeks to reimagine female empowerment through supporting programs offered by Aurora-area nonprofits—has awarded a grant to Safe Families for Children to help support its program to keep children safe and, ultimately, together with their families.

“We see the incredible value of Safe Families for Children’s work to deflect the need for foster care, while strengthening families so they can better handle life’s difficulties,” said Amy Baudouin, Board Chair, Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation (AWEF). “Their program is very thoughtfully administered using compassionate host family volunteers who open their homes to children from families in crisis and work collaboratively with other volunteers to help biological parents keep their children and create safe home environments.”

Amy Baudouin, Board Chair

Brenda Todd

“Our clients are mainly single mothers who are trying to juggle caring for children, work, daycare, and school requirements, all without the social connections and positive relationships to help support them,” said Brenda Todd, Chapter Director for Safe Families for Children DuPage/Kane/and Kendall Counties. “We are committed to help these women overcome their obstacles and find the support they need to be the best mom and provider they can, which in turn helps to support our community.”

Parents voluntarily place their children with safe, loving, and screened volunteer host families where they are cared for, while additional volunteers help parents restore stability in their lives. Safe Families strives to meet three objectives 1) prevent child abuse by providing safe, temporary homes for children from families in crisis, 2) support and stabilize families in crisis by providing mentoring and referrals to appropriate resources, and 3) deflect children from entering the child welfare system by keeping healthy families intact and reunifying children with their parents.

Many hosts work part or full-time. Children they care for are provided with daycare when needed. Donations and grants help cover these daycare costs. In addition to volunteering as a host family, there are other ways volunteers can get involved in the Safe Families for Children mission.

“We offer special trainings designed to equip you to welcome a child into your home as a ‘Host Family’ or support a host or family in need as a ‘Family Friend’ and move you through the training process most efficiently,” said Brenda Todd. “We provide all the training needed to become a certified Safe Families’ Volunteer.”

Safe Families offers Core/Family Friend training (an overview of Safe Families and Family Friend training – also known as Host part 1 training) and Host training (Host part 2 training). Those interested can register for either Zoom trainings or live in-person trainings. Each training session is about 2 hours long. Click here to receive specific information about Safe Families’ volunteer onboarding.

For those in the Aurora area interested in learning how they can be a part of the Safe Families community as a donor or volunteer, please contact Brenda Todd at btodd@safefamilies.net.

Additional information about Safe Families for Children’s work can be found on their website.

About…

The Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation mission is to elevate and empower Aurora-area women and future women by making grants to tax-exempt nonprofits engaged in meaningful, measurable work that helps women over the hurdles of inequity and exclusion, propelling them forward with life-changing programs and services.  For more information about grants made by AWEF, including our grant guidelines and online application, visit awe-foundation.org.

Safe Families for Children is a nonprofit, volunteer movement that gives hope and support. In 2003, the Safe Families for Children movement began in Chicago. Our goal then and now is to engage families via faith communities to open their homes to care for vulnerable children.

Since then, we’ve had nearly 7,000 children placed into 1,400 Host Family homes. We currently have more than 1,200 Host Families opening their homes to more than 1,000 children each year in the Chicagoland area. Seventy-five percent of children placed are under the age of 6 years old. Over 90% of the kids return to their parents or a relative that is identified to take over.

The Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS) in Illinois is our largest referral source. We are also referred to by our local police, hospitals, schools, agencies, and parents themselves. Learn more here.