Blog

Voices For Children Foundation, Inc. Board Member Yolanda Valencia firmly believes that "everyone can do philanthropy." Throughout her tenure on our board, Yolanda has been a driving force for positive change.

For many youth who experience foster care, going to college may seem like a far-off, unattainable concept. For its second year, Voices For Children Foundation embarked on an inspiring journey to chase dreams and help change the trajectories of 19 resilient youth in foster care as we boarded a transformative college tour across seven colleges and universities in Florida.

Our annual Party for a Cause event was created to help raise awareness and engage the next generation of philanthropic supporters. Get to know our 2024 Chairs: Stuart Fort, Sophie Baker, and Victor Pulido.

This past summer I embarked on a once-in-a lifetime learning adventure with 19 youth in foster care to the Dominican Republic on a B.L.U.E. Missions trip, to build latrines for the residents of La Cabeza del Toro and ensure they had access to a safe, private, and sanitary bathroom—a basic necessity we often take for granted.

For Spring Break 2023, Voices For Children teamed up with Educate Tomorrow, First Star Miami, Citrus Family Care and Genesis Hopeful Haven to take youth in foster care on a five-day college tour of campuses around Florida to inspire them to plan for a brighter future and make their dreams come true!

On Saturday, Feb. 26, VFC esteemed supporter and sponsor, Nomi Health, teamed up with Voices For Children Foundation and the Guardians ad Litem to host an engaging and educational experience for 150 of our kids and their caretakers at the Miami Children’s Museum.

With 2022 now in the rear-view mirror, we want to take a moment to look back and reflect on the successes you made possible last year, which allowed us to support children entangled in the foster care system and continue our mission of helping to break generational cycles of abuse. During that time, I had the distinct honor of growing our team and working alongside a remarkable board of directors who has worked tirelessly to raise the bar for our organization.

Today, there are 1,500 children in foster care in Miami-Dade County and you played a huge role in showing up for them during this year’s Give Miami Day event! Thanks to your support, we nearly doubled our goal and raised over $96,000!

On Nov. 3, Voices For Children, together with Genesis Hopeful Haven, collaborated to give over 40 Miami-Dade County foster youth the gift of learning more about the city they live in and their place in the world.

Comfort Crusaders is a nonprofit consisting of teens who help those in need, as well as the less fortunate to find solace, comfort and support through planned activities and projects under the guidance of an executive board of directors. On this particular occasion, they gave our youth in foster care a chance to enjoy an afternoon learning a new game while having fun socializing and bonding with other youth their age.

Imagine walking into a store and being greeted with the message that you can pick out anything you wanted. Where would you go first? How would you make your selection? Thanks to Ticket to Dream Foundation, this is exactly what played out for 58 of our children.

This month marks the end of a very important chapter at Voices For Children Foundation as Vince Castro, our longtime supporter and Board Chair, completes his term with the organization. As Vince finishes up his time with Voices, we would like to honor and thank him for his dedication as Chairman of Voices For Children’s Board of Directors for the past 3 years.

Four weeks ago I had the privilege of being selected as the next President and CEO of Voices For Children Foundation (VFCF).