Let It Be Us Launches Foster Home Recruitment Pilot with Arden Shore Child and Family Services

Let It Be Us is proud to announce the launch of a new foster home recruitment pilot program in partnership with Arden Shore Child and Family Services, a longstanding Illinois child welfare agency located in Waukegan, Illinois. Arden Shore is dedicated to strengthening families and supporting children across the state.

Through this pilot, Let It Be Us will recruit:

• Traditional foster homes to support children and youth in the Northern Region of Illinois. 

This partnership reflects a shared belief: children with complex needs deserve families who are not only willing – but deeply prepared.

Why This Pilot Matters

Illinois has more than 16,000 children and youth in foster care at any given time [1]. Many of these children have experienced trauma, disruption, or multiple placements. Research consistently shows that placement stability is directly connected to permanency outcomes and long-term well-being [2].

Recruitment is not simply about increasing numbers.
It is about identifying families with the right capacity, training, and support to care for children whose needs are anything but generic.

That is precisely what this pilot with Arden Shore is designed to do.

How Let It Be Us Recruits Foster Parents

A High-Performance, Technology-Driven Approach

Recruiting foster parents at Let It Be Us is more than outreach – it’s a high-performance, systems-driven process that identifies, educates, and prepares the right families for foster care.

We don’t just generate interest.
We build readiness.

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:

• Individuals just beginning to explore foster care
• Licensed foster parents seeking a better-fit agency
• Professionals uniquely suited for complex placements
• Experienced caregivers ready for complex roles with sibling groups

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

• Social media platforms tailored to distinct audiences
• Blogs and publication-based articles
• A forward-facing, conversion-focused recruitment website built with strong SEO and Artificial Intelligence (AI) optimization
• 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.

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 so:

• No inquiry falls through the cracks
• No potential foster parent feels overlooked
• No opportunity for a child is lost

Urgency matters in foster care. When a child needs a home, time is not theoretical – it is immediate.

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
• Monitor recruitment performance metrics

Our systems ensure privacy, security, and trust at every stage of engagement.

This infrastructure saves partner agencies significant time and resources by ensuring referrals are thoughtful, informed, and aligned before they enter the licensing process.

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. We recruit continuously, offering on-demand educational webinars 24/7 so that learning and exploration can happen when families are ready.

These educational opportunities:

• Increase retention and preparedness
• Reduce early attrition
• Connect recruits with expert voices across child welfare
• Clarify expectations around trauma, attachment, and behavioral health

Research indicates that pre-service preparation and clarity of expectations are associated with improved placement stability and caregiver retention [3].

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

Human Expertise at the Center

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 or bring lived experience.

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

• Motivation and intent
• Capacity and readiness
• Strengths and limitations
• Placement preferences
• Comfort with traditional care

This front-end expertise ensures alignment between family capacity and child need – something national child welfare research repeatedly identifies as essential to stability [2].

Why This Partnership with Arden Shore Is Different

This pilot with Arden Shore Child and Family Services is not about volume.

It is about precision.
It is about preparation.
It is about partnership.

It is about recruiting:

• Families ready for therapeutic care
• Traditional foster homes across Illinois
• Caregivers who are informed, prepared, and supported

When recruitment is done right, permanency follows.

This collaboration strengthens agencies, supports families, and – most importantly – creates better outcomes for children who need safe, stable homes.

Foster home recruitment is not a marketing function.
It is a systems function.
It is a performance discipline.

And when done with urgency, data, and compassion, it changes trajectories.

“Being a foster parent doesn’t mean having all the answers. It means showing up with an open heart, offering steadiness in the middle of uncertainty, and helping a child feel loved for exactly who they are,” said Cathy Newbury, Director of Foster Home Recruitment.

To learn more and consider this important work, please complete our inquiry form.

Questions about the Let It Be Us Foster Home Recruitment Program may be directed to Cathy Newbury, Director of Foster Home Recruitment, at cathynewbury@letitbeus.org.

References

1. Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). (2024). Children in Care Data Snapshot.
   https://dcfs.illinois.gov
2. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. (2023). Child Welfare Outcomes Report to Congress.
   https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb
3. Festinger, T. (1986); Denby, R., et al. (1999). Research on foster parent preparation and retention. Child Welfare League of America publications.