Foster Marin

Foster kids in Marin? Who knew?

You might also be interested in our work for Foster-SF and San Francisco HSA. See it here and also here.

We also had an article published in Marin Magazine called The Foster Kids of Marin.

Foster Marin Campaign: They’re Not Foster Kids. They’re Marin Kids.

The Challenge

Marin County is one of the wealthiest communities in California, which creates a dangerous misconception. People assume there aren’t kids in need. But there are. Foster Marin needed to increase awareness of local foster youth, recruit new foster parents and volunteers, and overcome the belief that foster care is someone else’s problem.

The reality is simple. There are children in Marin who need homes, support, and community. The perception just didn’t match it.

The Strategy

We made the issue local. People are far more likely to act when they feel something is happening in their own community, so we reframed the category entirely.

They’re not foster kids. They’re Marin kids. Instead of presenting an abstract need, we made it personal. These aren’t distant stories. They’re your neighbors’ kids. Your kids’ classmates. Kids you already pass every day.

Creative Platform

“They’re Not Foster Kids. They’re Marin Kids.” The platform humanized foster youth by removing labels and replacing them with identity. The work focused on real kids and foster parents, real stories, and real lives inside the community. The tone was honest, direct, and human. It was designed to build empathy without guilt. Not to shock, but to connect.

Marin Foster Billboard by Division of Labor

Execution

Documentary-Style Video

We filmed real foster kids in Marin and gave them a voice to share what their lives are actually like. The work made the issue undeniable, not through statistics, but through lived experience.

Foster Parent Perspectives

As the campaign gained traction, we expanded the work to include foster parents. Their voices added credibility and relatability, evolving the message from awareness to action.

Multi-Channel Campaign

The campaign ran across digital video, mobile, social media, outdoor, direct mail, and email. Every touchpoint reinforced the same idea: these kids are already here.

Foster Marin Terrible Twos Billboard

Results

The campaign drove a measurable response from the community. Website traffic increased significantly, engagement grew across channels, and new volunteers stepped forward to get involved. It also helped generate additional funding to support ongoing outreach and programs for foster youth. More importantly, it shifted perception. Marin didn’t just become aware. It became involved.

Why It Worked

By reframing foster youth as part of the local community, the campaign turned empathy into responsibility. People didn’t feel like they were helping strangers. They felt like they were helping their own. And that changes behavior.

About Division of Labor

Division of Labor is a San Francisco advertising agency specializing in campaigns that change perception and drive action. We help organizations make invisible problems visible, turn abstract issues into human stories, and create work that motivates real-world behavior. Foster Marin partnered with Division of Labor to turn awareness into community engagement.

Campaign Overview

Foster Marin partnered with Division of Labor to launch a public service campaign reframing foster youth as members of the local community. Through documentary-style video, social media, outdoor, and direct outreach, the work increased awareness, drove volunteer engagement, and helped shift perception of foster care in Marin County.

WANNA KNOW MORE?

  • Marin Foster Care came to Division of Labor after our success with advertising campaigns for FosterSF. They saw what we did with the city of San Francisco worked to get more people interested in becoming foster parents in the city. Now we needed to do the same thing in Marin County. 

    As one of the wealthiest counties in California, the perception is that Marin doesn’t have much of a need to foster families. But in reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

    In 2023 we shot commercials and digital video with foster kids to hear a bit about what it’s like being a foster kid in Marin. After the success of those messages, we updated the campaign in 2024 and brought in some foster parents to hear their perspectives.

  • They’re not just foster kids. They’re Marin kids.

    The strategic idea was to go right at the perception that there are no foster kids in Marin. When people think about helping their neighbor’s kids or classmates from their kid’s school, they’re much more likely to get involved.

    The problem becomes very personal when they think about kids in need as Marin kids and not just random kids in the foster system. So we wanted those kids to speak and tell their stories and put themselves out there to show the community that they are real and regular and look and act just like any other Marin kid.

    We also wanted to highlight the contrast between the wealth of the community and the needs of the kids. But we had to do it in a subtle way that wouldn’t shame or guilt people.

  • The ad campaign ran as digital video, mobile video, digital banners, social media, and outdoor along with direct mail and email campaigns.

  • > Garnered record number of 2,344 site visits and 5,238 page views 

    > 50+ new volunteers as a result of the campaign

    > Raised funds for New Campaign and to build residences for Foster Youth