A year of gratitude and growth: reflecting on 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on what has been a monumental year for DCFS, my first as director and the 60th anniversary of the agency’s founding. It has been a year of growth, progress and a deepened commitment to the children, youth and families we serve.?

This year, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible dedication of everyone who works with us—our foster and adoptive parents, our guardians, as well as to our hardworking staff, more than 20 advisory groups and our community partners who continue to help us provide specialized care and support to every child and youth—as well as our families—in Illinois.?I want to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you. Your commitment to the children, youth and families we serve makes an immeasurable difference to the lives of those in our care.

To all the foster, guardian and adoptive parents – a simple thank you would never be enough. Your dedication, compassion and unwavering commitment to the children you love and care for are a shining example of our mission in action. Your role is essential, and your support creates the foundation for children to build brighter futures by ensuring they thrive in the safe and loving environments you’ve built.?

To our birth parents striving each and every day to overcome difficult challenges and build a better life for yourselves and your children – we see you and stand next to you.?Your commitment, resilience and strength is inspiring and your children will benefit from your hard work for years to come.

Equally, I want to acknowledge and thank our incredible workforce. Whether you are working directly with families, supporting our outreach efforts or ensuring our operations run smoothly behind the scenes, each of you plays a vital role in our success. This year, we added 718 employees to our DCFS family, and I’m proud to say that we are stronger than ever with the largest workforce in over 15 years!?

Together, we reached several significant milestones that demonstrated our continued growth and commitment to serve the people of Illinois. Among these, we launched IllinoisConnect and the SAFE Model within SCR. We opened our first nine Emergency Reception Homes across the state, to help ensure that no child or youth ever has to spend a night in an office. We continued to support the educational future by awarding 352 scholarships to current or former youth in care through the Illinois DCFS Scholarship Program, which includes up to five consecutive years of tuition and mandatory fee waivers at trade schools, colleges, universities and community colleges. We expanded community access by opening the first Asian American Family Advocacy Center in the state, to reach underserved Asian American families better and provide them with better access to resources they need in the language they speak. We also invested millions in our capital development program, creating more than 80 new specialized program beds across the state. Perhaps most importantly, we increased the number and percentage of youth who achieved permanency, ending 2024 with the best permanency achievement rate DCFS has had in at least the last eight years!

Looking to 2025, our vision remains clear: to ensure every child and youth can grow and thrive in a family.?We remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting children, youth and families in ways that reflect our core values of family-focus, integrity, respect, empathy and equity at every stage of their journey. As we strive to ensure all families have access to the tools, resources and encouragement they need to succeed, a big part of our focus in 2025 will be to approach our work from the perspective of the youth and families we serve and what they need to feel safe and connected.

I am excited to announce that 2025 will be an even bigger year for DCFS as we work to unveil a fresh look for the agency with updated branding and a new logo. This rebranding reflects our continued commitment to innovation and collaboration as we build on the work we’ve done over the past 60 years and look toward a transformed system of child and family wellbeing in the years ahead.

I am sincerely grateful for all that we accomplished together in 2024. As we move forward, we will achieve much more. I look forward to continuing our partnership and reaching new milestones in the coming year.

Wishing you the warmest of holidays and a joyful and fulfilling New Year!

Sincerely,

Heidi Mueller

Director, Illinois DCFS