By Austen High
We have so much to be thankful for at NC Child this Thanksgiving.
In 2018, your support brought us real and lasting policy changes that benefit kids. Together we blocked legislative efforts to allow health plans that exclude people with pre-existing conditions, protected state funding for the NC Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and ended corporal punishment for kids in every public school across North Carolina. These successes are a result of a team effort among child advocates and service organizations all across North Carolina. For Giving Tuesday, we wanted to share the stories of two of our inspiring partners from opposite ends of the state.
Our partners at WAGES in Goldsboro and Children First/Communities in Schools of Buncombe County represent the best of us. WAGES is a community action agency in Wayne County that provides community support services for children, families, and seniors. WAGES serves 700 children in its HeadStart center each year. When Hurricane Florence hit, the damage and flooding to their facility didn’t stop WAGES from serving the community. The center was back in operation within a week, and WAGES established an Emergency Fund to help community members who had lost homes, cars, and jobs start the recovery process. You can make a secure online donation to WAGES right here.
Children First/Communities in Schools of Buncombe has spent over 40 years developing a whole-child, whole-family approach to success in school by providing in-school case management, after school learning centers, a food pantry, and backpack drives to the children of Buncombe county. CF/CIS understands that success in school involves the whole family’s well-being. They are regional leaders in advocacy to develop a strategy for a more livable Buncombe county, that involves housing, transportation, and high-quality early childhood education. You can make a secure online to CF/CIS on their website.
These advocates work tirelessly to lift the voices of children in our communities. They stand watch at naptime and stand up for kids to have a safe place to sleep at night. They play tag on the playground and then fight to keep the air our kids breathe clean. Your local child service agencies make each of our lives better every day by caring for our youngest, and making their voices heard.
This Giving Tuesday, we urge you to donate to one (or more!) of our partner agencies, or your local child-serving agency. When you contribute to these local organizations you provide a weekend meal for a hungry kid, a space to do homework with a mentor after school, and spirited advocates who fight for the kids and communities they know and love.
This is the spot where we would normally ask you to consider a gift to NC Child. On Giving Tuesday, we’re asking you to give generously to one of the agencies in your own community that cares for and advocates for children. Thank you for all that you do for kids, on Giving Tuesday and all year long.