LYDIA_Pictures_Feb2011
Including LYDIA in Your Year-End Plans 

This has been a busy and fruitful year at LYDIA, and it's essential that our financial support keeps pace. Children, teens and families are depending on you!

 

We hope you will include LYDIA in your year-end giving plans. You can donate online or send a check to LYDIA at 4300 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, 60641. If you'd like to become a monthly donor through electronic funds transfer, please contact Sylvia Ortiz by email or call (773) 653-2223. Sylvia also can assist you if you are considering making a gift of appreciated assets.

 

Last but not least, we remind you to check your employer's matching gifts policy, which can mean even more financial support for LYDIA. Thank you! 

Our Most Successful Gala 

LillyGrayce
Lilly Grayce with Keegan. Photo by Jenna Satterthwaite.

The 2011 LYDIA Benefit Gala was our most successful ever, raising more than $260,000-plus our $90,000 matching grant. Additional donations continue to arrive by mail and online, and we are optimistic about meeting our year-end fundraising goal of $400,000.

 

Guests enjoyed the message from Pastor James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Chapel, who encouraged us to make the daily decision to trust God with whatever the future holds. We also heard from several people whose lives have been impacted by LYDIA's ministry. Another event highlight was listening to a song written by Lilly Grayce about a child her family cared for as Safe Families volunteers. It was moving to see the impact Safe Families had on the life of her family!

 

If you have not yet fulfilled a 2011 pledge you made at the Benefit Gala, please do so by Dec. 31. We are eager to bridge our "budget gap" by year end.

A Fresh Start 

Dorothy_JamarAfter months of hardship, Dorothy and Jamar were in a desperate situation. God led them to Safe Families, and what a difference a two-week placement made in their lives!

 

Dorothy and Jamar's story began about three years ago, when she became his guardian. In March 2010, she and Jamar moved from Chicago to Indianapolis, along with Dorothy's daughter and three grandchildren. The plan was to find work as quickly as possible and get a fresh start.

 

But as so often happens in this economy, work was hard to come by. Eventually the family fell behind on utility bills, then rent. One grandson moved in with a friend, and Dorothy's daughter and her other kids returned to Chicago. Dorothy and Jamar were on their own.

 

Dorothy sought help at several homeless shelters, but that wasn't a good solution-shelters are overcrowded in Indianapolis, and very few can accommodate children. For a couple of weeks, the Children's Bureau took care of Jamar. When Dorothy asked them for help a second time, staff members graciously referred her to Safe Families. READ MORE  
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