In light of the Thanksgiving Season, and Giving Tuesday, All For Family would like to take this chance to just simply say, "Thank you!".
Thank you to all of our amazing volunteer visit supervisors for all of the work you do to make our visit program possible for our families. Thank you for making sure all of our visits are covered, and that not a week passes where we have to cancel a visit due to a lack of coverage. Thank you for giving of your time, receiving nothing in return beyond the satisfaction you walk away with knowing you have done your part to bring a family closer together. Thank you as well for all you do to ensure our visit space is left clean for the next family who enters it. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of you.
Thank you to all of our board members who give of their time to help us continue to run smoothly. We know even better things are on the horizon because of all of you and the brilliance you bring to the table when we meet to plan out our year & next steps.
Along with our board members, we would like to thank our Office Manager, Sandra Hendrix, for all she does to make sure our visits are scheduled and covered each week. She is always so sweet and professional with the families we serve, and we are very blessed to have her. We also cannot forget to thank Nikki, who first filled the role as Office Manager earlier this year before she left this position & joined our board.
What would a nonprofit be, however, without the needed financial support that helps to keep us going? So, with this in mind, we would sincerely like to thank The Jefferson Foundation for blessing us with all of the grants they have, which have blessed our efforts to serve foster children and families in so many ways. We can't wait to see where our most recent grant for Therapeutic Visits takes us in terms of serving even more families in 2023.
White Castle in Festus has also been a tremendous blessing for us, not only through the financial support they provide us through their roundup campaign, but for the volunteer work they provided during our Foster Parent Training Extravaganza this past July, and donations they have provided for a couple of our fundraisers. We can't begin to say enough great things about this White Castle location, and Patti Nasalroad's amazing support and crew.
There are several area businesses who have donated to us this year, &/or have faithfully donated items for our fundraisers. These businesses include: Swing Around Fun Town in Fenton, Little Kid's Gym in Fenton, Skyzone in Fenton, Menchie's in Fenton, America's Incredible Pizza Company, St. Louis Cardinals, O'Reilly's in House Springs, Carol House Furniture, Hacienda, Hillsboro Lion's Club, Twin City Optimist Club, and Jefferson County Foster Children's Fund. If we, unintentionally, have left out any businesses, we sincerely apologize, but we do very much appreciate each and every business who has donated to our fundraising efforts this year.
Beyond the businesses who have helped us so much, we thank each and other individual who has either made donations to our fundraisers, or who have purchased items from our fundraisers. For those who have repeatedly supported us, we see you, and we so very much appreciate all that you do and have done for us.
We also cannot forget to thank our caseworkers, judges, and attorneys who send our referrals to us. Without those, we would not have any families to serve.
Last, but definitely not least, we thank the churches who have worked with us over these past 4 years. Both Cedar Hill Lutheran Church and Raintree Church have been amazing to us and our families. We are also very blessed that Exchange Church in Arnold and Hillsboro United Methodist Church has allowed us to lease space for family visits. We hope to double the number of churches we are working with in 2023 as many of our volunteer visits supervisors come from churches we have presented at in the past.
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire community to help nonprofits continue to thrive and serve the community. Thanks to the amazing support everyone has shown us, despite a pandemic and floundering economy, All For Family has served 18 families this year for supervised family visits. This is a total of 62 clients when we look at the number of bio parents and children we are covering visits for. We have also covered a total of 446 visit hours. Nearly twice this amount of hours were offered to our clients, and had coverage by our volunteers, but were canceled by the clients due to illness, placement provider vacations, conflicts with other appointments and work meetings. Last year, we served 50 clients, and covered 800 visit hours. Our number of clients served since last year has definitely increased. The number of visit hours covered appears to be less than last year due to more canceled visits this year by clients, as well as having more clients who are only approved for 1-2 hour visits this year as opposed to longer visit lengths for clients last year. None of the work we have done for families this year, which will continue in the year to come, would have been possible without the help and sacrifice of all of you.
Our most recent fundraiser, however, yielded less than half of what we hoped it would. We realize that times are tough for everyone right now, with inclusion of our personal families as well. If you are reading this and find you are able to support our efforts, or would like to, here are some ideas of how you help us have a wonderfully productive 2023 & serve even more families:
Become a volunteer visit supervisor
Become an active board member
Shop through AmazonSmile & Select All For Family as your nonprofit to support
Donate to All For Family when paying for items via Paypal
Make a one time donation through allforfamily.net website "donate now" button
Become a monthly sponsor for whatever amount you are able to (i.e. $5, $10, $20)
Invite us to speak at your church or organization to share who we are & what we hope to accomplish
In whichever manner you choose to support All For Family, we thank you for all that you do, and all that you are. We sincerely hope you and your family have a very blessed and Happy Holiday Season!