TREEHOUSE FOUNDATION INC
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Mission Statement
Treehouse Foundation promotes lifelong success for over 1,000 children in foster care through innovative programming that strengthens family relationships, leverages community resources and empowers youth to succeed. Today, nearly 400,000 children are living in foster care without permanent families. These children have all suffered from severe neglect and/or abuse, and loss. They are our society’s most vulnerable children and are at MUCH higher risk than their peers for becoming the next generation of poor and homeless. They desperately need supportive mentors, families and communities to help them heal, grow and lead fulfilling, productive lives. Treehouse is making a difference! By supporting Treehouse, you can provide youth impacted by foster care with lifelong family and community connections and the healing power of the arts, mentorship, and leadership skills. You will make an enormous difference their lives and their futures. Your donation today helps us meet the needs of more children-Thank you!
About This Cause
The Treehouse Foundation’s mission is to generate public investment in our most vulnerable children. We inspire, implement and support innovative programs to ensure that children who experience foster care find lifelong families in supportive communities, enabling them to lead fulfilling and productive lives. The Treehouse Foundation’s programming – including an intergenerational community, regional programs, and a national conference – currently engages more than 1,000 youth and young adults impacted by the foster care system each year. Consistent innovation, collaboration and input from all stakeholders ensure that our programming is tailored to meet the most pressing needs of the young people we serve. We invite you to join us in Re-envisioning Foster Care in America! Together, we can create a brighter future for our communities’ most vulnerable youth. With your support we will serve more youth, create new and innovative collaborations, and shift the paradigm for foster care system in America. The Need: Research clearly demonstrates that foster care is failing our nation’s children. Youth in the foster care system are twice as likely to drop out of high school and more likely to have trauma-related learning disabilities, be 2-3 grade levels behind their peers, and be in special education classes. While 20% of foster youth attend college, only 2 – 4 % graduate. Each year over 23,000 foster youth “age out” of the child welfare system and enter adulthood without family or community connections or essential life skills. Youth aging out of foster care are at extremely high risk for dropping out of high school, unemployment, poverty, teen parenting, substance abuse, incarceration and homelessness. 30 – 40 % of the homeless people in the United States have been in foster care. Treehouse is dedicated to preventing children and youth who experience foster care from becoming the next generation of poor and homeless Americans. We ascribe to the “whatever it takes” philosophy in preventing a child from becoming a statistic. Your generous donation to The Treehouse Foundation will directly support the success and well-being of children placed in foster care through our two key initiatives, described in detail below. Please stand with us as we flip the tragic paradigm of foster care in America today, and work toward our vision of “Every Child Rooted in Family and Community. 1. The award winning Treehouse Community in Easthampton, MA, is an intergenerational community in which elders and families with foster/adoptive children live together in a close-knit neighborhood, investing daily in each others’ lives and well being. The Treehouse Community opened in 2006, and a Treehouse-inspired community opened in Portland, Oregon in 2011. We are now exploring the development of additional communities in California and Massachusetts. Treehouse Easthampton is home to 110 people, ages 2-96, with elders serving as honorary grandparents. Treehouse embraces and engages vulnerable children and families through community-based supports, programs and activities that include people of all ages and cultivate life long family and community connections. Services and programs include onsite mental health and family support professionals, educational advocacy, tutoring, arts, gardening, music lessons, life skills development, and community building. At Treehouse, children being adopted from foster care find not just parents and a home, but also grandparents, friends and an entire neighborhood designed to help them grow up in a secure and nurturing environment. 2. The Re-Envisioning Foster Care in America Movement (REFCA), launched in 2010, is a multi-sector collaboration led by the Treehouse Foundation. A hub of foster care innovation for the region and beyond, REFCA is creating a new model for regional investment in children and families who experience foster care. Each May, REFCA brings together diverse stakeholders – including legislators, educators, foster care professionals, academics, foster parents, philanthropists, community members, and youth and adults who have experienced foster care – for the annual Re-Envisioning Foster Care in America Conference, which develops solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing youth in foster care. Treehouse develops and delivers programming aimed at addressing the needs identified by REFCA stakeholders. Current programming includes: The HEROES Youth Leadership Project HEROES is a program for young people from foster care in Western Massachusetts, ages 14-24, centered on healing, growth, and community engagement. Youth participate in the arts, outdoor adventure, leadership development and community service. HEROES equips participants for success by offering educational support and tutoring, exposure to higher education and the development of important life and vocational skills through public speaking, leading service projects in their communities, and mentorship. HEROES ensures that participants never ‘age-out’ alone thanks to a strong community of peers, mentors and adults they can turn to for guidance and friendship as they navigate the challenges of high school and beyond. Project Thrive! Birth to Five Today there are 950 newborn to 5-year-olds in foster care in the Pioneer Valley. Project Thrive! aims to improve child outcomes and strengthen the capabilities of foster and adoptive parents by teaching them about creating secure attachment, optimal brain development and school readiness. Through a program of trauma-informed parent education and training, early literacy, arts, and fitness-based parent/child activities, Project Thrive! ensures that infants and toddlers in foster care get the strongest possible start in life. Suitcase Project Children in foster care often carry their few belongings in trash bags when they move from one foster home to another. Suitcase Project provides each child with a new duffle bag or suitcase, filled with a few special items to ease the transition. We are honored to partner with the higher education institutions, innovative arts and outdoor education organizations, foster and adoptive parents, foster care alumni, faith communities, legal professionals, foster youth advocacy groups, child welfare agencies and business leaders that are part of REFCA. We hope you will join us! Your support would be critical to each and every young person involved in our programing. Please visit our website at refca.net or call our offices at 413.527.7966 if you have questions, would like to become involved in our efforts, or wish to join our mailing list! Thank you for your consideration.