Seattle, WA

Children's Home Society of Washington (CHSW) is thrilled to announce that on July 1, Youth Advocates (YA) will officially join us as a new and important part of our array of statewide programs benefiting children and families. The strengths of our two well-respected organizations, joined together as a valued team, will build a stronger foundation to better serve children and families.

We are pleased and enthusiastic about the creation of this new venture. The action comes after months of careful study by YA and CHSW leadership. This analysis showed many advantages to a CHSW-YA partnership:

• YA and CHSW are leaders in programs for children in foster care.
• Both organizations feature exceptional programs and professional support to make a foster home placement a positive experience for children.
• The new partnership will allow both organizations to build upon the success of existing infrastructures and strengthen and expand services to children and families in Washington's foster care system.

Youth Advocates will be a new and important part of CHSW's signature Out-of-Home Care programs - one of our six core services. Our new partnership will greatly contribute to CHSW's strategic goal to serve significantly more foster care children by 2010.

As always, we are appreciative of your thoughtful support and hope that you will be as pleased as we are about our new partnership. If you would like more information, please call Susan Maney, CHSW Director of Out-of-Home Care, at (206) 695-3242, or by e-mail at Susanm@chs-wa.org.