Children's Bureau:
My adopted family

A letter from Carrie Henderson, Board Chair, Children's Bureau

Family is defined as a group of people related by birth, marriage or adoption. In a larger context family is defined as people descending from a common ancestor. It's historical and fun for people to research their family tree. Some people get very passionate about learning as many details as they can and this information somehow seems to become an active part of who they are on a day to day basis. I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon.

Being adopted 43 years ago, I never had the interest or passion about the ancestor/family tree exercise. You wouldn't believe how often the questions of "What do you know about your ancestors? Where are you originally from?" actually gets asked. I never really knew what to say. It never bothered me, but my immediate family was it. Over the 8 years that I have served on the Board of Directors and gotten to understand the organization and staff as it runs today, met the people who volunteer, and especially met the children that we serve, I gradually realized that I had broadened my immediate family to include the Children's Bureau. Now I honestly feel that my lineage directly connects to the Children's Bureau.

Children's Bureau mission is to support and assist high risk children and their families. Our vision is to help develop a healthy family for every child. Children's Bureau's part in assisting high risk children is very crucial and obvious and other times it is much less noticeable. Sometimes the interaction with the child is a day to day responsibility that reinforces "you are special, you are worthy of love". Certainly our group homes, out secure care facility, our emergency shelter, or recruitment and training of foster parents are categorized as the day to day critical link for an at risk child. Sometimes the interaction is more transactional in nature like providing an affordable daycare voucher to families, providing counseling or training. Much thought has gone behind the logic of the programs we offer for at risk children and their families. We have tried to provide a continuum of services to best help the children in Indiana.

2004 was another year for us to celebrate. Several programs were re-grouped, and we operated 22 programs down from 27 last year. We didn't drop any programs or services that we provided as compared to last year. However we merged some programs for greater management efficiencies. Children's Bureau continued to provide rewarding work for just over 200 employees. The three main accomplishments that I would like to highlight for 2004 include a comprehensive Board Development project, the successful operation of a very large daycare voucher program and the successful kick off of our Endowment Fundraiser.

The Board surveyed its members and identified areas of weaknesses or concern. What was working with our large volunteer Board and what areas did we need to improve? We hired an outside consultant to help us through this process and have been implementing changes in the areas of weaknesses that we identified. Part of this kind of examination is a healthy ongoing evolution that allows the Children's Bureau to continue to improve the leadership of an already strong organization. We want to make sure that our volunteer leadership has important and meaningful dialogue in order to best help lead the organization.

A new service, Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) operated for its first full year in 2004 and is also known as the daycare voucher program. This program is funded federally and is administered by the State. The vouchers are a limited and very valuable resource for low income families. The vouchers pay for day care in order to help families transition off the welfare system and attain self sufficiency. Over 4,000 families benefited from the CCDF voucher program in 2004.

Last year the Board decided that we needed to raise an additional $2 million that would be dedicated to our Endowment reserves. In 2004, we were able to receive commitments for over $1 million (over half of our original goal) and are now entering the public phase of the endowment fundraising for the remaining $1 million. The income received from this additional $2 million will help us continue to pay for prevention services which are not paid by public dollars.

In 2004, we out-performed the budget and enjoyed a consolidated (along with our endowment) increase in net assets of $780,000.

It was my honor to serve as Board Chair for the past two years. Thank you for your interest and your support of Children's Bureau. We are a wide range of people from different backgrounds and we have taken up the Children's Bureau cause, its ideology and practice, its methods and often use them as our own. Welcome to my family…the Children's Bureau family.

For us, year 2004 was an evolutionary one at the least. Children's Bureau embarked on a two million dollar endowment growth campaign called Growing Foundations for Children. Fortunately, we have reached organizational maturity where we are no longer just wrestling with today's challenges, we are planning and saving for the future sustainability and viability of our organization and the communities it serves. We held a leadership role in partnership with Marion County Commission on Youth in developing a plan, funded by the Lilly Endowment, to engage our fellow citizens at all levels in preventing the horror of child abuse and neglect in Indianapolis.

Most importantly, with the addition of the Vivian Smith Teen Parenting program and the first full year of the child care voucher program (CCDF), we served a record number of high risk children and their families in 2004. We also improved our program outcomes which translate to life improving results for the children we served. It was another very successful year for Children's Bureau. A year where we not only made dramatic service advancements, but one when we evolved to be better prepared for meeting tomorrow's challenges as well. Our theme for this year's annual report is what family means. Since our organization's vision is to develop a healthy family for every child, we make it no secret that fundamentally and ideally, we conjecture healthy children are products of healthy families. But even when families are not exemplar, if they are committed to the well-being of their children, they will overcome personal and collective challenges with the end result being an emotionally healthy child.

On a personal basis, my belief is that family is the most valuable thing we possess. Families are support systems which last forever. Some call that roots. Families provide support, security, a sense of identity, a home. They provide opportunities, guidance and support. They are there to give words of encouragement when one fails, to help pick up the pieces after suffering a loss, and to celebrate accomplishments. Families are unconditional love.

