Let It Be Us is an Illinois licensed Child Welfare Agency and 501(c)3 founded in 2014. Our innovative solutions for recruitment, matching and placement is collaborative and innovative.
Foster Care and Adoption Recruitment and Placement Referrals for Illinois Child Welfare Agencies and DCFS
This Adoption Listing Service of Illinois operates statewide and is managed by Let It Be Us, an Illinois licensed child welfare agency. Illinois child welfare professions are mandated to list a child in need of an adoptive resource with the Adoption Listing Service of Illinois and we are here to help you maintain compliance.
Let It Be Us also manages the Heart Gallery of Illinois, a child-specific recruitment tool featuring children’s images and narratives.
To register youth with the Adoption Listing Service of Illinois, please click HERE complete the forms below, and submit them to the Adoption Listing Service Team at adoptionlistingservice@letitbeus.org. If you have questions, please use that email or call us at 800-572-2390.
For Caseworkers, Adoption Professionals, and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
Let It Be Us is a licensed child welfare agency specializing in foster care and adoption recruitment and placement throughout Illinois. We invite caseworkers, adoption professionals, and CASA advocates to refer adoption-eligible or sub-care pending cases in need of an adoptive resource directly to us. Referrals can be made by completing our online referral form HERE.
We welcome referrals for cases open to concurrent planning, including those with a primary goal of independence but where adoption remains a possibility. Let It Be Us maintains a proprietary and comprehensive database of pre-screened families and individuals including those specifically open to adopting teens, older youth, and children with complex medical or behavioral needs. We actively recruit families who are equipped, prepared, and eager to provide permanent, loving homes to children who need them most.
Together, we can help ensure every child has the opportunity to grow up in a safe and supportive family environment.
Our Open Home Navigator Platform offers placement resources swiftly and effectively, locating appropriate and open foster homes for youth in emergent need and those who are challenging to place. This program thoughtfully identifies critical homes rapidly, sometimes in minutes and hours, rather than days, weeks, or not at all. Our Open Home Navigator is used by investigators and caseworkers needing to make placements quickly for agencies managing group homes with youth in need of step-down placement resources and for Emergency Foster Care, Therapeutic Foster Care, Specialized Foster Care, and Traditional Foster Care. . Workers at private agencies utilize this program (POS agencies) as well as DCFS. Our mobile-friendly platform is available 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Monday-Friday.
To utilize our Foster Placement Referral Program, complete THIS FORM.
Our Foster Placement Referral Program’s Open Home Navigator Platform operates via:
- Our proprietary database of 1,000+ Illinois licensed foster homes
- Technology driven search tools based on demographics and location
- Geo mapping technology used to locate homes within zip code radius – FAST
- Illinois Waiting Children’s Gallery on our website
- Publications – reaching thousands – Wednesday’s Waiting Children distributed multiple times each week
Our Foster Placement Referral Program provides faster and stronger placements, improves permanency, alleviates shelter capacity, alleviates congregate care capacity, and alleviates strain on Child Welfare Agency and DCFS staff.
To learn more about this program, please contact Vanessa Baie, Director of Child Welfare Services at vanessabaie@letitbeus.org or Susan McConnell, Executive Director, at susanmcconnell@letitbeus.org.
Foster Home Recruitment Program
Our Foster Home Recruitment Program contracts with partner Child Welfare Agencies to recruit homes for Emergency, Specialized, Traditional, and Therapeutic foster care. The Program operates with live events and Zoom webinars almost weekly, recruiting homes for teens, sibling groups, behavioral special needs, medical special needs, and more. Each recruited home is assisted at point of entry by a licensing coach, vetting the family/home, helping them navigate the system, and identifying the right agency and making direct referrals. The goal is to improve diligent recruitment efforts by increasing the number of licensed foster homes with the type of homes that are needed. Our diligent recruitment efforts embrace special needs.
To learn more about this Program and consider contracting with Let It Be Us for your foster home recruitment needs, contact Cathy Newbury, Director of Foster Care Recruitment at cathynewbury@letitbeus.org.
Special Needs Child Placement & Recruitment Program
Our Special Needs Child Placement & Recruitment Program focuses on providing permanency for youth with special needs and medical complexities, including those experiencing Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and more. This program includes a partnership with Northwestern University Family Care Parenting Lab and is managed by a team focused on recruitment of new and licensed homes welcoming youth with special needs, as well as matching and placement. The program also offers support for placement retention.
To learn more about the program, please contact Erin Janssens at erinjanssens@letitbeus.org.