Making a Difference:
One Family at a Time
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Upcoming Events - Sign up Today!
June 18
th
, 6:30 PM at Bards Alley – Have you ever been
Evicted
?
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Bards Alley is launching Bards Alley Cares, a new initiative to raise awareness of various social issues affecting Fairfax County residents through book discussions with community leaders. The bimonthly series will kick off on June 18, 6:30 pm, with a discussion with our own FP case manager Ryan Crowe. The book under discussion is Pulitzer Prize-winning
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
.
To learn more, get the book and register, click
here
.
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Family PASS hosts Spring Breakfast on homelessness, honors Vale Club volunteers
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Thomas Barnett, Deputy Director of Fairfax County’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness addressed the annual spring Recognition Breakfast, summing up the results of the county’s 10-Year Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in Fairfax County. Mr. Barnett shared some of his offices successes and plans as OPEH moves forward beyond the 10-year plan. He cited Fairfax’s plans for increased low-income housing, increases in private landlords willing to rent to low-income tenants, increased permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless disabled, more focus on employment opportunities, business community engagement, county policy issues, advocacy and transportation issues. Click
here
for more. The 2019 official homeless count figures had not been released as of the breakfast, but were expected to continue the rise in homelessness experienced last year, the first rise in numbers since the 10-year campaign began in 2008.
(2019 Point in Time results are now available and are shown below.)
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Following his remarks, Kathi Sheffel, Homeless Liaison for Fairfax County Public Schools, (
left in picture
with School Board member Dalia Palchik)
, explained how the school system supports its homeless students, who number over 3000. Fairfax County Public Schools measures homelessness differently than the annual Point in Time (PIT) count. FCPS counts students who are not living with immediate family, may be sleeping on a friend’s couch, or living in a shelter.
Over 130 guests attended the breakfast April 24
th
hosted by Family PASS for its supporters, giving them a chance to hear about homelessness in the county and learn more about Family PASS’s work to help prevent homelessness. To view a video of client stories shared with the audience, please click
here
and scroll down to the videos.
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Guests included Virginia State Delegates Mark Keam,
pictured left
, Marcus Simon and Kerrie Delaney, Vienna Mayor Lauri DiRocco; representatives from Family PASS’s collaborating organizations: Joe Meyer, CEO of Shelter House, Kathy Brightman of Northern Virginia Family Services, Gene Wiley and Betsy Rock of The Closet of Herndon, and Jaleh Moslehi, Office to Prevent and End Homelessness.
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Joann Maginley of Grassroots Fitness (L) and Jen Morrow of Bards Alley(R)
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Delegate Marcus Simon (standing)
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Board members Patti Cooksey(center)
and Bethany Reisinger(right)
with Business Cares supporter Leslie Reisinger (left).
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From left:Breakfast Chair Jodi Bentley,
Vienna Mayor Laurie DiRocco, Khy Sweeney,
Joanne Burke and Board and Breakfast Committee member Nancy Socher.
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Board member Bill Grossman (L) with Betsy Zolper and Rick Hurwitt.
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Tysons Sport & Health's Kevin Quinn (second from left) and Paul Harris (second from right) with FP Volunteer Coordinator and Board Member Patti Cooksey(L), FP President Mike Waddell (R) and FP ED Pat Kearns. Sport & Health organized a holiday giving tree for Family PASS families again this year!
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Vale Club Members Recognized for Volunteer Service
At the annual breakfast, Family PASS recognized the outstanding contributions of Vale Club members to our families in need over the years. Without the tremendous support Family PASS gets from the community, we would not be able to meet the needs of our families. Whenever the call goes out for volunteers, Vale Club members answer!
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From left: FP President Mike Waddell, and Vale Club members Christina James, Amy Joyce, Lee Ellis, Michelle Fisher, Vale Club Vice President Pam Guffain , Patti Cooksey, Betsy Rock, Ann Richardson and Vale Club President Kathy Zichi
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Vale Club helps stock the pantry at St. Mark for our clients, provides gift cards for food, and help at the Vienna Oktoberfest beer tent for Family PASS and our annual golf outing. Vale Club members serve on Family PASS committees, such as the annual breakfast committee, adopt families during the holidays, spending hours shopping and wrapping presents on children’s wish lists during the holidays and gift cards for parents; and have helped host holiday parties with hand-crafted items that children pick out for presents for their parents (and themselves.) They also serve as volunteers at the annual FP golf outing. This army of volunteers has helped raised thousands of dollars in support of Family PASS families in crisis.
Thank you Vale Club Members!
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The Number of Homeless Families in the Fairfax County
increased again in 2019
The 2019 federally-mandated count of homeless, the Point in Time Count, revealed that homelessness is on the rise again in Fairfax County while the count in neighboring DC and Maryland suburbs declined. Homeless individuals in families rose to 53% of all homeless in Fairfax with a total of 526 homeless people in families. This is the second year in a row that the numbers rose, after a nine year decline in homelessness during the period 2008 to 2017. While the increases are discouraging, Fairfax has cut the number of homeless during its 10-year Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness from 1835 in 2008 to 1034 at the beginning of January. For more details, go to the
Fairfax County website.
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Sock It To Me!
A colleague explained that one of the reasons for fasting during Ramadan, which will end in early June, is to experience what those who are poor, who do not have access to regular food and water are experiencing. Can you imagine being a parent and not being able to take care of your children, not having transportation to get to your $11 an hour job, not being able to put fresh vegetables on the table? Not being able to keep a roof over your family?
We don't have to image this because we work with these families every day.
All our families have jobs. All have children. All have faced homelessness.
We receive, on average, five requests a month just for emergency assistance. We have over 35 client families currently facing these challenges. Last year, with your support, we helped nearly 70 families remain housed.
So we now ask
:
Can you help again? Our goal for 2019 is to have 500 supporters sign up for the
Sock it to Me
campaign.
We have a goal to get 100 people to sign up in June
-- all you have to do is pledge $25 a month for 12 months to help us meet the needs of a growing homeless population in our community. Your pledge can make the difference in the lives of our clients who are working hard to become self-supporting and remain housed. So many of our clients have paid it forward over the years, providing help to FP clients who came behind them. It is a donation that keeps on giving.
Business Cares
is part of the Sock it to Me campaign with benefits for small businesses. Please click
here
to learn how your business can be a part of our campaign.
SHARE
:
Help us spread the word by sharing this email and the link to the
Sock it to Me campaign
. If each of our current supporters encouraged five friends to sign up – we would make our 2019 goal easily!
Or
you can write a check to FamilyPASS, and mail it to 2740 Chain Bridge Road, Vienna VA 22181. Write “socks” in the memo section of the check.
All contributions are 100% tax deductible.
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Family PASS
2740 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 123
Vienna, VA 22181
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