An Important Update From AOK

Dear AOK Community,

We are excited to share an important update about the future of All Our Kids. After a challenging year, we are sharing this update with renewed hope and a great deal of enthusiasm: it is time to write AOK’s next chapter!

While our Community Closet at 6 Open Square Way has closed and our traditional day-to-day operations have changed, All Our Kids is not going away. Instead, we are returning to our roots and the community-centered approach that has always been at the heart of AOK — creating opportunities for foster, adoptive, and kinship families to connect, support one another, and build a stronger community together, while doing so in a way that is sustainable for the future.

AOK's greatest strength has never been a building. It has always been our people. AOK is moving toward a model that combines the best of what we have learned over the years:

• AOK Events: In-person AOK events and gatherings that give foster, adoptive, and kinship families opportunities to connect, have fun, share experiences, and build community. Thank you to those who attended our first pop-up at Seconds Thrift! Please stay tuned for more information about future pop-ups and add our upcoming events to your calendar:
  • October 3rd: Fall Farm Event
  • December 12th: Holiday Party
• AOK Connect: Our private online community, will remain a place for caregivers to ask questions, share resources, celebrate victories, seek support, and connect with others who understand the journey. If you need clothing, diapers, etc. please post on the online community or email an AOK team member directly – we still have loads of items in our storage unit that we want to share with our families!
• AOK Website: Online resources and the AOK website will continue to provide information and tools for families and caregivers. Whenever you meet a new foster family, please be sure to share our name and website with them! 
• AOK in the Community: Partnerships and collaborations will remain an important part of our work as we look for new ways to support children and families throughout our region. Thank you to MSPCC for keeping the holiday event going and collaborating with AOK!

The needs of foster, adoptive, and kinship families have not gone away. If anything, the importance of connection, community, and support has become even clearer.  We want this next chapter to be shaped by the people we are – the AOK Board of Directors are a group of foster and adoptive parents – and the people we serve. We welcome your ideas, your creativity, your partnerships, and your willingness to help us imagine what AOK can become.

We are incredibly excited to see you at an AOK event again. We are excited to continue seeing you support one another online. And we are excited to discover, together, what this next chapter can look like.

Thank you for believing in All Our Kids.

Thank you for showing up for children and families.

If you are inspired to support our work, please consider donating [HERE] as we work towards the goal of hiring a parttime grant writer and to keep our storage unit going. If you have any ideas about fundraising, events, connections with local government officials, please email us at kbergendahl@fosteringaok.org or reach out on AOK Connect.

With gratitude and hope,

The All Our Kids Board of Directors