Every time a child is born, it is a miracle. And if that child enjoys the benefit of a loving family, it is a divine gift. Children's Bureau plays a small role in this phenomenon in our little part of this vast world, by reaching out in the darkness and making the dreams of a few less fortunate children come true. Yes, family is the most important thing. Thank you for being part of ours and theisr.

"Families are support systems which last forever." (Ron C., 49)

 Intensive
 Home-based Counseling
Children Served:
      19

Therapeutic Foster Care
Children Served:
      58

Adoption and Special Needs Adoption
Children Served:
      118

Teen Pregnancy and Parenting
Youth Served:
      62

Evans House
Children Served:
      23

Mallon House
Children Served:
      43

Turning Poing
Children Served:
      20

Passages
Children Served:
      20

Parenting Assessments
Assessments Completed:
      479

PEACE
Children Served:
      210

Project Safe Place
Families Served:
      118

Supervised Visitation - Indianapolis
Children Served:
      589

Supervised Visitation - Anderson
Children Served:
      38

Aftercare/Independent Living
Youth Served:
      42

Crisis Shelter Care
Children Served:
      644

Project Horizons
Youth Served:
      36

Retreat
Children Served:
      38

Volunteer Services
975 worked 11,000 hours

Terre Haute Youth Intervention Center
Children Served:
      21

Scattered Sites Apartment Living
Youth Served:
      31

NACS West
Children Served:
      450

NACS East
Children Served:
      244

Parents as Teachers - FSC
Children Served:
      56

Parents as Teachers - FRC
Children Served:
      233

Any Child
Children Served:
      143

Pro 100
Youth Served:
      60

CCDF
Families Served:
      4,204

FAKT
Individuals Completed Training:
      814

Foster Care Licensing Program
Foster Families:
      210
Foster Children:
      736

Advocacy
Children's Bureau's Advocacy Program assumed an expanded community role in 2004. CBI advocates participated in multiple activites including community education/awareness, lobbying for specific legislative issues, active participation in county-wide and state-wide planning for cyild welfare, initiation of youth civic engagement program and the implementation of research onthe emerging issues of disproportional representation of children of color. For the first time, CBI assisted more than 100 constituents to regiter to vote at our service sites. Four events with the state legislative and school board candidates were well received and communicated positive messages about what is important to the well-being of the children and families servied by CBI, as well as, the well-being of all children and their families. Most imporatantly, we documented a dreamatic increase in grassroots participation and interaction with elected officials by agency board members and staff by writing letters and emails, phone calls and visits.

Children's Bureau Inc.

Children's Bureau Foundation, Inc.

AT LARGE FOUNDATION
Board Members
Shirley Romine, Chair
Nadine C. Bonds
Walter Bruen
Senator Murray Clark
Dan Ent
Kyle Fisher
Gene Henderson
Marilyn Pecsok
Michael Price
Joseph Whitsett

EXECUTIVE STAFF
Ron D. Carpenter
President/CEO

Janice Klein
Executive Vice President/COO

Clara Anderson
Executive Vice President/CAO

Susan Meyer
Executive Vice President/CFO

Jon Bennett
Executive Vice President

Lee Vriesman
Senior Vice President

*Completed board term in 2004
**Began board term in 2004

OUTREACH CENTERS
Children's Bureau, Inc.
Corporate Office
615 N. Alabama St. Room 426
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Tel/317.264.2700
Fax/317.264.2714
TTY/317.803.9833
www.childrensbureau.org

FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER
1575 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. St. Indianapolis, IN 46202 Tel/317.634.5050
Fax/317.686.3812

FAY BICCARD GLICK FAMILY PLACE
3801 North Temple Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46205
Tel/317.545.5281
Fax/317.547.6378

RACHEL GLICK COURAGE CENTER
2115 N. Central Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Tel/317.808.3330
Fax/317.808.0106

GROUP TRANSITIONAL LIVING HOMES
Evans House
Mallon House
Garrard House

NACS WEST
2001 W. Washington St. Suite B Indianapolis, IN 46222 Tel/317.951.8476
Fax/317.951.8478

NACS EAST
2855 N. Keystone Avenue, Suite 150
Indianapolis, IN 46218
Tel/317.924.6203
Fax/317.924.6692

TERRE HAUTE YOUTH
INTERVENTION CENTER (THYIC)
504 S. 15th St.
Terre Haute, IN 47807
Tel/812.234.9515
Fax/812.234.9765

EXCHANGE CLUB
FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER
1102 W. 14th Street
Anderson, IN 46016
Tel/765.643.8022
Fax/765.643.0264

EXCHANGE CLUB CARE CENTER
500 E. Washington St.
Muncie, IN 47305
(765)288-457


VIVIAN SMITH HOUSE
2835 North Tibbs
Indianapolis, IN 46222
(317) 924-4666

CCDF PARTNERSHIP SITES

C.A.F.E. 8902 East 38th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46226
(317) 890-3288

Hendricks County OFC
6781 East US 36, Suite 200
Avon, IN 46123
(317) 368-9080

Evans House
Garrard House
Mallon House