Local nonprofit Let It Be Us marks 10 years of helping kids find loving homes: 'The need is growing'

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Thousands of children enter foster care in Illinois every year.

“Oh, there are thousands, tens of thousands,” said Susan McConnell, who was shaking her head as she talked about the numbers.

McConnell was speaking from experience.

“I am an adoptive parent,” she said. “Through that, my eyes were open to foster care and adoption.”

McConnell has one biological child and three adopted children. She quickly learned that one of the biggest problems in the foster care system is that there aren’t enough foster homes.

“I've worked with [the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services] to recruit adoptive parents, and I saw that there were a lot of children in need of families,” she said. “And I knew, as an adoptive parent, that there are a lot of families who wanted to adopt or foster children.”

McConnell began her journey volunteering with DCFS and the Heart Gallery, a photo listing and database of children in need of adoptive placements.

“This very large program is called Heart Gallery,” McConnell said. “Every state has one. It was time for Illinois to have that. Through that, I secured a role working with photographers in the state that would photograph these kids. I was able to see the kids, meet some of the kids, and I realized that the placements weren't happening.

“I saw children who were adorable. Some were not surrounded by a family or they were in group homes, and they were very clear they needed a family and seemed very alone. They would ask me if I was there to find them a family.”

In 2014, McConnell founded Let it be Us, a 501c3 nonprofit that looks for adoptive and foster parents for children in need of good homes.

“There was a chasm between the two populations: the children in need [and] the families who were looking to foster or adopt,” McConnell said. “Really no way for the two to connect.”

Connection is what it's all about, McConnell added. She said Let It Be Us acts as a bit of the middleman and serves as recruiters — especially for special needs children.

“We will work on placement for 900 cases, in which about 20% – 25% of those will be in need of adoption,” McConnell said. “Some kids have anxiety, depression, sexual abuse, some kids have to go into families with only women, kids who need a family who is LBGTQ friendly, some have Down Syndrome, autism.”

McConnell said Illinois ranks last or almost last in securing adoption for waiting children, and the need is still overwhelming.

“Imagine our world if we had enough licensed foster homes so those kids could go to the right homes,” she said. “I can't imagine it will ever stop. The need is growing. All of those issues, poverty, unemployment, issues with drugs are growing.”

“Let It Be Us” is one of its kind and is now celebrating 10 years of connecting kids to loving homes.

McConnell reflected on the decade of success and on what her own adoptive kids think of what's become her life's mission.

“It's a great comfort,” she said. “They are very proud of me. It makes me cry to think about it. At this age, they are coming to terms and what it means to come to a family through adoption. They have relationships with their birth families. They are doing a really good job balancing the two.

“They aren't really paying attention to me,” she laughed.

McConnell said her children have known their biological families their entire lives.

Through Let It Be Us, McConnell said they can help caseworkers get cases resolved in minutes or hours — rather than in days, weeks or never.

Let It Be Us is recognized by the Human Rights Campaign All Children All Families program as a Building Towards Inclusion child welfare agency. Let It Be Us believes LGBTQIA+ identifying foster parents and children in care deserve respect and love.

“Permanency is the strongest thing you can give a child,” McConnell said. “If you can place them in the right homes, they will have better outcomes.”

For more information about Let it be Us, log onto letitbeus.org

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