Our History

St. Francis Foundation, Inc. (a 501 (c) (3) not for profit corporation) is the parent agency of Everyday Blessings.   Everyday Blessings was founded in August of 1997 as a non-denominational, cooperative adoption agency and was licensed by the State of Florida as a Child Placing Agency in July 1998. At this same point in time, Everyday Blessings began offering foster parent recruitment, training and support. On January 25, 2003, Everyday Blessings received a second license through the State of Florida as a Child Caring Agency, adding residential group care as a third program St. Francis Foundation, Inc. This program houses and provides for the needs of 30 children at any given time.

Our Mission

Everyday Blessings stands as a nondenominational, faith-based “not for profit” child welfare agency whose mission is to provide services to abused, abandoned and neglected children with the ultimate goal of placing them into safe, stable and permanent homes.

Our Purpose

The purpose of Everyday Blessings is to ensure stability and permanency not only in the lives of children whose biological parent(s) recognize their inability to care for them, but also for children who have been permanently removed from their families due to neglect and abuse - children who otherwise would likely spend their childhood moving from home to home within the foster care system.

Everyday Blessings offers an alternative to abuse, neglect and lengthy stays in the foster care system. One woman who spent her childhood in the foster care system expressed that when she was a little girl being “thrown back and forth from one foster home to another. “I always dreamed that someone could adopt me and I could have a real family. But my parents kept getting custody of me, and then sending me away again. It was a very strange childhood to say the least!”

Everyday Blessings serves children without regard to race, gender or religious affiliation.

Who we Serve

1.  Children who are in need of temporary safe haven and those who are in need of permanent placement with a caring family.

These children come to us from homes where they have been abused, neglected of abandoned. They are in need of temporary foster homes that will give them safety, security and assistance while they await their uncertain fate. While there is always a primary goal of returning children to their biological family, this is not always possible. When children cannot return home then they must wait patiently for a new permanent adoptive family. Study after study has shown that the less time children have to spend in foster or institutional care, the better. Children languishing in foster care for long periods of time are known to develop a range of physical, emotional, social and spiritual problems that often perpetuate themselves over future generations of children. Families interested in adopting these children can qualify for State funding and support that make the cost of adoption virtually cost-free to the parents.

2.  Birth parent(s) who recognize their inability and/or lack of desire to parent at the present time, but who are reluctant to release their child(ren) to an unknown family.

Many of these birth parents are very young women, often teenagers, who are not ready or able to parent. Many of their children eventually suffer from abandonment, abuse or neglect, and end up in foster care where they can languish for years. Many will be shifted from one foster home to another, developing problems that adversely affect not only their own lives, but which also have a negative impact on the larger community.

3.  Adoptive parent(s) who are eager and willing to adopt children, but who may not have the financial resources to meet the exorbitant costs often associated with adoption.

Many qualified, loving families are eagerly hoping to provide safe, stable and permanent homes for children, but have not been able to pursue the adoption process because of the often exorbitant fees that most adoption agencies require. Everyday Blessings provides training and subsidies to adoptive families who have the love and stability to offer children. This will help to make adoption affordable to every socio-economic class of loving families.

4.  Community families who are interested in giving temporary care and shelter to disadvantaged children by becoming licensed foster families.

There is a chronic shortage of foster homes across the nation. The same is true in the Tampa Bay area where the most needed foster families are those who will take infants/newborns and/or older teenaged children. Everyday Blessings works to recruit and support families who have the heart and the passion to give any aged child a temporary haven of safety and support.

Our Services

Child Services: Everyday Blessings offers group care, clinical counseling, tutoring, educational, social and leisure activities, medical oversight, daycare and nursery programming, crisis intervention, case management, transportation and ongoing social/emotional supports.

Birth Parents: Whether you are just starting to explore adoption or you are searching for an adoptive family that fits what you are looking for, we can help you learn more about adoption and locate the resources you seek.

Adoptive Families: Everyday Blessings offers new family recruitment, family orientation and training, adoption readiness services, child matching and transition and adoptive family supports.

Foster Family Services: Everyday Blessings recruits foster families, helps them prepare for all State licensure requirements, offers orientation and training, provides supervision of the fostering process, and offers supports to the fostering family and child.

A Glossary

Adoption:
The permanent agreement to raise a child as your own, a child who is entitled to all that you are and all that you have, the same as if he/she had been born to you.

Foster Care:
The temporary care of a child while a decision is made regarding the future of that child. Such decisions include, but are not limited to, returning the child to his/her parents, placement with a relative caregiver, placement in an institutional setting, or termination of parental rights and the release of a child for adoption.

Foster-to-Adopt:
The temporary care of a child for whom the goal is Termination of Parental Rights and release for Adoption and for whom there is no identified placement. The child remains in the foster home with the family, first as a foster child and then is adopted by that family once the court proceedings result in his/her release for adoption. This alternative eliminates possible frequent moves for that child.

Termination of Parental Rights:
A court decision that is made as a result of abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment of the child. Termination of Parental Rights can occur if a parent:

- voluntarily surrenders his/her rights to parent the child

- fails to comply with the conditions necessary for regaining custody of the child

- is defaulted, because of his/her failure to be present at court hearings after having been subpoenaed to appear

- cannot be found even after a diligent search (specified by the laws of the State of Florida) has been conducted.

Open Adoption:
The process whereby the adoptive parent agrees to keep in touch with the birth parent, according to mutually agreed upon procedures. These agreements range from frequent direct contact between both parties or are limited to the sending of photos of the child to the birth parent, via the adoption agency, on an annual basis -- as long as the birth parent keeps the agency informed as to his/her whereabouts.

Special Needs Child:
- A child who has formed an emotional attachment to his/her caregiver and for whom a move would be traumatic.

- A Caucasian child who is 8 years of age or older.

- A minority child of any age.

- A sibling group of any race, any age.

- A child with mild, moderate, or severe physical, mental, or emotional handicaps.

Everyday Blessings
P.O. Box 1264, Thonotosassa, Florida 33592
Phone 813-982-9226 - Fax 813-986-0298 - Email everydayblessings@everybless.org

This initial website was produced with the generous assistance of the Children's Board of Hillsborough County.

Everyday Blessings is a Florida licensed child placing agency providing services to birth parents, adoptive/foster parents and, especially to children involved in the adoption process. It has complied with the standards set by the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families, for a child placing agency. As such it is licensed to operate as a child placing agency and this license shall continue in force and be renewed on the 25th day of July of each year. Our services are sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families. Other sponsors include the Children's Board of Hillsborough County as well as numerous foundations, corporations and individuals. Everyday Blessings is a program of St. Francis Foundation, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit Florida corporation. All donations are tax deductible.