What is your organization, and how long has it been serving Hampton Roads?

ForKids started 22 years ago as a 30-day emergency shelter called “Haven House” in the Ocean View section of Norfolk. When the same families kept coming back to us, we realized that 30 days of shelter wasn’t long enough to make a lasting difference, so we decided to extend the shelter stay to four months and we added education and support services to help families and children gain lasting stability. Today we provide services to over 250 families throughout Hampton Roads that are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness. As ForKids has grown through the years, our goal remains the same: to be a permanent solution for families, not just a stopover on the cycle of homelessness.

What are your responsibilities?

Our job is to be both an immediate refuge and resource for homeless families, then to help families gain the skills and assistance they need to become permanently self-sufficient. We also believe it is our job to educate our community about family homelessness so that one day no child need ever be homeless in Hampton Roads.

Who does your group serve? What is the mission?

ForKids helps homeless families in Hampton Roads and Western Tidewater, and our mission is to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty for families and children.

How is your organization equipped to serve this mission?

We have two emergency shelters, 30 units of transitional and permanent supportive housing, and targeted services that help families address the root causes of homelessness. We also have case management teams at the Norfolk and Chesapeake Departments of Social Services to provide prevention and housing stabilization services to families. Through all of these programs we assist more than 250 families and 500 children each day.

Please share with us an anecdote that epitomizes the impact of your group on the daily life of Hampton Roads.

Sam is the kind of child who gets a lot of attention. He’s 7, small for his age, with blonde hair and big blue eyes–the kind of kid that makes everyone smile. It is hard to imagine anyone wanting to hurt him. But not only did Sam have to watch his dad hit his mom, he endured his father’s beatings as well. When he entered our shelter Sam was afraid–all the time. And, like most homeless kids, Sam had missed so many days of school that he barely passed kindergarten and was far behind his friends.

Sam and our children’s therapist started working on his fears during weekly therapy sessions and, to help him sleep at night, they put a sign on his door that said “NO MONSTERS ALLOWED.” Sam’s case manager made sure he was enrolled in school and participated faithfully in after-school tutoring. While his mother worked on finding a job and saving her money, Sam read books with the REACH program and learned essential life skills in the SuperKids program. Sam blossomed in the structure around him. After six months he was on the A/B Honor Roll and he remained there all year. This September Sam started second grade right on track.

ForKids helps more than 700 kids like Sam each year. They are bright kids that, with a little help, can become anything they want to be. Without help, they will most likely become an expensive and tragic statistic. Nationally, only one in four homeless children graduates from high school.

Tell us about a volunteer that has made a difference.

Yvonne Drummond started bringing donations to ForKids’ emergency shelter shortly after it first opened. The gifts were always different: a Kenwood stereo, a bag of apples, toys for the children, seven pounds of homegrown parsley, pork roast, her granddaughter’s clothing carefully laundered. She encouraged everyone she knew to give as well and she was a knowledgeable advocate. She read every word of our newsletter.

At Christmastime many years ago she told her daughter’s employer, Wardell Orthopedics, about the ForKids Holiday Shop and they enthusiastically began collecting toys. Pretty soon, Wardell Orthopaedics cared as much about homeless children and ForKids as Yvonne.

This December they are challenging all of their 20,000 patients to make contributions and Wardell’s doctors will match the gifts as well as double match the gifts of their employees. Last summer Yvonne passed away. But her daughter, Wardell Orthopedics and many others are carrying on her work for ForKids and, thanks to Yvonne, it is making a big difference in the lives of homeless families.

Without your organization, Hampton Roads would…

have more families living in cars, abandoned buildings and moving place to place between family members, hotels and friends. Hundreds more children each year would fall behind in school, costing our schools and tax payers over $9,000 per child per year.

A $25 or $100 donation would…

help provide shelter to the more than 7,700 children that will become homeless this year in Hampton Roads. A night of shelter with services costs approximately $50 per child.

A $500 donation would…

feed all of the families at our emergency shelter for one month. It would also provide a month of our “Hot Meals and Homework” after-school tutoring program.

What is the meaning of life?

Knowing that you can change the world by changing the life of just one child.

For more info, click here. Or why don’t you just donate right now?