What we are doing in Idaho.
Mission
We believe all children should have safety, rights, a family and a future.
Safety: Every child deserves the right to feel safe, and live a life free of neglect, abuse and violence.
Rights: Every child deserves dignity. They are human beings with their own individual human rights. They must be nourished to play, learn, develop, flourish and thrive.
Family: Every child deserves to live in a home that provides stability, care, safety, comfort, trust and love.
Future: Every child deserves a life free of oppression, full of love and opportunity to make informed decisions to shape their trajectory and future.
Vision
We are building a world free of family-induced trauma. Our flag stands for children. Our vision is to eradicate family-induced trauma, in Idaho and worldwide.
Value
For the Children Idaho promotes physical, emotional and spiritual healing for child victims of neglect, abuse, and abandonment through intervention camps and programs of education and advocacy throughout Idaho.
We treat all people with dignity, displaying acceptance, kindness, and compassion.
We are unrelenting in our service for the betterment of children, families and society.
We facilitate healing through connectedness.
We believe it is easier to build stronger children than to heal broken adults.
We believe safety and freedom from harm are basic human rights for all.
About Us
The Idaho chapter was started in 1991 with Tom and Margaret Turco. The Idaho camp was the 10th camp started across the world! With over 240 chapters now across North America and 12 additional countries, Idaho has been a leading force in healing the lives of children in Idaho and changing the trajectory of difficult stories for thousands of children in Idaho and beyond. Tom & Margaret were instrumental in helping start the RFK camps in Australia. Some of our very favorite volunteers still return to Idaho to continue to help our camp locally each year!
In 2016, Wendy Anderson stepped into the Director role for Idaho and has partnered with Tom and Margaret to continue to grow the program into the thriving chapter it is today. Wendy’s background in mental health, childhood development and experience in family dynamics and trauma, combines her passion and love for these children and families with the dynamic team of volunteers that serve these children each year at camp.
Through extensive TBRI training, trust, connectedness, play and a whole lot of heart and soul, our Idaho team continues to show up each year making moments matter for these children.
In November 2020, Royal Family Kids became For The Children due to the overwhelming demand met by the organization to expand well beyond Royal Family Kids’ Camps to outreach, education and advocacy in the community during the COVID pandemic. New name, but the same heart continues to pump through the organization and it’s many forms of outreach in the communities of Idaho.
30
years in Idaho
1500+
children served
in Idaho
10,000
volunteers hours annually
in Idaho
Camper "Quotables”
“Camp is my favorite place on the planet. Like, everyone know your name and likes you. My favorite part was the fishing and my buddy who was hillllarious.”
— Ryan
“Camp was the first place I ever met so many weird and happy people. It’s like they are all happy and love everyone every day. Except if you throw a rock or something, then they just help you figure out what you should have did instead.”
— Jake
My favorite part about camp was the fishing and the archery and the birthday party and the lake kayaking and woodshop and the singing and my buddy. He was the nicest buddy. Oh, I guess I liked everything about camp. I should have just said EVERYTHING!”
— Jazlyn
Same Heart, New Name, Bigger Impact.
We are now For The Children and here’s why.
For 30 years, volunteers, churches, businesses, local municipal partners and Royal Family Kids staff have dedicated their time, talent and treasures to help transform the lives of vulnerable children across the US, and world.
While RFK has formally overseen our camps and mentoring programs, the breadth of our work has evolved far beyond these two programs. Today we provide direct trauma intervention, advocacy, fostering, adoption, support to parents, and other crucial wraparound services.
While we acknowledge the expansion of our work across our 252 chapters, COVID-19 has profoundly increased the needs of children and families. Extreme gaps in fulfilling these needs cannot be overstated.
In order to address the systemic issues surrounding child welfare today, our organization must respond.
Consequently, as of November 2020, Royal Family KIDS, will officially be renamed For The Children. This transition will bring clarity to new opportunities, from providing laptops and shoes to needy children, to assisting overburdened social workers, to providing temporary shelter.
The teaching and example of Jesus in caring for “the least of these” will remain our motivation. As For The Children, we are also eager to focus on the systemic issues facing children, around the globe.
