Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation

🤖✨ FREE AI Camp This Summer ✨🤖

📅 Monday, June 22 – Thursday, June 25 | 11 AM – 5 PM
📍 Mesa Community College (MCC)

Are you 16–19 years old, living in Maricopa County, and have lived experience in foster care? Then this camp was built for YOU! 🙌

Here's what you'll get to do:
🎮 Play AI-powered games
🦸 Design your own personalized superhero avatar
🎨 Create your very own AI project
🎵 Explore how AI connects to music, sports, social media & more

And the best part? It's 100% FREE!
🍱 Lunch & snacks provided
🚗 Rideshare transportation to/from MCC included
💳 $100 Amazon gift card for completing all four days!

No experience needed, just bring your curiosity and your ideas! 💡

👉 Sign up here: https://fs25.formsite.com/AFFCF/7zkx3a6rho/index

If the sign-up list is full, don't worry. You'll be added to the waitlist and notified if a spot opens up!

A huge thank you to our amazing partners at Intel and Maricopa Community Colleges District for making this opportunity possible! 💙

🎓 Congratulations to our incredible Post-Secondary Scholars who recently graduated! ✨

Today, we celebrate YOU, your perseverance and every moment of hard work that brought you to this milestone. 💫 Graduating is no small feat, and you should be incredibly proud of everything you've accomplished. 🎉

As you step into this next chapter, remember: the skills, knowledge, and resilience you've built don't stay in the classroom, they go wherever you go. 🚀 The world is ready for what you have to offer.

We are so proud of you and cheering you on every step of the way. Go out there and shine! 🌟

This National Foster Care Month brings an extra reason to celebrate. 🎉Our CEO, Luis, has been named a 2026 Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) Angels in Adoption® Honoree for the State of Arizona.

Each year, the non-partisan U.S. Congressional Coalition on Adoption honors one individual per state for their extraordinary contributions to adoption, foster care, permanency, and child welfare. Luis was selected at the recommendation of members of the Arizona Congressional Delegation in recognition of his lasting positive impact on the child welfare community. 🧸💚

This recognition is a reflection not only of Luis's leadership, but of the collective work of everyone on our team and in our community. Every caregiver, caseworker, donor, and volunteer is part of the story being honored this month. 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒📖

Will you join us in saying thank you to the people that show up every day? 👐

Share your note of thanks here 👉 https://forms.gle/R1hBbVKAYGxWtYiq6

Leadership Change: A Message of Gratitude and our Continued Commitment to Arizona’s Children

For over 40 years, the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation (AFFCF) has been dedicated to its mission: to provide the children in our state's foster care system with the opportunities they deserve.

Today, we are sharing that President & CEO Luis De La Cruz will be stepping down at the end of August, wrapping up a remarkable 4-year run leading the organization. The transition has been thoughtfully planned in partnership with the AFFCF Board of Directors, and Luis will remain at the helm until August 31, 2026 to continue the life-changing impact we provide to youth and families we serve.

The programs AFFCF has built, from career coaching for aging-out youth to scholarships, enrichment activities, and more, are a testament to what this community has made possible together. That work continues, full speed ahead.

Read the full announcement here: https://www.affcf.org/message_of_gratitude/

Bright smiles, bright futures!🌟 Every young person deserves a future they can believe in. 🔑This National Foster Care Awareness Month, we're celebrating the Keys to Success program, Arizona's only program of its kind dedicated to young adults ages 16–26 who are aging out of foster care. 💚

Through individualized career planning, education support, housing assistance, and financial literacy, KTS meets youth where they are and walks with them toward where they want to go. 🚀

This May, we applaud every current and graduated Keys youth for their hard work and successes! 👏

👉 Learn more about this program affcf.org/keys-to-success

Every graduate deserves to feel celebrated for all they’ve overcome and achieved. 💐✨

We want to send a HUGE heartfelt thank you to our Graduation Gift Sponsor 🎁, Valley Bloom 🌷, for helping make this milestone even more meaningful for youth in and aging out of foster care. 🧸 Your thoughtful contribution is more than just a present, it is a physical reminder of how far these students have come, the brilliance they carry, and the community cheering them on every step of the way! 👣

Because of your generosity, our graduates will leave this celebration feeling seen, supported, and deeply celebrated. 🌟🎓

This is why we do what we do. 💛🧸

Six years of music. Six years of joy. Six years of a dream made possible because of YOU. 🎶✨

This National Foster Care Awareness Month, we're celebrating the incredible young people in our community and the supporters who help them thrive. 🌱🚀

AFFCF's Childhood Activities program was created to provide enriching moments to children in foster care, giving them the experiences they need to build their confidence and achieve their dreams. 💭

Learn more about this program: www.affcf.org/childhood-activities

We’re SO excited to share what YOU and Light the World Giving Machine made possible for AFFCF this past giving season 💛🌟

Because of this incredible community that showed up for us statewide, we received:
🚗 654 driver’s license
📚 2,644 books
🥗 190 pantry staples
⚽ 227 childhood activities
👕 and 877 clothing items

THAT'S 4,592 MOMENTS OF JOY to children and youth in foster care across Arizona. 🧸🌵

To everyone who gave at the machines, thank you for showing up in such a meaningful way. 🤗 And to Light the World, thank you for helping us continue our mission to support and uplift youth in foster care, one gift at a time. 🎁💝

See you there! 🥰

The Back 2 Summer Event is here!

Please spread the word! Spreading Threads Clothing Bank will host our next event this coming Saturday, May 9th from 9 am to 1 pm.

Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation will be in the house, sponsoring our 4th annual Back 2 Summer event! Free goodies available include beach towels, flip flops, sunglasses, pool toys, swimwear, etc.

🛍️ Bring your own shopping bags

👕 Spreading Threads is a clothing bank open to all AZ kinship, foster, foster-adoptive, and DCS guardianship families. Each child can pick two new outfits and a pair of pajamas every month.

🆓 All items are FREE, first-come-first-serve, and while supplies last.

✅ We must have your paperwork for each eligible child. We accept Notice to Provider or Adoption Court Orders. Paperwork not already on file with us should be emailed in advance to [email protected]. Be sure you have this paperwork available when you come to our event in case we need to see it again.

📌 We are located at 2945 N. Flowing Wells. Parking is in the front while our main entrance is at the rear. Look for the bright green trim! For more information, visit spreadingthreads.com.

⏰ Save the date: Christmas in June happens at our June Second Saturday event (June 13th).

See you Saturday!