Impact Story: The Diaz Siblings
“Mateo and Maya Diaz” are energetic, inquisitive and resilient young kids.
Child Protective Services was recently alerted that substance abuse and domestic violence was prevalent in the Diaz home. Mateo and Maya’s aunt said the kids could stay with her while CPS worked to stabilize the Diaz home. The kids were dropped off on a Thursday morning.
That Thursday night, the aunt called the CPS caseworker and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this. Please come get the kids, now.” The CPS caseworker knew where to turn.
At 10:30pm, the caseworker called, “Anthony”, an AFS Intake Coordinator and explained the situation. Anthony had a perfect foster home in mind, the “Garcia Family.” So, Anthony called Mrs. Garcia’s cell phone at 11:00pm with a big ask, “Would you be willing to take in Mateo and Maya.” Mrs. Garcia consulted her husband and unequivocally said, “yes.”
While the Garcia’s prepared their home, an AFS caseworker went to the aunt’s house in the middle of the night to pickup Mateo and Maya and drove them to the Garcia’s home. The caseworker stayed at the Garcia home until they were able to get the kids settled.
Now, AFS will work with the county and the Diaz family provide the necessary services to make sure the Diaz home becomes a safe and stable environment for Mateo and Maya to return to. The Garcia family will ensure that the kids continue to learn and thrive while in their care.
The support of our donors have provided the resources to make sure that the Diaz kids have the critical needs and services necessary to have some semblance of normalcy. Art supplies, new PJs and toys are examples of items AFS purchases to help foster homes care for kids. In the end, the AFS community comes together for each and every one of our clients to ensure they have a safe, stable and permanent home.
If you would like to make a donation to provide critical needs for the foster youth cared for by AFS, please click here.
Note: The identifying details of this story have been changed to protect client confidentiality.