Angels Against Abuse, Inc

ANGELS AGAINST ABUSE, INC

Detail of Programs

How The Angels Are Making a Difference Recap of Programs We Provide Annually & As Needed Angel Mission Statement The mission of Angels Against Abuse is to build awareness and educate the community with regard to existing neglect and abuse against children. To provide support, monetarily and through hands-on volunteer hours, to neglected and abused children who are removed from an abusive situation and to those children and famili8es who are at risk of losing their children because of such situations. We strive to bring together all available resources to help families achieve the best possible result form available government agencies, courts and services in the fastest possible manner when help is needed most. In some cases it is as easy as pointing people in the right directions and making sure that they get there. We are making a real difference in the lives of many children who are unfortunate victims of abuse and systems that fail to help them.

The Angels take pride in the fact that we have the ability to research what the needs are within the Welfare System and work towards meeting those needs. Our ability to be the “quick responders” when it comes to a child’s needs has proven to be a huge benefit to the many agencies that we work with on a daily basis. The Angels can only touch the surface of the many needs that these children and youth need in our community but we are making a difference and giving “HOPE” for a better tomorrow to children, youth and families who suffer at the hands of their abusers. THE ANGEL JOURNEY

Founded in 2007, Angels Against Abuse started with four women whose hearts were captivated when they visited an emergency shelter for children ranging in ages newborn to 11 called the Sallie House. Immediately after their visit, they vowed to start a movement that would positively impact the lives and futures of the children who had unfortunately suffered from child abuse and/or neglect in our local community.

We started Sallie’s Angels and hosted our 1st Annual Blue Ribbon Gala fundraiser to help kick-start the capital campaign for construction of a much needed, new Sallie House. Once the new Sallie House was completed and running smoothly, it became clear that our work was far from over as we realized there were thousands of children in our local community needing our help. We formed a non-profit organization, changing our name to Angels Against Abuse Inc., so that instead of solely focusing on the Sallie House, we would additionally begin to offer assistance throughout our local community to those children and families that have unfortunately been placed into the child welfare system.

Since then, Angels Against Abuse has been blessed with the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many children and families who have been abused and neglected. The Angels continue to find ways to increase our assistance, develop new programs, and strive to make a difference in the lives of many.

Sallie House/Children’s Village • Themed Birthday Parties (Donated by Diana & Kerry Helinger – Angels • Angel Assistance (wish list requests throughout the year, dollar value depending on the requests. • Christmas Giving - provided by Angels and individual outside donations • Christmas Party - Pizza Party with cupcakes, beverages, cookies and Santa Claus and a DJ with lots of dancing • Back to School Celebration -Pizza, Cupcakes and a DJ for dancing Ready For Life • UPASS Bus Program - there is no limit on bus usage for these youth. It is designed for any time of day or night with their bus card. To date this program has saved Ready For Life over $64,000 thanks to this program through PSTA • Youth Christmas Giving - A list of 100 youth who are aging out of the system is provided to the Angels and each youth receives a $50 gift card to buy what they want for Christmas. Every gift card is attached to a personalized Christmas Card signed by an Angel and a small gift to make them feel special. • Angel Assistance (dollar amount depends on requests) – We receive many requests throughout the year for assistance for these youth. Our most recent request was in the amount of $759 which was to help a young lady get reinstated into college so she could change the course of her life and raise her sister’s two children since her sister had passed away. • Mad Hatter Tea Party - Hosted annually by the Angels – This event is not a fundraiser; it is free admission to all children and their families in foster care. There are approximately 500 guests that attend each year.

