Barrington resident Susan McConnell worked on a project for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for more than 10 years, recruiting foster families to adopt children.
“I saw that there was a huge gap between the kids who needed a family and families who wanted to adopt,” she recalled. “They just didn’t know about each other.”
McConnell, who has four children – three of whom are adopted – decided that, because her last child was heading to college, it was a good time for her to help address the gap she observed by starting a nonprofit. She founded Let it Be Us, a privately funded organization that helps children in foster care and those who are awaiting adoption.
One inspiration for her was a question she got from a 14-year-old boy who was living at a group home. McConnell said he asked her, “Do you think you could get me in a family so I can stay in one school so I could play football?”
McConnell started that organization in 2014 to address problems like the one faced by that boy and other youngsters in the foster care system, she said.
“We have a million dollar budget,” McConnell told Pioneer Press. “What makes us unique is we work in the gaps. We work where there is great need and no one’s there providing the solutions.”
In May, Let It Be Us celebrated its 10th anniversary, hosting a fundraiser gala at a time that also coincided with National Foster Care Month. Organizers report that about 250 people, from Barrington and nearby towns, attended the gala and helped to raise more than half a million dollars for the nonprofit.
“Foster care and adoption is one of our largest problems for children in Illinois and these are our most vulnerable children,” she said.
DCFS reports that there are currently thousands of children in the state’s foster care system.
“Illinois ranks last at just about everything within foster care and adoption,” McConnell reported. “And there really is no reason.”
She said that there aren’t enough foster parents “and we don’t have the right kind of foster parents. We need foster parents who have experience with children who have experienced trauma. We need teachers, guidance counselors, people who work in the medical field, experienced parents who had children with anxiety, depression, any parent who has experience with special needs.”
McConnell said that her organization locates those foster parents by using sophisticated marketing tools, holding webinars and utilizing digital marketing.
“By the time a person decides they’d like to be a foster parent, we’ve reached them multiple ways,” McConnell explained.
The organization has social workers as well as people experienced with data and with marketing among its staff of eight full-time employees.
“In 2023, we had 645 cases,” said McConnell. “In 2024, we’re [expecting] to have 900 cases. We’re able to provide a home for 75% of them.”
As executive director, McConnell’s work for the organization includes program design, implementation, and measurement. In addition, she is the voice of Let it Be Us, communicating with its board of directors, donors and the general public.
She earned a doctorate in social work from the University of Southern California. She is also a graduate of Cornell University’s Women in Leadership Program and Northwestern University’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program. Since 2017, McConnell has served as chair of the Permanency Committee of the Illinois Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council, she explained.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelancer.
