How Let It Be Us Recruits Foster Parents: A High-Performance, Technology-Driven Approach

How Let It Be Us Recruits Foster Parents: A High-Performance, Technology-Driven Approach

Recruiting foster parents is not outreach – it is systems work. At Let It Be Us, foster home recruitment is a disciplined, high-performance process designed to identify, engage, educate, and prepare the right families for the complex and meaningful work of foster care. We don’t simply generate interest; we build readiness. Our recruitment model ensures that when a prospective foster parent is referred to a partner agency, they are informed, supported, and prepared to move forward with confidence.

Think of Let It Be Us as an agency’s entire foster home recruitment workflow integrated into one platform.

Foster Parent Sourcing: A Modern Recruitment Engine

Let It Be Us operates as a large-scale, intelligent foster parent recruitment engine. We design recruitment campaigns that reach individuals at every stage of the foster care journey – from those just beginning to explore foster care, to licensed foster parents seeking a better-fit agency, to professionals uniquely suited for complex placements.

Our sourcing strategy integrates multi-channel digital marketing, including:

• Social media platforms tailored to distinct audiences
• Blogs and articles for publications
• Our forward facing recruitment website
• Community-based outreach
• Targeted messaging informed by behavioral and demographic insights

Different populations consume information differently. Our expertise across platforms allows us to deploy custom, hyper-specific campaigns that scale efficiently while remaining personal and mission-driven.

Nurturing with Expertise: Where Recruitment Becomes Readiness

Nurturing is the heart of our recruitment work. Our Foster Home Recruiters are not call-center staff – they are subject matter experts in foster care, trauma, and medical, emotional, and behavioral complexity. Many are licensed, experienced foster parents themselves; many have adopted through foster care.

We invest in one-on-one engagement with each prospective foster parent to assess:

• Motivation and intent
• Capacity and readiness
• Strengths, limitations, and placement preferences

This front-end expertise saves partner agencies significant time and resources by ensuring that referrals are thoughtful, informed, and aligned. Our recruitment technology supports seamless scheduling, documentation, and follow-up – so no opportunity is lost.

Education-Driven Recruitment

Education is one of our most powerful recruitment tools. Let It Be Us offers live and on-demand educational webinars and virtual events, allowing prospective foster parents to deepen their understanding before entering the licensing process.

These educational opportunities:

• Increase retention and preparedness
• Reduce early attrition
• Connect recruits with expert voices across child welfare

Education transforms curiosity into commitment – and commitment into successful foster care.

Outbound Recruiting: Meeting Urgency with Action

High-performance recruitment requires more than waiting for inquiries. Let It Be Us pairs strong inbound interest with robust outbound recruiting. We follow up quickly, consistently, and thoughtfully using integrated systems that ensure every prospective foster parent receives timely engagement.

Our workflows are designed to ensure that no inquiry falls through the cracks, and no potential foster parent feels overlooked.

People Data: CRM and Applicant Tracking Systems

Let It Be Us leverages advanced Recruitment Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to build and manage targeted recruitment pipelines over time. This allows us to:

• Track engagement and readiness
• Nurture prospects longitudinally
• Maintain accurate, current, and secure data

Our systems are HIPAA-compliant, ensuring privacy, security, and trust at every stage of engagement.

Recruitment Website Built for SEO and AIO

Our website is not informational – it is purpose-built for foster parent recruitment. Every page is written and structured to attract, educate, and convert prospective foster parents using best-in-class Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO).

We continuously adapt to emerging technologies and search behaviors so that individuals seeking to make a difference – especially those with experience in trauma, healthcare, education, or mental health – find Let It Be Us at the moment they are searching.

Final Wrap-Up: Why Let It Be Us Leads Foster Home Recruitment

Foster home recruitment is not about volume – it is about precision, preparation, and partnership. Volume follows the hard work. Let It Be Us leads this work by combining human expertise with modern technology, education with urgency, and data with deep compassion. Our approach strengthens agencies, supports families, and – most importantly – creates better outcomes for children who need safe, stable homes. When recruitment is done right, permanency follows.

About Let It Be Us:
Let It Be Us is a nonprofit organization dedicated to recruitment, matching and placement within foster care and adoption across the State of Illinois. Through innovative programming and strategic partnerships, Let It Be Us aims to improve outcomes for children in the child welfare system. Learn more at www.letitbeus.org.

Dr. Susan A. McConnell, DSW, MBA

Dr. Susan A. McConnell is the Founder and Executive Director of Let It Be Us, an Illinois licensed child welfare agency with the mission of providing collaborative, innovative solutions of effective recruitment and placement within Illinois foster care and adoption. Susan has an MBA from DePaul University and a Doctorate Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California, where her work focused on permanency within child welfare.  She is the Chair of the Permanency Committee of the Illinois Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council, appointed by the Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in 2017. She is also an adoptive parent with over 30 years of open adoption experience. She can be reached at susanmcconnell@letitbeus.org.

Let It Be Us is an Illinois 501(c)3 and licensed child welfare agency. The mission of Let It Be Us is to provide collaborative, innovative solutions of effective recruitment and placement within Illinois foster care and adoption. The Let It Be Us platform manages the Adoption Listing Service of Illinois and the Heart Gallery of Illinois, engines of success for Illinois foster care adoptions. The Let It Be Us vision is for all children in the Illinois child welfare system to achieve educational equity, employment equity, and overall well being through the incorporation of Let It Be Us Programming into statewide advancements in foster care and adoption recruitment and placement. For more information about Let It Be Us, visit www.letitbeus.org.