A Family For Every Child

I simply cannot trust this organisation. I started donating under the promise of work carried out in a specific country. Documents and newsletter content supported this claim however a look at the finances told a completely different story.

When questioned, I was met with a carefully crafted email which used word salad techniques to give the illusion work was being carried out as promised and to keep me making payments (not factually correct/misleading).

As an individual who needed this kind of service in my youth, I feel exploited yet again.

The need for a loving home for every child is so important, and this organization has brought this need front and center in our community and throughout the country. Our children are our future and every child in need that they help to find a home, is a blessing to the future.

We are very thank full for our volunteers, we could not serve our mission with out them. We have created a process of identifying a volunteers most desired role, matching them with this role, training them and helping them learn skills that will assist with their personal and professional growth. Thank-you to the over 1000 volunteers that have have worked with us in the last 7 years.

I am more than impressed with this organization as they have been able to fill a niche serving the hardest-to-place children who often languish in the foster system. The hardest-to-place foster children are over the age of eight, are part of a sibling group, have been in foster care for an extended length of time, or are of an ethnic minority group. Many of them also have severe physical, emotional and/or developmental challenges. The shrinking Oregon Department of Human Services budget often results in these special-needs children being forced to the back of the line to receive support—simply because they require more attention, assistance, and care than the majority of other foster children.

They have gone beyond the basics to serve needs as they arise: mentoring, advocate services, family building services (including a new Adoption Agency).

As a start-up organization that does not take public funds, and operates with a full-time volunteer executive director (who herself has 12 children, 9 adopted) on a shoe-string budget, to serve as many children as possible is commendable. I have noticed some employee and/or volunteer complaints (on this site). As someone who has been a nonprofit consultant for 20 years, I am sure the need to tirelessly serve the 500,000 children in foster care nationally, focusing on the 13,000 in Oregon and 9,500 in Washington is taxing. This is hard work, and not for the faint of heart.

As a consultant, I see too many college graduates and/or early career professionals with misguided expectations: Working in a nonprofit is not a cakewalk! Good nonprofits are forever evolving... Good employees (who are the "right fit") are able to rise to this challenge, and those who do not forward the organization's mission will fall away. Guaranteed salary and benefit packages, even for large government organizations, are a thing of the past. Still, in working with the AFFEC board, I know that it is their goal to balance the urgent need for services and intentionally grow a stable organization with a well-compensated, trained, and creative staff on board the long term.

I applaud A Family For Every Child for being a leading edge innovator with an entrepreneurial approach to doing business. It is obvious their donations are increasing while other organizations that have become passive in their approach to the urgent needs of children are flailing. Why? Positive Results!

Although their mission is wonderful, their lack of organization and poor treatment of their employees and volunteers left a bad taste in my mouth after attempting to work with them for almost nine months. The individual programs are great, being run by wonderful, dedicated people who are doing the best they can with the resources they have. Unfortunately they usually burn out within 3-6 months. And usually don't get their last paycheck.

Upper management is a huge hindrance on this organization. They talk badly about volunteers in meetings and are so incredibly disorganized that it affects how they serve their clients. They provide no training or support, but expect every task to happen perfectly without any questions. When everything blows up in their face, they have a volunteer or employee to turn into a scape goat.

If you are looking to volunteer or work with this organization, I would proceed with extreme caution. I understand being desperate, but If no support coupled with huge work loads and very low or no pay sound like something you can skip, skip this place. If you are looking to volunteer, there are plenty of other wonderful places that help kids that will not make you feel bad about doing it.

I want to share my experience applying for a job at A Family for Every Child. I was given an interview (they only asked me 1 question, red flag) and offered the position the next day, with the contract emailed to me. The position was a contracted position as an Adoption Worker. I had questions about parts of the contract, and they responded by the end of the week to answer them and set up training (with date and suggested time) for the next week. I told my boss at my current job about my change in employment (luckily I was not quitting, just reducing hours) as soon as I considered it 'official.' I realized that no one had officially confirmed the training day and time, and emailed them to get confirmation.
Only then, THREE DAYS BEFORE TRAINING was about to begin, did they send me a short, one sentence email that they had decided not to hire at that time.
Unprofessional, lack of any tact whatsoever, and without apology. If you apply for a job with these folks, please take note of this situation and learn from it.

Be sure to give them a good Education. And I did give boysandgirlsaid $25 dollars last week... I'd love to Mentor a child, I'd LOVE to! A Child's health, and a child's education is very important.

I had 6 of them in my house, and I shared all I had with them.
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