Latest news with #Children'sHomeSociety
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The different ways you can help foster children
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) —May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, which has local organizations doing what they can to stress the importance of foster parents. More than 1,200 children are in foster care in South Dakota each year. 'These are kids that are dealing with circumstances that are well beyond their control. And in order to have a healthy community, a strong community, it's important. It's critical to make sure that those kids have the same opportunities that everybody else does,' Executive Director, The Foster Network, David Moody said. Former deputy sheriff charged with rape after standoff Becoming a foster parent is one of the most obvious ways to help. Without foster families, children don't have many options. 'They can go to shelters. And so there are a few youth shelters here in the state. And so those youth are homeless. They stay in DSS offices, with caseworkers. Not always is it their own caseworker, so it could just be somebody that they don't know in a DSS office and then hotels,' Children's Home Society, Community Health Worker Team Lead, Jenica Woods said. Children's Home Society offers Therapeutic Foster Care services for foster children and their foster families. 'So we provide 24/7 support to the child and to the family. And then, we provide therapeutic services. So the therapy is in-house. That's individual and family therapy,' Woods said. If you can't become a foster family, at The Foster Network, there are also volunteer opportunities. One thing volunteers help with is 'The Closet', but there are also other ways to help out. 'So, depending on what their interest is, they can absolutely contact us, find out what meets with their schedule, with their expectations, what's meaningful to them. And we will provide those opportunities if they want to assist here,' Moody said. It's a way to help some of South Dakota's most vulnerable children by giving them the stability and safety that they need. 'Because they are just kids that are in a system no fault of their own,' Woods said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bike Night roars into Rowena
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The weather has been pretty stormy the past couple of days, but did you hear that thunder last night east of Sioux Falls? It was super loud as a storm of motorcycles rolled into a local establishment. It's where bikers and bands join together to raise a few bucks. 'This is a kickstart of another summer,' owner Mitch Runge said. Last night was the first night of Bike Night, the annual fundraiser at the Red Rock Bar & Grill. It's now in its 11th year. Judge grants Mines student injunction against DHS 'When we started it, we thought we could get 35 to 50 bikes a week to come out we've been blessed to get 350 to 500 a week to come out,' Runge said. Bike Night is a fundraiser for the Children's Home Society, a non-profit shelter for kids who have been abused. It's a cause a lot of these bikers take to heart. 'Helping kids, local kids, kids who don't have a voice or have a choice is something we've always felt strong about and try to support,' Runge said. 'It's free to attend, you don't have to buy anything, you can bring a lawn chair and hang out ; check out the band,' emcee host Frank Anderson said. As part of the fundraiser, Red Rock is also selling raffle tickets for this new Indian motorcycle to be given away later this summer. Last year Bike Night raised $40 thousand dollars for the Children's Home Society and it hopes to do the same again this year if not more. 'These events that are going on on the fringes are essential to keep our funding where it needs to be to continue to provide the services that we do for the community,' Assistant Director of Development at the Children's Home Society Andrew Hewitt said. A cause that revs up a lot of money every summer for the Children's Home Society. 'So it's a great middle-of-the-week activity that doesn't take you too far outside of Sioux Falls and you can sleep in your own bed at night,' Anderson said. To learn more about Bike Night and a look at the lineup of bands that'll be playing this summer, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal cuts hit local organizations
SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) — Nearly $10 million in federal spending cuts are striking organizations of all sizes across South Dakota. The list of cuts includes school districts, universities and hospitals, along with dozens of agencies that offer treatment for mental health and substance use. KELOLAND News reached out to several organizations on the list of federal spending cuts, including Children's Home Society which lost $325,000. The agency, which helps vulnerable children, adults and families, says it's disheartened. Children's Home Society planned to use the funding for a new service and is now looking at other ways to continue that mission. Another organization seeing a $10,000 grant cut is Feeding South Dakota. Local reaction to all-women space flight 'The impact of losing that $10,000 grant to Feeding South Dakota means that we're unable to connect to the Nexus system, which would allow us to connect to other partners and really help us just with technology,' CEO of Feeding South Dakota Lori Dykstra said. But the nonprofit said it's even more concerned about U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts happening at the federal level. 'About 30% of the food that we received in our 2024 fiscal year was received through the USDA programs,' Vice President of Public Relations for Feeding South Dakota Stacey Andernacht said. 'We use that food in our mobile food distribution programs. We use it to serve our senior box program.' The USDA recently cut $500 million specifically intended for food banks. Feeding South Dakota said it's already been notified about discontinued funding. 'We know that that food is essential food that we get out to our neighbors in need. We'll have to take a look at that,' Dykstra said. 'That could mean up to 14% of our food is cut in the near future.' Even during an uncertain time, Feeding South Dakota said it is confident it will continue to serve South Dakotans. 'We're keeping an eye on things. We are not changing any of our programs or the way that we're serving our communities across the state at this point,' Andernacht said. 'But the process has just started.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Miami Herald
