With thousands of children entering foster care in Illinois every year, and the low ranking permanency in Illinois,, the problems Let It Be Us are trying to solve are significant.

Permanency means a child is connected: to a stable, loving home, whether foster, adoptive or biological, to her siblings, to her culture, her school, her community. Let It Be Us wants not just safety, but these connections for all children in care.

Let It Be Us is dedicated to changing the landscape of foster care and adoption in Illinois – our mission is to inspire foster care and adoption.

Let It Be Us envisions a future in which our most vulnerable children have the opportunities and resources they need which can best be met by belonging in a family.

We know that one of the biggest problems in the foster care system is that there aren’t enough foster homes, and there aren’t the right kind of foster homes. We work to ensure diligent recruitment, meaning we secure families that allow us to make the right placements of children and teens in the right homes the first time. This is one of our specialties at Let It Be Us. Spanish-speaking children experience better outcomes when placed in Spanish-speaking homes. Children who are deaf experience better outcomes when placed in homes that understand American Sign Language. Children of color experience better outcomes when placed in homes with families of color.

We recruit new foster parents for children and teens with special needs in multiple ways. One of our most unique ways is we provide free educational events, in-person and online, to educate people on how to become licensed foster parents and, perhaps most importantly, what it’s like to bring a child in foster care into your home.

Second, we offer free one-on-one coaching from licensing specialists who help prospective foster parents navigate the system, guide them through the process of choosing the right licensing agency, and act as a support during the licensing process.

In addition to recruiting prospective foster parents, Let It Be Us reaches out to foster parents who are already licensed to connect them with waiting children.  In Illinois, foster homes are often known only to the agency that licensed them, which means that children in need of a licensed home at a different agency don’t have access to all available foster homes.

At Let It Be Us, we reach out to all licensed foster homes to connect waiting children with the home that is the best match for them, as a part of our Foster Care Placement Support program. We believe that the more foster homes are available, the better the match for children waiting in care, and the better the match, the stronger the permanency for children.

Let It Be Us is open and inclusive of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender expressions, and sexual identity. We serve all children and believe all deserve a loving home.

Let It Be Us is proud to be recognized by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) All Children All Families program as a Building Towards Inclusion child welfare agency. Let It Be Us believes LGBTQIA+ identifying foster parents and children in care deserve respect and love, and we do our best to show that in our work.