The Life Book Project

Life Book Project 

For more than 113 years, Association House has worked with Chicagoans who seek tools to lead better lives.  Association House is based in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and offers programming locally and city-wide to a multicultural, mostly Latino and African-American, population of all ages. Association House provides immediate assistance and helps participants gain independence through programs across five service areas: community services, from basic needs to job training; child welfare; behavioral health; out-of-school time programs for children and teens; and El Cuarto Año, an alternative high school. These bilingual, evidence-based programs, conducted by seasoned staff in a caring, welcoming environment, give motivated participants a cohesive safety net to turn to throughout life.

Child Welfare Division

What is a Life Book?

Many of us have photo albums, baby books, & family mementoes to chronicle our lives. However, many of our foster children are simply not that fortunate. Association House wants to change this by ensuring that every foster child has a Life Book to follow him or her throughout life’s journey.  The Life Book is a document for a child’s history; it celebrates milestones and allows his or her talents to shine. It is a record of a child’s life in his or her own words using photos, artwork, and keepsakes found along the way. It allows a child to honor life, one day - and one event - at a time.

How will the Life Book Change the Life of a Child?

A Life Book is a useful tool for any stage of foster care or adoption.  It can…

• Enrich the relationship-building process.
• Prepare a child for return to his or her birth family. It can document accomplishments while in care, and keep track of the important people in his or her life.
• Help prepare a child for adoption. It can bridge connections for the birth family & the adoptive family.
• Promote self-awareness and self-esteem. When a child looks through his or her history, he or she may better understand how life has come to be thus far, as well as who to reach out for when in need, and the strengths he or she has which will then nurture resiliency.
• Advance levels of creativity and self-expression within the child.

Want to Help? Here's How!

Getting the Life Book into the hands of over 100 deserving children will take a tremendous effort.  To print the 4,000 pages necessary to fill 100 books will cost as much as $1,800.  Right now, Association House is asking for your support for the printing process.  How can you help? Please…

Association House is currently in the planning process for this project. A Life Book layout has been chosen and will be available in English and Spanish. It is our dream to provide a Life Book to each of the 100 foster children by June 21, 2012. Foster Parents will receive an overview of the importance of the Life Book and will be trained on how to develop and maintain the book.

If you would like more information regarding this project, please contact Tina Leeson at 312.437.1968 or via email at tleeson@associationhouse.org .

Thank you for all of your support!