WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED

The most essential part to starting the Kids' Turn program is having strong backing from the Family Law community. This means the Family Law judges know about your program, like it, and are willing to make referrals to it. It means Family Law attorneys will also make referrals, and will talk about the program, make donations and attend fund-raising events. If judges are willing to attend events, this can be very helpful to your fund-raising efforts.

Once you have the Family Law community on your side, you will need to create a Board of Directors. This may consist of attorneys, judges, mediators, mental health professionals, businessmen, fund-raising experts, and people with connections to the wealthy and/or the community's "movers and shakers." You will definitely need some "worker bees," who are willing to plan events, ask for donations, talk to people, sell tickets and participate in the overall fund-raising efforts.

As you begin to let your community know about Kids' Turn, you may want to focus early efforts on mental health professionals, and mediators. These will be valuable referral sources, people who may want to participate in supporting the organization. Following that, you may want to contact school counselors, principals, pediatricians and other professionals who regularly deal with children. These are people who can help you with referrals, who may be willing to support Kids' Turn financially, and who have probably seen firsthand how divorce can negatively affect children.

For detailed information on how to start a Kids' Turn affiliate or how to purchase the Kids' Turn curriculum, email us at kidsturn@earthlink.net.