Suncoast Voices for Children is stationed in the Pinellas and Pasco County Sheriff’s Offices, providing for the needs of abused and neglected children. While support for children in foster care is needed, safely preventing children from entering foster care in the first place leads to better outcomes. Young people who were formerly in foster care are also far more likely to endure homelessness, poverty, compromised health, unemployment and incarceration as adults. That’s why Voices helps to prevent children from entering foster care and, when that’s not possible, provides for both basic needs and fun to let our kids be kids.
With your help, we can keep children placed safely with family members and provide for their needs when no one else can. You can sponsor the needs of children when they are at their lowest, most difficult time. When you’re their Voice, they will know that someone is listening, and that someone cares.
How to Be A Voice
- Click the “Be A Voice” button.
- At the donation page, click the “Make This A Monthly Gift” box and enter your desired monthly giving amount to enroll in the “Be A Voice” Program.
- In the note section, you can let us know the type of need you’d like to support for our young people. We have listed the costs of specific items on the site, but you can contribute whatever you can to the needs that speak to you. Any contribution will help us serve children in need!
- Your donation will go directly to one of the hundreds of requests we receive each month for the need that you have chosen to support.
- You will hear the story of the specific child who you are sponsoring, and how your gift is making a difference in their lives.
- If you would prefer to make a one-time donation, just don’t click the “Make This A Monthly Gift” option when you donate.
Here are some ways to Be A Voice:
$10/Month – The More Than A Bed Project ($120 annually)
With this project, you will help Voices keep supplies on hand 24/7 for the Sheriff’s Child Protective Investigators so they can grab both a crib and an Infant Care Kit, complete with bottles, formula, wipes, diapers and other supplies that family members need to care for children. Assistance from the state can be slow or never come at all, so this support is critical for keeping children with their families. Give a child more than a bed; give them family!
$25/Month: Let Kids Be Kids! ($300 annually)
$50/Month: Help A Child Every Month! ($600 annually)
$50 can mean so much to a child: a stroller, a large box of diapers, emergency food when there are no other options, school uniforms or school supplies, and so much more. Voices’ staff specializes in keeping costs low to help as many children as possible. At this level, you can provide basics that are easy to take for granted for a new child every month, and you will learn their stories from the Voices team.
$10/Month – The More Than A Bed Project ($120 annually)
With this project, you will help Voices keep supplies on hand 24/7 for the Sheriff’s Child Protective Investigators so they can grab both a crib and an Infant Care Kit, complete with bottles, formula, wipes, diapers and other supplies that family members need to care for children. Assistance from the state can be slow or never come at all, so this support is critical for keeping children with their families. Give a child more than a bed; give them family!
$25/Month: Let Kids Be Kids! ($300 annually)
$50/Month: Help A Child Every Month! ($600 annually)
$50 can mean so much to a child: a stroller, a large box of diapers, emergency food when there are no other options, school uniforms or school supplies, and so much more. Voices’ staff specializes in keeping costs low to help as many children as possible. At this level, you can provide basics that are easy to take for granted for a new child every month, and you will learn their stories from the Voices team.
Voices in Action
Together for the Holidays
The Sheriff’s Office placed 5 children in the care of their grandmother in the middle of a December night. Hours earlier, their parents were arrested due to domestic violence and substance abuse. The children came with nothing. No clothes, no toys, no car seats. Not even beds to sleep in. The grandmother was on a fixed income in a one-bedroom apartment, so the children were temporarily in sleeping bags and on couches. When the judge reviewed the case the next morning, she was heartbroken, but she said she no choice: Either the children would have their own beds within 48 hours, or the children would be placed into foster care. Even worse, there were no foster placements available to take 5 children, so the children would be separated during the holidays. But Carol was their Voice! She helped Voices immediately provide 2 bunk beds and a crib to safely keep the children with their grandmother!
Be A Voice and Provide Safe Sleeping for Children:
$35/Month: Keep Brothers & Sisters Together! ($420 annually)
$5/Month – Safe Sleeping for Newborns ($60 annually)
Join the Diaper Squad!
Meet Mary, the founder of the Voices Diaper Squad! Every month, she delivers thousands of diapers to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. Here’s how you can help:
When Sheriff-approved relatives take children into their homes to keep them out of foster care, diapers are a major expense. Delays in state funding assistance can keep caregivers from affording essentials for children. Voices keeps diapers in the Sheriff’s Offices on hand 24 hours a day to support families and keep kids out of foster care.
By raising $212.50 per month, the Diaper Squad can provide for over 750 children in Pinellas County over the next year. That’s less than $4 for each child to have diapers! Once we reach this goal, we will expand to serve more children in Tampa Bay. Help us keep children in diapers by clicking “Be A Voice” and giving what you can each month, and let us know you want your donation to go to the Diaper Squad in the comments!
School Struggles
Support the Fostering Education Access Project!
In Pinellas and Pasco Counties, children in foster care change placements an average of once every 5 months, usually requiring a change of schools. With each move, children drop a letter grade. Nationwide, 65% experienced seven or more school changes as children. Fewer than half of children who were in foster care earn a high school diploma, and less than 3% earn a bachelor’s degree or higher. Voices is dedicated to providing children in foster care with the tools they need to succeed in school and graduate. By supporting the Fostering Education Access Project, you can help Voices remove barriers that prevent children and young adults in foster care from succeeding in school. When you click “Be A Voice,” you can let us know you’d like to support academic services for our kids!
Be A Voice to Help Kids Succeed In School:
$17/Month – Help Children in Care Turning 18 Go to College ($204 annually)
Less than 3% of children who were in foster care receive a college degree. They face an uphill battle at 18 when they have no consistent adult support network, stable place to stay, reliable healthcare or consistent access to food. Major expenses like laptops and books can be a roadblock to progress for many students. When Voices helps to provide for these expenses, young adults don’t have to choose between food and shelter or pursuing their education. Help a young person succeed in college!
$15/Month – Tutoring for a Child ($180 annually)
Children lose an average of one letter grade every time they move to another placement. If kids are moving 2 times a year or more in our community, they need additional support and attention so they don’t get left behind. Voices’ special negotiated rates with tutors connect kids school board-approved tutors. At this level, you will give a child access to the support they need. Help kids succeed in school!
$11.25/Month – Give a Child a Bike ($135 annually)
Prevent Protect & Provide
As devastating as being removed from their parents can be, the disruption to their lives can be reduced when the Sheriff’s Office identifies a safe extended family member or friend who can care for them. In many cases, family members and friends who are loving and protective may not have access to everything a child needs to immediately take custody of them. By operating within the Sheriff’s Offices in Pinellas and Pasco Counties, Voices quickly and effectively helps get family members approved by the Sheriff’s Office for placement and prevents children from entering foster care. Beds, car seats and childcare supplies can mean the difference between a child being placed with family members or entering foster care.
Voices also provides a wide variety of items for children in foster care – from birth certificates to tutoring; dance lessons to Tae Kwan Do; birthday cakes to eyeglasses; prom dresses to graduation fees. The needs are different for every child, but Voices is there to provide the things that the state doesn’t.
Here are some ways to Be A Voice:
$50/Month: Help A Child Every Month! ($600 annually)
$200/Month: Help A Child Every Week! ($2,400 annually)
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