NEWS RELEASE
August 13, 2024
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
Seven Local Families Receive $7,000 Each Through the Mary Alice Fortin Foundation ‘Christmas in July’ Initiative
Summer gift provides monetary relief to Center for Child Counseling families experiencing unique and significant challenges.
Through a special summer Christmas in July initiative, The Mary Alice Fortin Foundation chose seven families through the Center for Child Counseling to receive $7,000 each in an effort to provide financial assistance to families who have faced significant challenges and would greatly benefit from support. The seven families gathered at the U.B. Kinsey Educational and Community Center in West Palm Beach on August 6 to receive the much-needed and much-appreciated checks.
The Mary Alice Fortin Foundation, based in Palm Beach, started the Christmas in July program in 2011 to alleviate the lack of funding for non-profits during the summer. Each year the organization accepts applications from selected, local non-profits to learn of their most deserving families in need of monetary relief.
This year’s recipients are resilient families receiving therapeutic services through the Center for Child Counseling and working to build better lives for their children. The families include: a 33-year old single mother of two who is on dialysis three times a week and legally blind; a 25-year-old single mother of five children who is currently escaping an abusive relationship with the children’s father and residing in a shelter; grandparents caring for their grandson because of the abuse he experienced while under the care of his mother; a 17-year-old single mother who will be faced with eviction from her home when she turns 18 in the coming months; a single mother of two who has endured profound hardships and emotional turmoil and living in a small, old studio apartment that is not safe; a 20-year-old single mother of two who has a long history of homelessness due to no fault of her own; a 14-year-old daughter who is living with her mother who had a traumatic life-altering injury that has caused extremely limited mobility and now their basic needs are not always met.
When Center for Child Counseling CEO Renée Layman announced that assistance would be provided to each of the seven families, there was a resounding sense of disbelief, gratitude, and tears of joy.
The families expressed this “life changing” support would be used for things such as: first, last, and security deposits to obtain stable housing; food; medical care; childcare; diapers; back-to-school supplies.
“We are most grateful to the Mary Alice Fortin Foundation for their year-round leadership in our community of serving and helping those most in need. Thank you for continuing to be a partner of ours and bringing essential financial assistance to families who are struggling and especially need a hand up in the summer months while parents may have increased difficulty with childcare and are preparing to send their children back to school,” stated Layman.
PHOTO ID:
(Credit – Tracey Benson Photography)
Center for Child Counseling staff and board members with the families who received financial assistance from The Mary Alice Fortin Foundation Christmas in July initiative at the UB Kinsey Educational and Community Center on August 6, 2024.
About Center for Child Counseling
Since 1999, Center for Child Counseling has been building the foundation for playful, healthful, and hopeful living for children and families in Palm Beach County. Its services focus on preventing and healing the effects of adverse experiences and toxic stress on children, promoting resiliency and healthy family, school, and community relationships. For more information visit, centerforchildcounseling.org.
Twitter: @ChildCounselPBC Facebook: @CenterforChildCounseling Instagram: @childcounselpbc
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