As our community continues to face a tight economy and shrinking budgets, the Daily Record has established this feature that will each week chronicle the efforts of local nonprofit organizations.
Bailey Publishing & Communications invites all members of the local nonprofit community to email news, announcements and success stories to: [email protected].
We also encourage our readers to become more aware of the needs of these worthy organizations as they continue to provide valuable services with reduced resources.
Students learn CPR
St. Vincent’s HealthCare, Plantation Oaks Elementary School and the American Heart Association – First Coast Market held a mass training Feb. 9 of “Hands-Only CPR” instruction to more than 100 fifth-grade students.
The training was structured to teach the students how to perform a technique that can save a life. Each student used a CPR Anytime Kit, provided by St. Vincent’s HealthCare, and followed instructions from Dr. Matthew Braddock.
The CPR Anytime kits and training techniques reflect science from the 2010 American Heart Association guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care, including an emphasis on Hands-Only CPR for adult sudden cardiac arrest.
$20,000 for children’s agency
Representatives from Natural Life presented Children’s Home Society of Florida Buckner Division with a check for more than $20,000, the proceeds from the inaugural Natural Life Music Festival & Crafternoon held in November at Metropolitan Park.
Known as “Crafternoon” for nine years, the family arts and crafts event evolved into a music festival featuring folk and bluegrass bands from around the nation.
Patti Hughes, founder of Natural Life and the Natural Life Music Festival & Crafternoon, created the event as a way to give back to the community through a fun, family affair that benefits area children in need. She works with artists through Natural Life to create gifts and accessories.
“It was so exciting to be able to raise more than $20,000 for Children’s Home Society of Florida. This is such a great event for us and CHS to partner on, and we look forward to helping it continue to grow,” said Hughes.
The Crafternoon portion of the event included more than 10 craft stations including tie-dye T-shirts and hula-hoop making. Artisan vendors were on hand to sell their handcrafted creations and organic restaurants, including Matthew Medure’s “M Shack,” served food.
Chartered in Jacksonville in 1902, Children’s Home Society is a private not-for-profit organization dedicated to embracing children and inspiring lives. With a commitment to break the generational cycle of child abuse and neglect, CHS provides a broad spectrum of services including foster care, adoption, child development, residential group care, parent education and counseling.
For more information, visit chsfl.org/buckner.
Retailer supports Family Promise clients
On Feb. 7, eight children who were recently homeless were able to receive clothes of their choice from WeeTrade, the name-brand children’s consignment event. The children are in families that are served by Family Promise of Jacksonville.
Family Promise helps homeless children and their families by partnering with local churches and social service organizations to help homeless families find a home and become self-sufficient.
Pam Ellis and Jennifer Sheffield, the owners of WeeTrade, opened their doors to the Family Promise families, allowing them to choose clothing and other items free of charge before the event opened to the public.
The St. Johns/South Duval sale will take place Feb. 29-March 3 at 13820 Old St. Augustine Road in the Publix Plaza.
“This is the third time Jennifer and Pam have opened their doors to the families in the Family Promise program. They have adopted us as their charity and we are so grateful. Our parents and their children really enjoy the opportunity to shop for such nice items, and they have the whole place to themselves,” said Debbie Moore, development director for Family Promise.
Eighteen local churches provide families in the program with dinner and a place to sleep.
The churches rotate weekly. During the day the families come to a day center at First United Methodist Church Downtown. From there, the children attend school, some adults work and others receive the case management that they need to become employed and independent.
Family Promise has been in Jacksonville since 2006 and there are more than 170 affiliates across the country. For more information about Family Promise of Jacksonville visit familypromisejax.org.
Rating system for foster group homes
Local residential group homes used by youth in foster care are now under additional scrutiny through a new “Five-Star Quality Rating System” pilot program implemented by Family Support Services of North Florida, the lead agency for foster care, adoption and family preservation in Duval and Nassau counties.
Family Support Services is the first community-based care agency in the state to initiate a rating system for residential group homes that establishes criteria above the minimum legally mandated standards and that focuses on the physical conditions of the facilities.
The system establishes standards and provides for uniform evaluation and consistency among grading for all group homes.
“Many group homes are excellent and offer wonderful accommodations for youth in foster care, but others just meet the bare minimum legal requirements, and that’s simply not good enough,” said Family Support Services CEO Lee Kaywork.
“Our instructions to staff were simple: if you wouldn’t sleep in the home, our children shouldn’t,” he said.
“We want our foster youth to be housed in group homes that are better than mediocre and expect group homes to improve and come up to our standards. The rating system is one of many tools in an arsenal of evaluations and monitoring that FSS utilizes to judge the quality and acceptableness of group homes,” he said.
Other evaluation tools include administrative, program and personnel reviews; client case file monitoring; client interviews; financial audits; and staff interviews.
Quality ratings are determined by Family Support Services auditors that carefully inspect and evaluate each focus area of the rating system.
A four-star rating is the ideal rating for group homes. Five-star is the highest rating overall. Group homes achieving a five-star rating will be awarded a plaque.