from staff
As our community continues to struggle with a tight economy and shrinking budgets, the Daily Record has established this page that will each week feature local nonprofit organizations. We invite all members of the local nonprofit community to submit news, announcements, success stories and any other information they feel would be of interest to our readers. E-mail to: [email protected].
We also hope that this will enable our readers to become more aware of the needs of these worthy organizations as they try to continue to provide valuable services with reduced resources.
Family Foundations provides financial counseling and education
Sometimes the demands of daily living overwhelm even the most stable individuals. As complicated as life situations can be today, no one can have all the answers. The expenses of a health crisis can strain finances to the breaking point; an angry child can be disrupting to a family and failing in school; a parent’s death often leaves an adult child responsible for an aging parent. Whatever the life challenge, it often calls for answers the average person just doesn’t know.
Here’s some good news. Our agency and our caring professional staff offer the tools to rebuild your finances, rebuild your family, and rebuild your life. The answers start with a solid foundation.
Family Foundations is the premier nonprofit financial and family counseling and education organization in northeast Florida. Our national accreditation and affiliations ensure that all our services meet the highest quality standards.
Family Foundations has helped over 100,000 families in the last 50 years take control of their financial future, buy a first home, cope with a troubled child or pay off their debts to restore their credit. We build strong, capable and economically successful families.
Key program areas
• 1000 in 1000: A collaboration of private, government and nonprofit organizations which have joined together for a comprehensive approach to transform families from poverty to self-sufficiency. Our goal is to move 1,000 people out of poverty in 1,000 days.
• Home buyer preparation: Students are trained in every aspect of the home-buying process and homeownership, from acquiring a mortgage to maintaining a house. More than 2,000 families have completed our home buyer education program, giving them the foundations for a stable future.
• Financial literacy: Family Foundations is a leading provider of financial education services to consumers facing financial challenges or just in need of more information.
• Financial counseling: Whether families and individuals are unsure of their financial future, unable to cope with debt, or need assistance creating a budget, our certified counselors are able to provide them with direction on any aspect of our clients’ finances.
• Debt Diet program: No one plans to get into debt they don’t want or can’t afford. Family Foundations developed a set of tools to help consumers pay off their unwanted debt. This past year, we helped 500 Debt Diet families shed more than $1.5 million in debt.
• Building Lives And Solutions Together (BLAST): Almost 100 families participated in our BLAST program where parents are empowered to effectively lead their children to success in life. BLAST is a school based, collaborative effort in which the entire family participates in a series of coordinated, research-based activities that result in statistically significant improvement in behavior, self-esteem, family closeness and parental involvement.
• School-based counseling: We provide behavioral and therapeutic counseling services in seven “at-risk” area schools. More than 200 students are provided with this needed service directly in their school so that they can succeed in school and in life.
• Individual and family counseling: It can happen suddenly or over a long period of time. An illness strikes, a divorce is threatened, a child is struggling at school or depression or anxiety build up and relationships suffer. Our counseling services can lend strength and vision when times seem the most difficult.
For more information or to find out how you can help, visit www.familyfoundationsjax.org.
– Submitted by Family Foundations Vice President for Resource Development Martha Cox
Uninsured in North Florida to see more clearly
The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida, the philanthropic affiliate of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, has donated $57,413 to the Vision is Priceless Council. The council is committed to preserving the vision of First Coast residents through screening and early detection of potential eye diseases.
The funds will be used to provide vision examination equipment to the Good Samaritan Clinic in Nassau County and to The Way Free Medical Clinic in Clay County. Both clinics treat uninsured and underserved patients.
To learn more about The Blue Foundation, visit www.bluefoundationfl.org.
Grants available to help military personnel
The Florida BrAIve Fund at the Community Foundation is now accepting grant applications from nonprofit organizations that help military personnel impacted by service in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. Grants are intended to support a range of services from mental and physical health services to financial counseling and job training. All grants will be made to organizations. No grants will be made to individuals.
The fund has $2.5 million available for organizational support between now and September. An additional $2.5 million will be available between Sept. 2009 and Sept. 2010. Organizations that apply for funding by March 31 and are approved could expect to receive funding by May 31. For complete details and applications, go to www.jaxcf.org.
The Community Foundation in Jacksonville is the oldest Community Foundation in Florida and has more than $161 million in assets.
Final numbers in for dental program at Sulzbacher
At the “Give Kids a Smile” dental program Feb. 6 at the Sulzbacher Center, 62 needy and homeless children received free dental care. The total amount of procedures performed was $42,094, all donated by dentists, dental assistants and hygienists from the Jacksonville Dental Society and the Northeast District Dental Association.
The Sulzbacher Center received a $5,000 award from the American Dental Association Foundation’s Samuel Harris Fund that was used to pay for supplies used to treat the children.