Preparing Alexandria's Children for Success

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HOPKINS HOUSE:  $20,000 Investment in a Better Future for the Working Poor

The WGCA has made a second Community Gift of $20,000 (July 08-June 09) to Hopkins House, a local non-profit focused on empowering low-income, working families. The WGCA Gift will strengthen the education and support available to the 50 families with children enrolled in the Hopkins House Preschool Academy. The Gift will also support an assessment of replicating the success of Hopkins House programs by other preschools. The WGCA gift will go toward strengthening the following Hopkins House initiatives:

  • The MOMS Project  Builds financial empowerment through debt management and home ownership education programs.

  • The DADS Project  Strengthens the father-child bond through role modeling and a reading and sports program.

  • Parent Leadership Program  Parents learn to organize, budget, improve their "public voice," and pursue advocacy by reaching out to the community to raise money.  One goal is for parents to become involved in the PTA organization at their children's elementary schools upon leaving Hopkins House.


HEALTHY FAMILIES ALEXANDRIA:
4th Year Gift of $32,000

Healthy Families Alexandria, offers comprehensive support and guidance, through home visitation, to vulnerable parents. HFA is devoted to promoting the health, early stimulation and nurturing of children at risk of poor outcomes. This year's gift will ensure that continuation of services 10 vulnerable first-time parents.  THe families that WGCA has funded are healthier and safer; are more aware of the needs of their child and attentively try to meet those needs; and most of the families have moved from a level of extreme risk to a more stable and productive situation.

With this gift, the WGCA will build on its $96,000 investment in HFA and add a specific goal to our agreement with HFA that focuses on development of a strategy to increase other sources of revenue that can sustain and grow the investment we have made.
Lynn Kosanovich, HFA Program Supervisor; Carol Freeman, HFA Program Manager; Holly Sloan, WGCA Gift Committee Chair; and Mary Agee, NVFS President and CEO at the May 12 announcement of the first WGCA community gift.
As a result of WGCA's gift, 10 families are receiving HFA services that otherwise would not. Family support workers who are dependable, persistent and skilled, make frequent home visits to these families, coach the parents and connect them with needed resources.
DEVELOPMENTAL GIFTS:

The 2008 Women's Giving Circle of Alexandria Developmental Gifts are:

A gift of $4,500 to CrisisLink:

  • to print and distribute 5000 wallet cards to Alexandria middle and high school students highlighting suicide warning signs and steps to take if a friend may be suicidal

  • fund 100 calls to hotlines from Alexandria youth.

A gift of $5,000 to Community Lodgings to purchase sequential academic curricula in reading, math, social studies and science for its academic support programs for at-risk and homeless children in grades 2 through 8.

A gift of $2,000 to The Reading Connection to purchase materials and books to give away at Parent Workshops hosted at ALIVE! House, Carpenter's Shelter and Child & Family Network Centers (CFNC). The goal is to serve 100 parents, 150 children and distribute 650 books.
ARLANDRIA PLAYGROUP:
4th Year Gift of $25,000

This year's gift of $25,000 will ensure continuation of the Success by Six/Chiquitos Playgroup through July 2009.   The program is a Success by Six® collaboration of:

  • Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) who provides overall operational management of the playgroup and a quarterly education seminar for parents;

  • The Hispanic Committee who assists the playgroup facilitator and provides case management services;

  • Healthy Families Alexandria who plan activities and facilitate the playgroup.

The weekly playgroup provides opportunities for parents to become more effectively engaged in their child's development and for preschoolers to learn and practice skills that will help them transition to school. The playgroup incorporates opportunities for parents to learn developmentally appropriate and stimulating strategies for interacting with their young children and will provide access to additional resources that can enhance their family environment and support the development of their child.  Over 50 families have benefited from this playgroup.

With this gift, the WGCA will build on its $57,000 invesment in this group. 




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