SOS programs and services are designed to give vulnerable children the resources, knowledge, and experiences they need to become healthy, thriving adults. These programs guide children toward wise choices for better health, social skills, education, and career options.

This one-of-a-kind program helps biological parents conquer substance abuse while remaining part of their children's lives. Professional foster parents take care of the children while the biological parent, living in an attached apartment, receives intensive treatment and training. The family stays together, receiving the care and support it needs to become self-reliant and independent.

Children in traditional foster care often feel tremendous anxiety, grief, and guilt over the loss of their family, not only parents but brothers and sisters. SOS Children's Villages Illinois provides a permanent home where children can grow up with their siblings. In this family environment, children develop lasting relationships and regain their sense of family identity. SOS Children's Villages strives to keep as many as five siblings in a single home. In one case, seven siblings stayed together at SOS until they were old enough to live on their own.

This forward-looking program helps young mothers become self-sufficient and reduce the risk of repeat pregnancies. Living in a stable, nurturing home with adult supervision, teen mothers attend school while learning job and childcare skills. Support services from community and state resources put young mothers and their children on the path to a better future.

Teenagers who have weathered neglect and abuse at home, compounded by multiple placements in foster care, may not be ready to live on their own when they turn 18. At SOS Children's Villages, teens get the support and mentoring they need to become self-reliant adults. The Independent/Transitional Living program prepares them to apply for a job, find housing, shop for groceries, pay their bills and balance their budget. Mentors and a full-time caseworker help youths connect to community-based resources, health care, schools, recruitment agencies and financial institutions to make the transition easier.

In-home family services help families build on their strengths, tackle tough problems, and stabilize to help youth deal with issues related to gang involvement or intimidation, delinquency, academics, and relationships. The services provided serve two purposes: 1) address high-risk behavioral situations at a critical point in a youth’s life to offset the likelihood of becoming gang involved; and 2) help decrease family crisis to prevent youth from being removed from home due to behavioral challenges and/or parenting issues. Our staff work in the family home and community, for three months, to help parents gain effective parenting skills, attain support services, resolve conflict and crisis, deter gang involvement and improve social, life, coping and academic skills.