Increasing awareness of al- hajj

1. Increasing awareness of al- hajj

2. Background and History Mission statement • To uphold, preserve, reunify, and establish permanency for children and families, while valuing the absolute worth of every child and adhering ethical principles. • Is a non profit organization established on 1993 • Conducts traditional foster care and facilitate adoptions • The name hajj means “ a difficult journey in life

3. Background and History • provides foster parents with on-going training in the needs of children removed from home and placed in foster care. • Also, Al-Hajj, Inc. funds conferences and training opportunities throughout the year • children and their foster parents, receive recognition for their contributions • Recognitions include: anniversaries of the foster parents, children’s birthdays etc  

4. Services • Family Support • Individual Counseling • Individual/Family Assessments • In-Home Family and Individual Therapy • In-Home Parenting Services • In-Home Family Support to Foster Parents • Supervised Visitation Basic Living Skills Support • Case Consultation • Family • Counseling/Reunification • Adoption Home Study • Basic Living Skills Support

5. Problemsand Goals • Need more foster parents • struggling with finding families to adopt medically-fragile, teenage mothers with babies, and minority children. • Many people are not aware of how to become a foster parent. • However, Al-Hajj is continuing to make progress of recruiting new foster parents as other foster parents move out of foster care for reasons such as adopting current foster children.

6. Objectives • maximize their numbers of foster parents by twenty percent by January of 2010. • utilize different forms of media like to educate the public on the need for foster care. • plans to hold an interest meeting monthly • participate in the local adoption awareness day.

7. Audience • Dependable individuals over the age of 25 • Individuals that have the ability to pass a drug test, criminal background check, and a physical examination. • Individuals that are willing to work as a team and complete required training hours.

8. Strategies and Tactics • A conference in Anniston will be held in to recruit new foster parents. • The first action will consist of sending thank-you letters and emails to everyone that attends the conference. • The second action will be to work with local department of human resources to educate the public on adoption and how important it is to keep a constant flow of foster parents in the system. • Brochures and flyers will be posted in areas where a variety of traffic enters.

9. The campaign will be held over the next eight months leading up to our deadline in January 2010. The organization will hold interest meetings on the first Monday of each month. The organization will participate in Adoption Awareness Day on May 05, 2009. There will be a convention with several guest speakers discussing the importance of adoption and need for foster parents on July 26, 2009. There will be a Fall festival to promote being a foster parent, inviting current foster parents and foster children to speak on behalf of Al-hajj in October. There will be a Thanksgiving Dinner held in November and employees, foster parents, etc. to invite those that have expressed the desire to be a foster parent. Calendar

10. Budget

11. Evaluation • Surveys will be given to the audience that attends each meeting that will ask the participant to evaluate the meetings effectiveness as a whole and ask for any comments or opinions as to how to make the meetings more effective. • The corporation will look into the records of those that attend the meetings and compare the outcomes of how many foster parents are accumulated over the next eight months.