Eckerd Community Alternatives (Lead Agency for Children in Foster Care) • Uniforms - 2 sets per child ranging in ages from elementary to middle school age • 25 Pack N Plays - Prevention of Infant deaths from sharing beds • Fresh Start Camp –Angels Sponsored 10 little boys to a special camp • Visitation Rooms Renovation– 2 completely renovated rooms utilized by various agencies working with parent’s visitation with their children. • Christmas Giving Program –The Angels adopt 5 families every year and provide everything from the Christmas Tree & Decorations, Christmas Dinner and filling the Wish List of every child in the family. Friends for Children Mentoring Program • School Uniforms -This program consists of 32 girls and 32 boys ranging in ages kindergarten thru middle school. The Angels provided 2 uniforms per child this school year. • Tablets– This program does not have adequate funding for items of this nature and the mentors cannot afford this expense. When the Angels received this request we purchased enough tablets to assist with their learning and homework assignments. • Backpacks– Last year the request was for backpack filled with school supplies according to the specific school and age group. The Angels provided 32 girl backpacks and 32 boy backpacks filled accordingly. This year the request was for uniforms which was a higher priority. • Christmas Giving – We assisted 32 girls and 32 boys this year and filled their wish list with the items they had hoped that Santa would bring. Department of Children & Families (DCF) Ranges in amounts • Camp for Champs Summer Program - The Angels have participated in this program for several years to partner with some of our community partners to provide a summer program for these children. The amount depends on the request made to the Angels. This year the request was for the Angels to sponsor 10 boys with a gift bag filled with all kinds of special goodies for camping and a gift card to buy a gift of their choice. Guardian ad Litem Foundation • Birthday Angel Bag Program - We provide 25 Angel Bags per month to the volunteers who use these bags for first time visits to make first visits easier for the child as well as they are used for Birthdays of these children. Every bag is filled with personal items, activity coloring books, crayons, stuffed animal, a toy, light up shoestrings and a $20 gift card. • Gas Card Program - The rising gas prices has made it more difficult for the GAL volunteers to make timely visits to the children they advocate for. This program makes it a little easier for them to make their monthly visits since the Guardian is the one stable person in this child’s life. • Angel Assistance Program – Amount depends on request – When a request is received and approved by the Angel Board, it could be anywhere from $250 to $1500 per request. Recently, we provided a young teen with severe dental issues $1500 towards a very expensive dental procedure. The Angels requested matching funds towards this $5000 procedure and with the generosity of the dental surgeon and other community partners, the initial request for $5000 to the Angels was reduced to $1500. The Kind Mouse  Mouse Nibbles Program – We partnered with The Kind Mouse several years ago to assist with the growing population of hungry children in our community. There are over 7000 children in Pinellas County going hungry and we are part of the solution to fill hungry tummies. Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office CPI Division – (Request are “as needed” and amount varies)  Wish List Requests – Throughout the year, the Child Protection Division of the Sheriff’s Office requests items from the Angels which is largely based on removals. This year there have been a lot of removals and the requests have been more often. The requests are approximately every 3 to 4 months and per requests ranges from $500 to $1000. These requests are items for the food pantry, infants, children of all ages and gender, bedding, beds and other needs of a child. Child Advocacy Expo – Hosted Annually by the Angels • This will be our 8th Expo coming up this month. The purpose of this event is to provide all the resources in our community and neighboring communities the opportunity to network with one another and find ways to make more of a difference in a child’s life by working together and pooling together our resources. This event has proved itself to be extremely beneficial to all those who participate and every year it is our goal to bring in more agencies to participate.

Christmas Giving Program – 2016 Recap This year the Angels provided Christmas for approximately 300 children in the foster care system. We worked with the following agencies to make this happen and it was with the support of some very generous individuals and businesses who worked with us to make sure these children celebrated Christmas like every child should. Here is the list of the Agencies we worked with this year: • Ready For Life – 100 youth who received a $50 Walmart Gift Card and a personalized card • Friends of the Children – 64 children of kindergarten age through middle school – 32 girls, 32 boys • Healthy Start Coalition PAT+ Program – 45 young mothers with their babies and toddlers • Sallie House/Children’s Village – 55 children and sibling groups ranging in ages 2 to 16 • Eckerd Community Alternatives – Adopted 3 families each having 6 children per family plus the family – 18 children plus the family Christmas Tree, Christmas Dinner and Wish List of every child in the family • Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office – Wish List items needed around the holidays and Christmas Wish List for a young lady in need.

Visitation Facility (Hopefully to be launched in 2017 depending on ability to raise the funds) This project will hopefully become a reality this year. We have had several meetings with some of our community partners, including Eckerd Community Alternatives, the Lead Agency, who feel this type of facility is a needed in our community. It would not only serve as a beautiful and child friendly place to go for children meeting with their parents in hopes of being reunified, but would be a meeting place for the many agencies dealing with the children and youth in foster care making it a mutual place for everyone to go. But, in order to make this happen, it will require community support, and as of this writing, there have been a lot of positive comments of how this facility would impact our community for these children. We feel there would be naming opportunities for the rooms and hopefully we can get some major commitments to make this project a reality.