We are privileged to award $1000 to Home Again (our February grant recipient) to help sustain their tutoring program for school aged children. With the current economic conditions, Home Again is unfortunately seeing an increased need for their services and at the same time, their tutoring program is in jeopardy with budget cuts. Home Again has expressed their sincere appreciation for the support and generosity of NEW. We at NEW are honored to present a check to Ms. Marilyn A. Biggerstaff, the Executive Director, at our February luncheon!
Home Again has served homeless families in the Richmond area since 1980. The agency's mission is to assist homeless families and individuals to secure permanent housing by offering emergency and transitional services. The family shelter program serves 30 women with children who range in age from newborn to age 18. Home Again provides intensive case management, money management, life skills, individual and group substance abuse services, parenting educational group services and linkages with community resources including job search, dental, health and adult education. Children receive educational, social and recreational activities.
Many of the children have unique educational challenges due to their vulnerability from a transient lifestyle, lack of parental support for learning needs, violence-related trauma and diagnoses of mental disorder or developmental delay.
Home Again has offered a tutoring program for 15 years. Last year, 123 children were served including 72 school aged children who benefited from the tutoring and children services. The tutoring program enhances the ability of marginal students to sustain or improve school performance but also nurtures and encourages higher achieving students to maintain strong academic performance during a traumatic housing crisis. Tutoring services include homework assistance, interventions with mothers to increase their skills to help their children with school work, and remedial tutoring for children below grade level and those experiencing particular subject difficulties. In the longer term, the emphasis is on equipping children and their parent with new study skills to last a lifetime.
How can we do more? The Board and the Grant Committee has been brainstorming some ideas and we would like to ask our members for their continued generosity and support! Being a shelter, Home Again is in need of several items - we would like to ask our membership to donate and bring your contribution to the February luncheon! With 115 members, just imagine the impact we can generate!
The items Home Again needs include the following:
TWIN size bed sheets and blankets (note: all their beds are twin size bunk beds)
Bath towels and wash cloths
Powdered laundry detergent
At the February luncheon we collected 5 big boxes filled with sheets, blankets, towels and some laundry detergent! Marilyn expressed her sincere gratitude!
And the Grant Committee (Meredith Briggs, Debbie Stocks, Chris Canavan, Carolyn Boone, Barbara Basl) would like to thank the members of NEW for your support of W2W which makes it possible for us to provide grants to such worthy causes, to the women who made donations to the grant fund, and to the wonderful women who brought all the goods today! And a special thank you to the Board members who are so supportive of our efforts!! We'll have more Good NEWs for next month!!
We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill
