Despite navigating through an extended pandemic, more than 180 donors provided gifts and basic needs for 1,605 Family & Children’s Services’ (F&CS) children and families in need through the annual F&CS Holiday Assistance program.
For so many F&CS clients, December is a month filled with complex decisions. Many low- and no-income families want to give presents to their children and are tempted to skip paying bills to buy gifts. The Holiday Assistance program was created to help our neediest families with this type of holiday stress.
Donors had two ways to give: Adopt-a-Family or donate to the F&CS Santa Shop. F&CS caseworkers and therapists identify clients active in treatment who need holiday assistance. This year, 144 families (630 individuals) were adopted to receive assistance.
About 975 individuals (children and adults) were helped through the F&CS “Santa Shop,” where caseworkers can provide help for their clients’ needs. This year, $10,827 was donated and 100 percent of that money was used to purchase items given to overburdened individuals in the form of 896 HUGS (hats, underwear, gloves, and socks), 77 books, 351 coats and 2,004 toys, and games.
During the last 13 years, Humble Sons Bike Company, Natalie Cash at 106.1 The Twister, The Sanford & Irene Burnstein Foundation, and so many others have given more than 2,539 bikes to children served by F&CS. This year, through generous partnerships, 152 bikes were gifted to children from F&CS’s Women in Recovery, Child Abuse and Trauma, and the Early Childhood Program.
The clients we served were grateful to all donors who helped make the holidays warmer and brighter. We gratefully pause to give all our supporters’ thanks.
If you would like to help all year long, please consider donating to F&CS.
