The Diakon Family Safety & Security Fund
Help Children in Your Area Thrive in Safe and Supportive Environments
25,000 children in Pennsylvania are living without their families and are in need of supportive, structured homes. Diakon acts as a nurturing support system for children and caregivers alike.
In 2022, 60% of our foster children were placed in homes with a family member or friend. These “resource families” are stepping up as caregivers at a moment’s notice, incurring unexpected costs to provide the best homes for our youth.
If a caregiver for the children is struggling financially, your help can cover onetime costs to help this family member or friend be approved as a kinship caregiver. Kinship care can provide a safe and familiar environment in which significant attachments, identities, and cultures are preserved. While foster parents always do their best to provide a safe and nurturing environment, some children struggle to adapt to completely new situations. Kinship care offers a historically proven method of supporting children within their existing familial and cultural systems. A trained and supported kinship caregiver is able to care for children in a profound, intentional, and successful way. Kinship caregivers have immediate costs for food, clothing, toys and supplies and often must wait several weeks into the placement for their first monthly stipend to help offset these expenses.
For these reasons, in 2023, we developed the Family Safety & Security Fund —which allows donors to support families to help them overcome obstacles that would otherwise delay a successful placement and can improve their quality of life.
EXAMPLES OF EXPENSES COVERED BY THESE FUNDS MAY INCLUDE:
- Cost of clearances: $135
- Smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector and fire extinguisher: $80
- Gift cards for food and clothing: $100
- Baby gates: $50 - $100
- Door alarms: $25 - $50
- Cabinet locks: $35
- Plug covers: $10
- Doorknob covers: $ 10 - $20
- Lockboxes (to store ammunition): $25 - $50
- First aid kits/supplies: $30 - $50
- Christmas and/or birthday gifts - $30
Give a foster family the opportunity to provide safety, security and family experiences that will create memories of a lifetime by supporting the Family, Safety and Security Fund!
When you support this fund, you are giving families opportunities to experience:
Athletics:
- Theater programs
- Scouting memberships
- Boys & Girls Club Memberships
Experiences:
- Day at an amusement park
- Night at the movies
- Trip to the lake/beach
- Afternoon at an arcade
- Trip to the bookstore
- Visit at a science center
Educational Needs:
- Tutoring
- Camps
- After School Clubs
Ways to give
For donations via check (payable to “Diakon”), please mail to:
Attn: Heather Hauser
Diakon Office of Advancement
One Home Ave.
Topton, PA 19562
