Make a Difference to Children Month: Small Actions Can Create Lasting Change

Every child deserves to feel safe, supported, heard, and valued. During July, National Make a Difference to Children Month reminds us that each of us can play a role in creating stronger futures for children.

Making a difference doesn’t always require a major commitment or a grand gesture. Sometimes it starts with one adult choosing to listen, showing up consistently, connecting a family with resources, or helping a child participate in an experience that makes them feel included.

For CASA Minnesota, that message is especially meaningful. Children involved in foster and kinship care may experience changes in their homes, schools, relationships, and routines. Having supportive adults and communities around them can help provide stability and connection during uncertain periods.

Every Child Needs Connection

Children need more than their basic needs met. They also need relationships with people who recognize their strengths, listen to their concerns, celebrate their accomplishments, and encourage their interests.

In Minnesota, thousands of children experience foster care each year. The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families reported that 5,570 children were in foster care during 2025. The department also emphasizes the importance of maintaining children’s relationships with their families and communities when they enter out-of-home care.

External Resource:
Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families – Changing Foster Care Through Connection

Those connections can come from many places.

Parents, relatives, foster parents, kinship caregivers, teachers, coaches, social workers, Guardians ad Litem, mentors, neighbors, and community volunteers can all become important parts of a child’s support system.

Make a Difference to Children Month gives us an opportunity to ask a simple question:

What can I do to make a positive difference for a child?

1. Listen to Children

One of the simplest actions adults can take is also one of the most important: listen.

Children need opportunities to express what they are experiencing, what they enjoy, what worries them, and what they hope for in the future.

Listening means giving children space to speak without immediately trying to correct their feelings or decide what they should want.

For children experiencing significant changes in their lives, knowing that an adult genuinely cares about their perspective can be especially meaningful.

2. Support Foster and Kinship Families

Making a difference for children can also mean supporting the adults caring for them.

Foster and kinship caregivers may be managing school schedules, appointments, transportation, extracurricular activities, financial responsibilities, and complicated family circumstances.

Minnesota offers resources for foster, adoptive, and kinship families, including training, financial assistance, counseling referrals, and connections to community services.

External Resource:
Minnesota DCYF – Adoption, Foster Care and Kinship Supports

Community members can help too.

Offering practical assistance, sharing trusted resources, helping with transportation, donating needed items, or simply checking in with a caregiver can strengthen the network surrounding a child.

3. Help Children Discover What They Love

Childhood should include opportunities to explore.

Sports. Art. Music. Swimming. Dance. Summer camp. Bicycling. STEM activities. Outdoor recreation.

These experiences aren’t just ways to fill a child’s schedule. They can help young people discover interests, develop skills, build confidence, make friends, and create positive memories.

That’s an important part of the work CASA Minnesota supports through CASA Cares.

CASA Cares provides enrichment grants for eligible Minnesota children in foster and kinship care, helping young people MOVE, CONNECT, and LEARN through activities and experiences that may otherwise be difficult to access.

Learn more:
CASA Minnesota – CASA Cares

A summer activity that may seem ordinary to one child can become an unforgettable experience for another.

4. Use Your Voice

You don’t have to work in child welfare to advocate for children.

Advocacy can start with learning about the challenges children and families face and helping others understand them.

Share reliable resources.

Support organizations serving children and families.

Learn more about foster and kinship care in Minnesota.

Encourage your workplace, community organization, faith community, or neighborhood group to support programs benefiting children.

Most importantly, pay attention when children and families tell us what they need.

5. Show Up Consistently

Children often remember the adults who consistently showed up.

The teacher who encouraged them.

The relative who attended their activities.

The coach who believed in them.

The caregiver who created stability.

The volunteer who listened.

The community member who helped open the door to a new opportunity.

No single person can solve every challenge facing children. But each person can decide to become part of a stronger network surrounding them.

Make a Difference Beyond July

National Make a Difference to Children Month takes place in July, but children need supportive communities throughout the entire year.

Making a difference can begin with something small: listening to a child, supporting a caregiver, sharing a resource, helping fund an enrichment opportunity, volunteering, or simply becoming more informed about the experiences of children in foster and kinship care.

When those individual actions are repeated across families and communities, small acts can become meaningful change.

This July, CASA Minnesota encourages Minnesotans to consider one action they can take to help a child feel safer, stronger, more connected, and more hopeful about what comes next.

Because making a difference in a child’s life doesn’t always start with doing something extraordinary.

Sometimes, it starts with simply choosing to show up.