Imagine a city where every thriving family was paired with a family who was struggling. They could be there to help guide them through their time of need and encourage life long stability. Charlotte ranks dead last among America’s largest cities in upward mobility. This means that for a child born in poverty in Charlotte, it is harder to get out of poverty than in any other large city in the United States. This statistic is so incredibly sad to me, especially with the resources that so many Charlotte families have to share and the huge hearts in our community.
Families Forward Charlotte provides this opportunity to be a friend and mentor through their Family Liaison program. I have been following this organization and they are doing amazing work in the community. It originally reminded me of the Refugee Support Services program but with a different population. They provide training and guidance to families in need. Show your children how to support our neighbors and our community.
Families forward has other programs where you could involve your children. They prepare food bags for children and families in food-insecure households. Each bag provides a child with food over weekends and holidays when they lack access to free breakfast and lunch at school. Your family can donate items or help prepare the food bags.
Check out their website, www.familiesforwardcharlotte.org, for all of the opportunities to serve our community. If you are looking for ways to give over the holidays, they have a virtual angel tree for children and for warm items as well as amazon wish lists.
Carrie Christian, President of Families Forward Charlotte, relayed to me that their biggest needs right now are: gift cards for grocery stores so we can use them to reward families when they accomplish their goals, monetary donations so we can expand to serve 50 families in our next program year, and small groups to sign up to pack 100 weekend food packs. For any of these they can see our website or contact us at info@familiesforwardclt.org. She also mentioned that teens over age 16 can volunteer to help with childcare at their monthly workshops.
