I Scream. You Scream. We All Scream For Belonging!
Foster Parent Recruitment
Caring for Kids had a banner year in 2024, celebrating over 120 adoptions across all our outstanding programs. The unintended consequence to so many finalizations is that we are now in urgent need of more licensed foster homes to replenish the families who have adopted and are temporarily or permanently taking a break from fostering. This desperate need is being experienced statewide.
In Ohio, there are currently over 16,000 children in foster care and there are only 7,200 licensed foster homes. CFK has experienced this first hand with a dramatic decrease in foster homes and children’s days in care. 2024 was our lowest for both in the past five years. Like other agencies, CFK has attended events and engaged community partners in hopes of raising awareness and recruiting more foster homes. However, most of these events only reach a small percentage of potential foster and adoptive homes.
Our Shared Ice Cream Trailer
CFK is convinced that an innovative approach must be taken in engaging the community and raising awareness of the urgent need for foster and adoptive homes. In order to reach people no one is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing.
Raise awareness for the significant need for foster parents.
Raise funds to support the critical programs CFK offers to support and invest in children, families, emancipating teens, and birthparents.
Work with our community partners, Hartzler Family Dairy and Fostering Love to enhance all three organizations’ missions.
Allow us a fresh way to engage the dozens of volunteer inquiries we receive each year.
Provide us with a way to engage our teen and young adult populations with independent living skill opportunities that include employment and training.
Consequently, this proposal is centered around a collaborative endeavor to operate a shared ice cream trailer to:
Every child deserves a loving family and a sense of belonging. Every family deserves the training, equipping and ongoing support that is needed to make that belonging last. This care must be available every step of the way.
Every Child. Every Family. Every Step of the Way.
Our Priorities: Impacting Foster Care and Adoption
Foster Parent Recruitment
The need for new foster parents is critical to the work of Caring for Kids and in order to reach people no one is reaching, we must start doing things no one else is doing.
Funding Key Initiatives
CFK must create and sustain new fundraising strategies that are not event based but are steady revenue generating endeavors that fund the critical programs that allow us to stand out as an agency.
Collaborative Partnerships
Caring for Kids is linking up with like-minded organizations who want to have a lasting impact in the foster and adoption communities. Jace and Rachael Hartzler—owners of Hartzler Family Dairy and founders of Fostering Love—have personally fostered and adopted through CFK, making this partnership especially meaningful. Over the years, we’ve shared in impactful collaborations rooted in a shared mission, and now, we are excited to serve Hartzler Family Dairy ice cream directly from our Caring for Kids ice cream trailer—bringing their locally loved flavors to events throughout our community. While Hartzler’s ice cream truly is the best around, supporting their family business also means supporting foster families across Northeast Ohio.
Empowering Volunteers
Caring for Kids has a volunteer army that is looking for ways to be mobilized. The challenge has been providing opportunities to keep up with the demand.
Independent Living Skills
Many of the teens in foster care and young birthmoms we work with are in desperate need of independent living skills to equip them to succeed on their own.
Ice Cream Truck Event Rental & Pricing Plans
Pay per Scoop Plan
$150 + $5 per scoop
$150 flat fee for the presence of the ice cream truck. Ice cream is then served at a rate of $5 per scoop, allowing guests to enjoy as much or as little as they desire, at their cost.
I Scream for Ice Cream Plan
$500
Provides up to 2 hours of service and includes 1 scoop per guest for up to 100 people.
You Scream for Ice Cream Plan
$750
Provides up to 3 hours of service and includes 1 scoop per guest for up to 175 people.
We All Scream for Belonging Plan
$1000
Provides up to 4 hours of service and includes 1 scoop per guest for up to 250 people.
