Even prior to Covid, All For Family realized a need for a permanent location for our supervised family visits that would be family friendly, have toys on hand, and provide a nice, quiet, private location for family visits. With Covid, other than outdoor parks, which was also hit or miss with playgrounds and restrooms being closed at most of them, public venues were no longer an option for visits. For a while, virtual visits were the only option families had, but it was quickly realized how much in person visits were needed to provide optimum family bonding time and experiences, particularly since siblings separated in care were having little to no contact with one another.
With this mind, All For Family received a small grant to lease a small office space in Hillsboro. Therefore, in June of 2020 we launched our first permanent supervised visit location. Though this is only large enough for one family visit at a time, it served a wonderful purpose during the time we needed it most.
Since this time, however, we have added on more families, and our evening and weekend visit time slots are close to being full. In order to keep growing and to continue to serve as many families as possible, our need to expand to a larger location is imperative.
We have found a building for lease in Pevely that would not only allow us to double the number of families we can serve at one time for visits, but also allow us to finally begin our indoor playground that would be free for all foster children, and which also has another room perfect for private birthday parties. In addition, this space has two newly remodeled, handicap accessible restrooms, as well as a very large upstairs we can use for our toy/educational lending library, along with the ability to store other foster care necessities, such as luggage, formula, clothing, etc.
The lease for this building is, of course, more than our current space, and would also include an increase to our liability insurance. The ability to do the majority of our project goals all under one roof, though, gives us the ability to impact potentially hundreds of lives for foster children and families in Jefferson and neighboring counties.
To make such a move possible, we have a goal to raise $50,000. This amount would help us cover the lease and insurance for the first year, purchase some of the needed equipment, and hopefully help us finally hire a part-time administrative support person, who would also help oversee the indoor playground when open. This sounds like a very large goal, but, did you know that if 2,000 people gave a one time gift of $25, we would reach our goal. Broken down in this fashion, this goal is certainly attainable, but we need your help. If everyone who reads this blog could recruit at least 5 people, businesses, or churches to give $25 each, we could well be on our way toward meeting our goal. Donations can be made through our https://www.allforfamily.net website. We realize Covid has impacted so many lives and businesses, and we have no desire to cause a hardship for anyone. For those who are unable to help, simply sharing this with others who might be able to help would be a true blessing as well. Once our indoor playground/birthday party venue is fully established, we also have the potential of generating income from the general public that will help offset future expenses. We need those who have a heart for foster care, and who believe in our cause to help us get there and finally help us make this vision a reality. We invite you to embark on this exciting journey of change in Jefferson County, and to help be a part of a legacy for our children we are about to create. Always remember, one person can make a difference! Let change begin with you!