Residential Group Care Program

Everyday Blessings provides care and nurturing for up to 30 children while they await permanent placement. 

Strong emphasis is placed on the quality of care

• Caregivers live on campus full time with children.
• Everyday Blessings attempts to keep sibling groups together.
• Children are assigned mentors and tutors.
• Children are active and involved in leisure and sports activities.
• Children receive age-appropriate therapeutic services.
• On-grounds nursery and daycare for children under school age

Children in the residential program:

• Range in age from newborn to 10 years old
• Come from all economic backgrounds and ethnic groups
• Have been removed from their birth parent’s home because of abuse and neglect

License
Everyday Blessings is licensed by the state of Florida as a Child Caring Agency

Funding
Everyday Blessings is a 501c3 nonprofit receiving partial funding from Hillsborough Kids, Inc. and partial funding from private donors.

Contact information  
            Pam Bell
            813/982-9226 ext. 231
            pbell@everybless.org

Residential Group Care – More Information

There are approximately 4,000 children in Hillsborough County who are in out-of-home care. When sibling groups come into care--groups as large as 5 or more children--there is seldom a single home with more than one or two available beds. Therefore, the Everyday Blessings residential facility serves as an alternative in order to keep these siblings together. In their present situation, all they have is one another.

The Everyday Blessings residential program is designed to serve up to 30 children at any given time. These children are matched with live-in caregivers (a 4:1 ratio). Together they live in a two-room efficiency. The live-in caregiver fulfills the role of "parent" to these children from 4:30 in the afternoon until 8:30 in the morning Monday-Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. They go on recreational, educational and church outings as a "family."

Monday through Friday, children who are of school age or who qualify for Head Start, attend school daily. Younger children attend the on-site day care center where each one receives the nurturance and developmental stimulation appropriate to each one's age.  In the evening, everyone eats dinner prepared in the central kitchen and dining room. After a period of outdoor play, they each go to their "home" within the larger facility where the bed and bath routine begins. After a busy day, once the children have become acclimated to the environment, they sleep soundly until morning. The same person who has put these children to bed is the person who greets them in the morning.

The greatest challenge of the residential program is to recruit, train and retain mission-minded live-in caregivers. The children come with behaviors that are indicative of abuse, neglect, frequent moves and accompanying attachment issues, insecurity and fear, confusion and anger. They are wonderful children--children who have not been told often enough just how beautiful they are. It takes a while to trust, it takes a while to believe, it takes a while to allow themselves to build a relationship--a relationship that will bring about behavioral change.

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.