Giving these kids a safe place to sleep, a personal space to lay down their heads and to dream of their future is the most vital part of our day-to-day services.

The pandemic has wrought its horrors throughout the land. It has put everyone at risk and wreaked havoc on many lives. There is an angel who has devoted every ounce of energy to making lives better for the littlest children who have been victims and deserve better.

Many are looking forward to turning the calendar to 2021. This year has brought us challenges and issues we could never have imagined, and there are many reasons to want to put 2020 in the rearview mirror.

Arizona Helping Hands brings Hope for the Holidays to Children in Foster

We all are well aware of how different 2020 has been – a pandemic, a contentious election, social unrest, the hottest summer on record – all of these have frayed everyone’s nerves. Even at Arizona Helping Hands, despite seeing every day the importance of our work providing basic needs to Arizona’s 14,000+ children in foster care, we’ve faced our share of challenges.

1,823 – that’s the number of children in foster care whose birthdays have been made special already in 2020 by the Birthday Dreams program at Arizona Helping Hands. More than 250 boys and girls each month have received gifts and party packages, thanks to our efforts.

Back to School is different this year, but the end result is what is important. Once again, thousands of children will be served through our program. They will have the notebooks, paper, markers and more that will allow them to pick up their education, in whatever fashion it will take in 2020.

In 2016, Arizona Helping Hands expanded our services to foster families to include the safety items needed to pass Arizona’s home inspection standards to become a licensed foster home.

I thought my friend Dale was coming to say hi and tour the Arizona Helping Hands facility where we provide essential needs to children in Arizona’s foster care system.  It turned out that Dale and his wife Pam were not stopping in for a social visit, they were coming to access our assistance.