I received gift cards to facilitate this post sponsored by World Market. All opinions are my own.
If given the opportunity to Share the Joy with World Market, what would you do? When I was asked the question, I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how I could help someone in my community.
As a mom, I’m passionate about the well being of families. I mean, I have three kids, a nice house, a husband, and a job and I’m totally overwhelmed by daily life. What if you had three kids, no husband, a minimum wage job, and no house? Sounds impossible.
After doing a little digging, I came across some sobering statistics about Charlotte-area homelessness:
4,700: Number of homeless children enrolled in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
11% of Charlotte’s homeless are domestic abuse victims.
12% of guests at the Men’s Shelter are military veterans.
And even more disheartening?
32,128: Number of low-income people who filled out applications in just five days to get on the waiting list for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers. Only 400 will get vouchers each year.
Seeing numbers like that and thinking about how unbelievably challenging it must be to attempt to school-aged children with no place to call home, I looked into organizations that worked to help these families in need.
Elizabeth House: Temporary group housing for Charlotte Family Housing families prior to moving into their own homes.
I came across the Charlotte Family Housing, which is a shelter-to-housing program for homeless families. The organization primarily serves single mothers with children, as well as one of the only service that provides options for single fathers with children and two-parent families. The vast majority of families referred to the program, however, are single moms with an average of two children.
Suhair Hoskie, center, is pictured with her two daughters Jayda Robinson (left), 4, and Angel Hoskie, 12, at their home in Charlotte. Photo by JASON E. MICZEK – www.miczekphoto.com
Charlotte Family Housing addresses the immediate need of homelessness by sheltering working, homeless families and help them forge a path back to housing, along with providing short-term rental assistance in apartments and homes all around the community. There are many ways to help this organization from making a monetary donation to putting together Welcome Baskets and Welcome Buckets to supply families with essentials as they move into their homes. And, that’s when I figured out how I was going to Share the Joy.
I set off to World Market to create a Welcome Basket of home goods for a mother and her children as they move into the first home they’ve had in long time.
Suggested items for the Welcome Basket that I scored on my World Market trip included:
Serveware for the kitchen and a a pot and skillet.
Toiletries and towels for the bathroom.
Bedding. I included an eye mask, as I’m sure a worn out momma could use any help she can get to score some extra shut-eye.
I hope I’ve inspired you to Share the Joy! If so, don’t miss out the World Market sweepstakes in honor of sharing the joy with charities and others in need. Enter for your chance to win 1 of 4 grand prizes which each includes a $2,000 World Market gift card for you and $2,000 for a Charity of your choice (charity must be U.S. 5013c non-profit organization). CLICK HERE to enter!
Be sure to head over to see how these other bloggers are sharing the joy this holiday season!
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