History of the Organization

In 1988, St. Francis Foundation, Inc. was incorporated. Its first program, New Life Dwelling Place, was founded as a residential, educational program for foster children and their single-parent mothers. St. Francis Foundation, Inc. managed the New Life Dwelling Place Program with much success from 1986 through 1994. In 1994, the program merged with the Child Abuse Council. In 1999, it was closed.

On July 25, 1998, under the auspices of St. Francis Foundation, Inc. Everyday Blessings was licensed as a Child Placing Agency by the State of Florida. Currently, Everyday Blessings' Foster and Adoption Program recruits, trains and supervises prospective and licensed adoptive and foster families.

On January 25, 2003, again under the auspices of St. Francis Foundation, Inc. Everyday Blessings was licensed as a Child Caring Agency. In addition to food, clothing and shelter, Everyday Blessings' Residential Program provides tutoring, therapy and live-in caregivers, who act as surrogate moms and dads for children in the Hillsborough County foster care system.

In the fall of 2004, the organization learned about a unique program located in Rantoul, Illinois - a program that offered permanent homes to children in the foster care system, support to adoptive parents, and a new lease on life to senior citizens who became surrogate grandparents to the children.

In January, 2005, representatives of St. Francis Foundation, Inc. took the opportunity to travel to Rantoul to visit the program and to hear firsthand about its creation and operation from Brenda E-Heart, the founder of Generations of Hope. They came away convinced that the tremendous need for adoptive homes in Hillsborough County, Florida, could be met by this type of program.