09-04-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
At 17, he started a child abuse prevention org. 30 years later, he's being honored
When Amigos For Kids cofounder Jorge Plasencia attended a reception at Seminole Hard Rock Casino last year, he expected to connect with donors and supporters of the nonprofit, which works in child abuse prevention and provides after-school programming and other services. But one interaction brought his child advocacy work full circle. 'A woman came up to me that was an executive with a bank in her late 30s,' Plasencia told the Miami Herald. 'She said that she was a child of Amigos For Kids and went through the programs. She was impacted and was there to pay it forward.' The woman's story reflects that of the many kids whom Amigos For Kids has helped to maximize their potential. After more than 30 years with the organization, Plasencia, 50, is being honored this year with the Excellence in Advocacy Award from The Children's Trust. The son of altruistic Cuban immigrants, community service was an expectation in Plasencia's household. As an elementary school student at Miami Beach's St. Patrick's Catholic School, he became involved with a community service club. The experience exposed him to local organizations like the Children's Home Society. During a holiday event when he was a teen, Plasencia met a baby that had been burned with an iron. Having grown up in a loving home, Plasencia knew he wanted to help people like that baby have a better life. In 1991, Plasencia, then 17, teamed up with friends that also volunteered at Children's Home Society to start their own organization. They saw the need for a Latin-focused organization and officially launched Amigos Together For Children a year later. The organization was later renamed Amigos for Kids. When Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, their services were needed more than ever. 'We had our work cut out for ourselves,' he said. After volunteering as a phone banker for local nonprofits in high school, Plasencia pursued communications jobs after graduating from Barry University. From stints in radio to work for the Miami Marlins, he has made sure every job he's had was just as invested in Amigos For Kids as they were in him. 'My superiors have always embraced Amigos For Kids,' he said. 'It was never something that I've had to shun. My superiors always have wanted to support me.' Plasencia's next goal is to build a headquarters for Amigos For Kids that would be owned by the organization itself. The building, which would be located in a central Miami community like Allapattah or Little Havana, would help local youth of all backgrounds. 'This facility we want to build could be game-changing,' he said. With an affinity for helping others, like the banking executive who grew up in Amigos For Kids programs, Plasencia knows he is on the right track. 'You reap what you sow,' he said. 'The more you give of yourself and your time, the more that it comes back to you. There's a lot of good people that want to make a difference.'
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Creating Easter Baskets for children in need
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A sporting goods store in Sioux Falls is helping hand out sweet treats to children in need at a local nonprofit organization. Easter is late on the calendar this spring, but Scheels is getting an early jump on its annual Easter Basket Drive. Minnehaha County Jail sees rise in violence 'Customers can come in, fill a tote here right at Scheels or take it out to the community and fill it there and then bring it back to us at Customer Service by the tenth,' Events Coordinator Cierra Von Bergen said. Von Bergen is asking the public to create Easter Baskets to be given to the kids at Children's Home Society. 'Waking up with an Easter Basket growing up was always so fun, so we wanted to bring that joy to these kids that morning,' Von Bergen said. 'These kids have the same reaction, just pure joy,' CHS Chief Philanthropy Officer Jon Mammenga said. 'At Children's Home, we're very focused on hope and healing and really I think if you can normalize things each and every day, you think about your own kids waking up, finding their Easter Baskets, we want to give that experience to kids at Children's Home as well,' Mammenga said. Scheels will host a party, complete with games and crafts, at Children's Home Society on Sunday the 13th, while the actual baskets will be handed out the following weekend. 'Obviously chocolate, candy, those are the things that they're looking for, little toys in there, things that just bring them joy I think is what we're looking for more than anything,' Mammenga said. They only ask you to limit your purchases to $25 to keep it fair for the kids. 'Toy cars, Barbies, some NeeDoh, or the slime, kids love to play with, chalk, coloring books and crayons, all those fun things,' Von Bergen said. Making Easter for the kids exactly that, fun. You can start filling Easter Baskets on Wednesday, and they must be returned to Scheels by Thursday, April 10. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
