Adopt a Fam­i­ly: Share Kind­ness & Hol­i­day Cheer

November 01, 2021

Each year, KYC hosts an ​“Adopt a Fam­i­ly” dri­ve to con­nect peo­ple we serve with extra hol­i­day cheer. 

The hol­i­days can be a dif­fi­cult time for many, espe­cial­ly after anoth­er year filled with ever-evolv­ing chal­lenges. Many of our clients live with finan­cial strug­gles and live below the pover­ty line, and oth­ers have dealt with iso­la­tion as they may not have fam­i­ly near­by, and oppor­tu­ni­ties to safe­ly social­ize have become far more infre­quent. For these com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, the hol­i­days can exag­ger­ate feel­ings of stress, wor­ry, and loneliness.

Through our Adopt a Fam­i­ly pro­gram, we seek to mit­i­gate these wor­ries, so that our clients can focus on achiev­ing their goals and find joy in the hol­i­day season.

So Much More Than Presents

Gen­er­ous com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers can pur­chase gifts or pro­vide gift cards for clients to obtain the much-need­ed and great­ly-appre­ci­at­ed items that they need. While the gifts them­selves can be essen­tial, we always hear from clients who receive gifts through this pro­gram that they get so much more than a gift: this pro­gram gives them con­nect­ed­ness to our com­mu­ni­ty, and makes them feel val­ued, remem­bered, and appreciated. 

By mak­ing a gift to this pro­gram, you tru­ly make the hol­i­days for the local com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers we serve togeth­er. Learn how your gift cre­ates last­ing hol­i­day mem­o­ries and empow­ers clients to achieve their goals.

Empow­er Cre­ative Youth

Emery, 13, start­ed 8^th grade in per­son this fall, after over a year of vir­tu­al learn­ing. This has been quite stress­ful in itself, but they have also been deal­ing with new chal­lenges at home, as their par­ents have both changed careers and that has read­just­ed the fam­i­ly’s sched­ule. With so many changes hap­pen­ing at once, Emery became anx­ious and was hav­ing sig­nif­i­cant dif­fi­cul­ty focus­ing on school work. After con­nect­ing with their KYC ther­a­pist, Emery has found new ways to cope with these chal­lenges, and has even built new friend­ships after join­ing the Rain­bow Room Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil.

Emery has tak­en to using art as an out­let for self-expres­sion. When they’re hav­ing a hard time find­ing the words to describe what they’re expe­ri­enc­ing, Emery finds that draw­ing their thoughts gives them extra time to process their emo­tions, while also find­ing focus and joy in build­ing a skill they val­ue. Your gift of art sup­plies ensures that Emery can con­tin­ue grow­ing and thriv­ing through cre­ative expression.

Help Fam­i­lies Cre­ate Mean­ing­ful Memories

Arthur, 38, was first con­nect­ed with KYC through our Front Door pro­gram. He had been strug­gling with com­plex men­tal health chal­lenges, and as his symp­toms wors­ened, he was unable to keep his job and lat­er, his apart­ment. When a men­tal health cri­sis led him to the emer­gency room, his med­ical care providers referred him to our team, who helped him find a safe place to live, and con­nect­ed him with the resources he need­ed to rebuild sta­bil­i­ty and work toward his ther­a­peu­tic goals.

Arthur is set­tling into his new apart­ment, and wants more than any­thing to cook a warm hol­i­day meal with his daugh­ter in his new space. Your gift of a gift card pro­vides Arthur the oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate a mem­o­rable hol­i­day expe­ri­ence for his fam­i­ly. With the extra boost from a gro­cery gift card, he looks for­ward to shar­ing his grand­moth­er’s famous hol­i­day break­fast spread with his daughter.

Bring Joy and Con­nec­tion to Old­er Adults

Rhon­da, 86, proud­ly cel­e­brat­ed her fourth decade in her home last month. When her hus­band sad­ly passed away, Rhon­da reached out to KYC to con­nect with the extra sup­port that allows her to con­tin­ue liv­ing safe­ly in the home they built togeth­er. She was con­nect­ed with KYC’s Care Coor­di­na­tor, who arranged for her to receive chore house­keep­ing ser­vices and Home Deliv­ered Meals, which have become an essen­tial life­line to her and oth­ers in her com­mu­ni­ty over the course of the pandemic.

Rhon­da has had far few­er oppor­tu­ni­ties to social­ize while she has stayed home to stay safe. She fre­quent­ly shares with her Meals vol­un­teer that her adorable dog, Sprin­kles, has helped her find joy in the midst of such chal­leng­ing times, although she some­time strug­gles to be able to afford his care while liv­ing on a very lim­it­ed bud­get. Your gift of pet sup­plies ensures that Rhon­da can help keep her com­pan­ion healthy and active — ulti­mate­ly sup­port­ing her own well­be­ing — as she grace­ful­ly ages in place.

Orga­ni­za­tions Can Par­tic­i­pate, Too!

We are immense­ly grate­ful to our com­mu­ni­ty part­ners and orga­ni­za­tions who sup­port this dri­ve as a group. If your com­pa­ny or com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tion would like to learn how you can make a big impact togeth­er, please email our team.

Cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties are also avail­able for this pro­gram. Learn more about spon­sor­ship here.

Make Your Gift

Your tax deductible gift helps make the hol­i­days for a KYC client or fam­i­ly. Dona­tions made through this page will be used to pur­chase a $30 gift card for a KYC client to buy what they need most. Gifts of any amount add up to make the hol­i­days brighter!

Please adopt a client today. Make your gift below or con­tact our team to get the wish list for a fam­i­ly or per­son who could use extra sup­port this hol­i­day season.

We have hun­dreds of clients who we are hop­ing to have adopt­ed through this pro­gram. If we’re able to pro­vide a gift to each per­son nom­i­nat­ed to this pro­gram, any excess gifts will ben­e­fit our pro­grams or emer­gency assis­tance funds, which help indi­vid­u­als in need all year round.

Thank You, Sponsors!

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