When we first had the idea for our Birthday Giving Project back in 2006, we never dreamed it would catch on the way it has! Since then, more than 9,000 children in need from 39 states across the U.S. have received one of our birthday boxes… made by hand by thousands of children and adults at birthday giving parties, office give-back days, bar and bat mitzvahs, scouting events and more. But many more are needed! Please email us to learn how you can make a “birthday in a box” for a child living in poverty.
Looking for a meaningful way to get your teenager involved with “giving back?” Have them start an F-to-F club and bring our empathy based projects into their high school. Four seniors at the Hastings on Hudson, NY High School are launching the first F-to-F school club this fall, starting with a project to collect gently used teen clothing that will be sold at a “pop-up” shop to support Family-to-Family. Future projects include work at the local food pantry. To learn more about ways your teen call get involved email us at kids@family-to-family.org.
Kids at the YMCA in Newark, New Jersey took part in a “day of giving,” at the end of the summer thanks to the efforts of one fourth grade girl from Rockaway Township (also N.J.) With the help of her teacher at Stony Brook Elementary School, the fourth grader organized a book drive that collected a whopping six hundred gently used children‘s books for Family-to-Family’s GivingWorks Empathy Project. The books, along with 125 backpacks donated by the same student, were delivered to the Newark YMCA, where preteen and teenage kids living in poverty participated in a GivingWorks event – choosing books to read to.. and then give to… younger children in need. We call this double giving!
February is a great month to purge! Our Hastings on Hudson, N.Y. office is filling up with bags of gently used kids clothes with many items almost brand new! A great way to engage your kids in giving back is to spend a few hours together going through their closets and drawers and “sharing your bounty.” If you live near any of our F-to-F sites– we have a place for you to bring your items! Email us for more info.
Family-to-Family is thrilled to welcome families referred by Westhab, Inc. – Yonkers’ largest homeless services agency – into our Sponsor A Family program. Westhab is a large not-for-profit provider of housing and social services for homeless and low-income families in Westchester County and our Sponsor A Family program will supplement a their growing food pantry program. Family-to-Family is headquartered in the town next to Yonkers, and our new relationship with Westhab will allow us to expand our reach locally, serving a greater number of our own neighbors in need. We’re starting with eight Yonkers families and will be adding more in the coming months. We’ve also been steering donations of adult and children’s clothing, children’s books, school supplies and beauty products to Westhab families. Interested in sponsoring a family? Click here.
With over 150 children from 16 communities across the U.S. enrolled in One Book At A Time, we’re thrilled to be adding even more children from a new site – The Museum School in Yonkers, N.Y. Five new OBAAT elementary school kids will receive their first book from their assigned book “buddy” this fall. OBAAT’s mission is to provide a personal connection between a donor family with enough to share and a book-loving child in need. OBAAT donors buy and send one new book every month to the child they are matched with along with a letter, providing “their” child with that wonderful feeling of book ownership. Seventy-nine percent of students at The Museum School qualify for free or reduced lunch through the National Free Lunch Program. With household budgets stretched to provide food and basic necessities, buying books is usually out of the question.
To learn more or to sponsor a child click HERE.
