"FLUX"

 

Click HERE to give! 

There are many exciting events and opportunities (including trainings, conferences, donation opportunities, prom preparations, awareness walks) to show your support for Oklahoma's kids in foster care! Click below to read more and find out what you can be a part of each month leading up to Foster Care Awareness month in May. 

 

 

OKDHS Director Howard Hendrick announced his retirement earlier this month. Director Hendrick was the longest tenured human services director in the nation and deserves gratitude and support. Please take a moment and write him a thank you for his service to those in need in our state;

Director Howard Hendrick

P.O. Box 25352, Oklahoma City, OK 73125

An Interim Director, Terri White, has been assigned as is also the current Director of Mental Health for Oklahoma. 

 

 

With your help, we were able to fulfill the Christmas wishes of more than 5500 children in Oklahoma's foster care system!

I would like to share a story with you of how your giving impacted the lives of Oklahoma's foster kids this Christmas. We got a call 2 days before Christmas about a new sibling group of 7 that had been picked up. Their grandmother was willing to take them to keep them from being separated, but would not be able to provide Christmas gifts for them. She struggled to provide food and beds. As a kinship placement she would not receive reimbursement from the state until she became a certified foster home, which can take months, so things were going to be tight. The caseworker contacted us and asked if we could help. We were excited to have the opportunity to fulfill their Christmas wishes from donations we had received. When the caseworker arrived to deliver the gifts, she said that the grandmother met her in the driveway and began sobbing when she saw all that we had helped to provide. The caseworker said that the grandmother only spoke Spanish and the caseworker only spoke English. All she could understand thru the sobbing was "Feliz Navidad! Feliz Navidad!" as the grandmother refused to let go of the very germ phobic caseworkers neck...

Over the Christmas season we had many wonderful volunteers and advocates work to support children in Oklahoma's foster care system. There were many who worked long hours to build bags with wish lists. Some helped to deliver bags to our Community Partners . While others launched whole campaigns thru Christmas light shows , donation and grant campaigns. 

OKDHS employees went above and beyond to make sure that every child would have their Christmas wishes fulfilled. Karen Jacobs, OKDHS Volunteerism Coordinator, spent many hours on a semi riding with the driver to pick up and deliver wishes from Ponca City to Rowland to Ada and more! We were honored to partner with so many Oklahoma churches and businesses to fulfill the Christmas wishes of a child. Not to mention, all the individuals who shopped to fill a wish list for a child in foster care. 

We were also supported by many of our Impact Partners. Click the take action link below to learn more about our Impact Partners and how you can partner with them to serve these precious children year round.