Awareness Event 

Annual Awareness Campaign 
In My Shoes hosted its event in May because May is National Foster Care Awareness month. At the 2008 event, youth and alumni created posters which illustrated a statistic or truth about foster care and a quote about how it personally effected their life. These posters were displayed throughout the month of May at a local mall to help create awareness in our community.  On three of those days, youth and alumni from the awareness committee passed out brochures, talked about statistics of youth in and from foster care and gave people examples of how they could make a difference in the life of a child or youth in care.  

Shoe Drive
One of the ways we offered people to help was through a shoe drive benefiting children and youth in care.  Over 300 children and youth were interviewed about their age, shoe size, shoe type, favorite activities, years in care, and what they wish for in life.  As a call to action, we filled out unidentifiable shoe cards with the responses from the youth and people were asked to purchase a new pair of shoes for a child or youth in foster care.  In addition to creating awareness about children, through the shoe drive, all 300 children and youth in foster care, were able to receive new shoes!  In My Shoes is grateful for the opportunity to have been able to raise awareness and get so many new pairs of shoes though the community and especially to Calvary Chapel of Tucson, whose members made the shoe drive such a huge success.

Blue Ribbon-Heart Gallery Event
The In My Shoes Public Awareness Campaign Committee joined forces with several other foster care agencies to host the 2008 Blue Ribbon-Heart Gallery Event held at Thoroughbred Nissan.

This event was held at Thoroughbred Nissan. In My Shoes built an exhibit display to showcase the many unheard voices of foster care. One side of the display was a mock “living room”.  The display portrayed non-traditional families that children, youth, and adults in and from foster care experience. The display also featured local, state, and national statistics about foster care. Thanks to the generosity of Thoroughbred Nissan, the display remained in the main show room for nearly two months. The free event provided food, entertainment, games, and jumping castles for families and community members to enjoy.  In attendance were many people from our community including, agency representatives, foster children, foster parents, alumni and others. All were able to hear speeches from many great speakers including some from our In My Shoes community.  Jarred Vincent, an In My Shoes Mentor Emceed the event. Lupe Tovar, our Program coordinator; and one of our Youth Advisory Board members, Serina Castillo spoke on behalf of the In My shoes Program and personal experiences shared by foster care youth and alumni. Our Board of Director member; the Honorable Joan Wagener, spoke on behalf of her position as a Judge in Pima county and her passion for the work that the community can do to impact the lives of youth in care. Community members who spoke were the owner of Thoroughbred Nissan, Oscar Campos and John Lohrman; Lillian Downing, representing CPS; Tucson’s Mayor Bob Walkup and Arizona’s United States Congressman Raul Grijalva complete the list of guest speaker’s for this collaborative event. 

To be a part of the 2009 Public Awareness Campaign Committee, please send us a volunteer interest form.

To become a sponsor or partner for this event, please contact us. You can also give a tax deductable donation on our donations page.