Children’s Home & Aid’s Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Child & Family Center provides a temporary home for many of Illinois’ young children in foster care with severe mental health and behavior issues. The residential care and treatment center helps more than 60 children a year move forward and work toward returning to a stable home. Nestled in a residential neighborhood within the Evanston community, Children’s Home & Aid has provided residential services to children at this location for more than 100 years.
The primary goal of the Rice Center is to provide children with services designed to diagnose and treat behavioral challenges and to facilitate stable transitions to birth, foster, or adoptive families.
Residents of the Rice Center receive a range of therapeutic and rehabilitative stabilization services designed to address their emotional needs while providing a supportive environment that encourages personal growth. Services include a medical clinic, individual and group therapy services, family counseling, on-site special education facilities, and a vibrant Expressive Therapy program.
The Rice Center has been very successful at accomplishing its goal of transitioning children to a family. More than 84 percent of children leave the Rice Center for a less restrictive environment. Of those, 100 percent remained stable in their new setting during the critical 90-day period following their transition.
This success is dependent on the support of our community of donors and the vision of our Rice Leadership Committee. Each year, they raise vital funds to support the vulnerable children at the Center through an annual Chef’s Tasting event.
This year’s event, called Graze & Raise, features celebrity guest chef Gale Gand. A Chicago-based pastry chef, cookbook author, television personality, and two-time winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef, Gand will delight VIP attendees with a cooking demonstration and Q&A in the state-of-the-art demo kitchen at A. Perry Homes Design Studio on Feb. 23.
The Q&A is followed by the main event, a truly unique evening of fun libations and delicious tastings of food prepared by local chefs from area restaurants, catering companies, and beverage purveyors. The special evening allows guests to raise a glass, enjoy delicious bites, and raise critical funds for young children with severe mental health and behavior challenges.
To learn more, purchase tickets, or learn how to become a sponsor, visit childrenshomeandaid.org/graze-raise.
