When you say “YES” to joining our vision, you are saying “YES” to helping children and families locally, nationally, and globally.
The expansion and modernization of the Joe K. Blanton Campus in Lakeland is pivotal to impacting waiting children and families with the resources and tools they desperately need.
We are ready to meet the urgent nutritional, educational, financial, and spiritual needs of vulnerable children and struggling families on a revitalized campus, but we need your financial support.
One More Child has been providing life-changing hope for children and families from our global headquarters at the Lakeland campus for decades.
Our plan is to continue our successful programs to serve foster children, trafficking survivors, single moms, hungry children, and struggling families in the region, while growing our efforts through an expansion of our Lakeland campus that will transform the community like never before.
Your generous gifts will:
- Build more homes for incredible single moms and their children who are ready to thrive
- Provide more hungry children and struggling families with the resources and support they desperately need
- Meet the needs of foster children and foster families
This expansion will provide the opportunity for churches, businesses, community groups, and individuals to serve together to strengthen the community and make lasting change.
We are ready to meet the urgent needs of vulnerable children and struggling families on a revitalized campus but we need your financial support.
When you say, “YES” to joining our vision, you are saying, “YES” to helping Lakeland come together, like never before.
what it takes
Shared vision like never before.
Generosity like never before.
Mentorship like never before.
Volunteering like never before.
Prayer like never before.
challenges
Where change is needed in and around Lakeland
Support, encourage, and equip single moms to lead their families well.
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- 80% of single-mom headed households with children in Polk County do not bring in enough income to meet their family’s basic needs.1
- 13% of households with children in Polk County are headed by single moms. 1
Ensure more children in foster care are in loving, Christian homes.
- In 2024, a total of 553 children and young adults were removed from homes in Polk, Highlands, and Hardee Counties (Circuit 10) due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect.2
- There was an average of over 1,156 children in out-of-home care placements in Polk, Highlands, and Hardee Counties (Circuit 10) during each month of 2024.2
Feed hungry children.
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23% of children in Polk County are food insecure, lacking enough for an active, healthy life.3
- More than 1 in 4 of the food insecure children in Polk County do not qualify for federal nutrition assistance programs.3
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Sources
1: United for Alice (2025)
2: Florida DCF Office of Child and Family Well-Being Dashboard, 2024.
3: Feeding America, 2022 Mind the Meal Gap
solutions
The One More Child Lakeland Campus Expansion
Single Moms and Children Housing
We are building six homes for our Single Moms program that will provide safe, secure housing in a setting where single moms will have the resources and emotional support they need as they work hard to provide for their children.
As part of our residential Single Moms program, mothers will live on our campus with their children for up to a year. One More Child staff and volunteers walk alongside the mothers through mentoring and training as they grow towards long-term independence and family stability.
The projected 5-year impact of our Single Moms residential expansion will result in 300 single moms and children served
Grounds for Grace
Located in the heart of the campus, the two-story, 20,000+ square foot Grounds for Grace Center will allow One More Child to offer expert training, passionate advocacy, and community support for children and families like never before.
The Grounds for Grace Center will be the focal point for classes where volunteers tutor and mentor single moms and their children in need of life-skills training, where foster parent licensing and training classes are held, and where anti-sex-trafficking advocacy and education will occur. Additionally, this space will be an activity center for campus children to play and community families to gather.
The Center will also allow One More Child to multiply our impact by equipping ministry partners and engaging the wider community to serve children and families alongside us. This space will allow us to build on past activities that we have been unable to host due to space constraints.
Your financial investment can:
Help expand our Lakeland campus and serve more children and families.
Gifts of all sizes are needed to bring the Lakeland campus expansion vision to reality. Generous partners have already stepped forward to begin the initial phases of campus expansion. However, additional gifts at all levels are needed to complete the work and impact lives in Lakeland and around the Globe.
CALL 863.687.8811 OR MAIL A CHECK TO ONE MORE CHILD AT P.O. BOX 8190, LAKELAND, FL 33802
(On the memo line of the check, please note “Lakeland Campus Expansion”.)
Our Legacy
Leading the Enduring Mission of Impact
In 1904, Florida Baptist Orphanage opened in Arcadia, Florida to meet the needs of children enduring incredible challenges. 120 years later, the mission is the same – to provide Christ-centered services to vulnerable children and struggling families – but our methods and programming continue to evolve to efficiently and effectively share the love of Christ in transformative ways.
One More Child has been a leader in foster care for decades and has continued to expand its impact into many other important avenues related to child welfare. Incredible community partners and support have made it possible to increase the number of children we serve and also facilitate prevention programs that protect vulnerable children and strengthen the community. One More Child is exceptionally focused on meeting urgent needs and building lifelong relationships with children and families that point to the love of Jesus Christ.
Annually, One More Child impacts more than 250,000 children and families nationally and globally through its work to meet the needs of hungry children, foster children, trafficked children, single moms, and struggling families.
