According to Family Gateway Community Engagement Director Kathy Kidwell,
“Family Gateway’s mission is to provide stability and life-changing supportive services to families with children experiencing homelessness.
“This holiday season, we need the community’s help to provide hope and joy to children experiencing homelessness and their families. This year, the organization anticipates serving at least two hundred families and approximately 500 children through our holiday program.
“Each year, Family Gateway hosts a Holiday Store for the families in their care. Donated toys will be set up in a store format for families in our program to ‘shop’ for their children completely free of charge. This will be the eighth year for the Holiday Store to support families their care. They are asking for corporations, organizations, neighborhoods, and places of worship to get involved by hosting toy collections to add to our efforts.
“For children, experiencing homelessness has negative effects on their academic and social-emotional development. Children who are experiencing homelessness typically move at least one time annually until they become stabilized. Moving from place to place and living in highly stressful situations makes it difficult for children to explore, learn, and grow, putting them significantly behind their peers.
“At Family Gateway, the team works diligently every day to meet the needs of the children in our care. We know that a successful holiday program will bring hope and joy during a challenging time in their lives.
“The deadline to drop off new and unwrapped toys is Wednesday, December11. To coordinate a drop off, please email [email protected].
“Family Gateway is also accepting monetary donations to support our holiday program. Gifts can be made online at https://www.familygateway.org/donate. More information about our holiday program, including links to our Amazon and Walmart wish lists, can be found here: https://familygateway.org/family-gateway-hope-for-the-holidays/.”
* Graphic provided by Family Gateway