here's what we've done

• district of columbia
• fairfax county
• montgomery county
• los angeles city & county

Foster Care & Adoption

Client
Fairfax County Foster Care & Adoption (FCFCA) is responsible for placing and supervising abused, neglected, or dependent children and youth (from infancy to age 18) who have been separated temporarily from their parents and placed in the legal custody of Family Services.

Challenge
Although the county is one of the nation's most diverse, for several years FCFCA recognized a shortage of African-American and Hispanic foster and adoptive parents. Maintaining a balance between the many cultures of children in need of homes and the pool of foster and adoptive families was crucial to the program's continued success.

Enter Reingold
In 2003, FCFCA and Reingold began a partnership to raise awareness about foster care and adoption, especially among African-Americans and Hispanics. We created new messages, new positioning, and a new identity for the agency; re-branded the organization with a new logo; and developed creative collateral materials, including brochures, posters, and fliers that were translated into Spanish as needed. We also conducted media relations, created and placed PSAs, and developed an ambassador program to train and equip foster and adoptive parents to recruit volunteers. In 2006, we followed up with market research and program evaluation to identify the factors that keep adults involved in FCFCA, as well as factors that turn others away. We continued our efforts with training and outreach materials, including a brochure called "Becoming a Foster and Adoptive Parent," a reference notebook for foster families, and an "icebreaker" brochure to help foster parents, birth parents, and social workers cooperate on behalf of a child.

Results
Reingold's FCFCA logo won the American Graphic Design Award for best logo, and our robust outreach and education materials successfully fortified the agency's foster parent recruitment and retention.