This year, the UP Foundation rolled into Idaho with a total of $170,000 for 37 nonprofits! Children’s Home Society of Idaho was one of those nonprofits and is grateful for the $7,500 awarded to provide mental, emotional and behavioral health care to low-income children and families in southwest Idaho.  

“Union Pacific is proud to support these charitable organizations,” said Robert W. Turner, Union Pacific senior vice president, Corporate Relations and Union Pacific Foundation president. “It is important that we help these groups continue to make positive impacts in the towns and cities where many of our employees live and work.”

Thanks to Union Pacific Railroad and its Foundation!

We hope you’ll get involed in Idaho Gives and that you’ll consider making a pledge to your favorite nonprofit. Of course, we hope that nonprofit is Children’s Home Society but, really, support for any nonprofit in our state is a great investment.

Make your Idaho Gives donation to Children’s Home Society now!

With access to care, children and families are able to build coping skills to deal with life-challenging issues and to become happy, healthy, independent and productive community members. Without care, they are likely to drop out of school, become entangled in the juvenile justice system, engage in violent acts, and/or die by suicide. Sadly, we see evidence of this far too often.

This year’s gift of $21,000 from United Way of Treasure Valley will provide 420 subsidies for low-income children and family members in need of mental, emotional or behavioral health care at Children’s Home Society’s Warm Springs Counseling Center. This will greatly help ensure access for all and, as a result, build a stronger, healthier community. Thank you, United Way!

Gladys E. Langroise

With treatment and care, children develop coping skills to overcome life challenges, succeed in educational settings, and lead happy, independent and productive lives. The end result is a stronger, healthier community. Many thanks to the Gladys E. Langroise Advised Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation and to all of you who allow us to continue our great work.

This grant will pay for 150 counseling and therapy sessions for low-income clients at our Warm Springs Counseling Center. Thank you UP!  This is great news for children and families in our community who have mental, emotional and/or behavioral health issues but cannot afford to pay or co-pay for treatment.

UP is a fan of our community and Idaho in general. We’re just one of many who received support this year. The Foundation has distributed funds to nonprofits in communities served by Union Pacific since 1959. We’re so grateful… Thanks again!

The stories we found during this quest, have been nothing short of amazing and unbelievable. To date, with the help of private donors and Boise City Department of Arts and History, more than 6,000 records of adopted and non-adopted children have been indexed, digitized, and stored. Now, with the celebration of Boise’s 150^th anniversary, we have turned our attention toward the next phase of this project, which is to create an oral and visual display which chronicles the stories from “Inside These Walls” for the past 105 years. This is of great interest to the community, especially in the context of BOISE 150, as many people are fascinated with what went on here in the past, and are very curious about what happens here today. The display will be unveiled here at an open house on April 25, and shown again at the BOISE 150 Sesqui-Shop in June. 

Without a doubt, the beautiful building on Warm Springs Ave., the 6,000 children who once lived here, and the 90 children and family members that our counseling center currently helps each and every day are truly part of Boise’s collective identity-past, present and future.

Please enjoy the teaser video of this project below.

“After the experience in Newtown I [Ann Curry] thought, ‘What if? Imagine if everyone could commit to doing one act of kindness for every one of those children killed in Newtown.’ So that’s what I tweeted. And guess what? People committed. I said in my tweet, ‘I’m in. RT if you’re in.’ Not only did they commit to 20 acts of kindness, they wanted to up it to 26 acts of kindness for every child and adult who was lost at the school.”

The first time Children’s Home was touched by #26 Acts was December 21, one week after tragedy struck Sandy Hook Elementary. An online anonymous donation came through with a note saying that one dollar was being donated for each victim at Sandy Hook Elementary. Wow.

Today, we received a child’s game from the Amazon Fulfillment Center from another anonymous donor. The note read, “Hey Kids! I hope that you love the game it is pretty fun (as I’ve heard). I wish every single one of you the best!!! –Anonymous <3 (In honor of the 26 Sandy Hook angels).” We are so unbelievably touched by this act and know our therapists and clients will love playing this game during their therapy sessions. Thank you.

“I know the truth: if you do good, you feel good. It’s the most selfish thing you can do. Right now, this country wants to heal. I think the only thing comforting in the face of a tragedy like this is to do something good with it if you can. Be a part of that wave.”- Ann Curry

So… what will you do?

We would like to thank the following donors in the Idaho Community Foundation for their very generous support:

• The Kissler Family Foundation Philanthropic Gift Fund 
• Walter and Leona Dufresne Fund 
• The Fund for Joe’s Kids 
• Harold E. Rumsey Fund

The Touchstone program strives to provide a supportive environment for children, adolescents, and their families who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or close family member. Participants meet twice monthly in peer support groups facilitated by trained volunteers to process the pain of sadness and grief. The Touchstone program is free to ensure access to all.

Social Good Network lets you turn your everyday online purchases into support for your favorite cause(s). Purchases from hundreds of major retailers don’t cost anything extra, but earn donations that you direct to any of the 1.6 million nonprofits on our site. It’s free and easy to make a difference whenever you shop for your cause through Social Good Network. Confused? Check out the FAQs.

All donations that Children’s Home receives from Social Good Network will go directly to our Community Sponsorship Program. A $50.00 donation will pay for one treatment subsidy and a $250 donation will pay for five. Talk about making an impact, wow!

Are you ready to get started? Signup here. 

Thanks in advance for your support!

We are very grateful. This gift will provide 100 subsidies to low-income children for couseling and therapy at our Warm Springs Counseling Center. The services offered at the center help at-risk children develop coping skills, attitudes and positive experiences necessary to succeed in educational settings, and lead happy, healthy, independent and productive lives. The result is a positive impact on the health and well-being on the Treasure Valley community. Thank you Bank of America!