Got a minute? You could save a family…

Many of you saw the recent news reports regarding the Sylvia Thomas Center and our funding concerns. I have asked our Executive Director Denise Jamieson to write this next blog to answer some of the most asked questions.

Kevin

Got a minute?  You could save a family…

Most of you have heard about the funding challenges the Sylvia Thomas Center is facing.  Our primary funder for the past eleven years has been the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County and we are extremely grateful for that support.  However, due to cuts in tax revenue and the taxpayer referendum it will face in 2016, the Children’s Board decided to significantly reduce the funding of most of the agencies it supports and limit future funding to organizations focusing on early childhood school readiness.

So, on August 25^th, the Children’s Board announced that our total funding for next year would be cut by slightly more than 20%, equating to $73,000.  This was shocking because we had only been anticipating an 8% cut.  The cuts begin on October 1, 2011.  That gave us just 5 weeks’ notice.

The Sylvia Thomas Center needs to raise $73,000 on its own this year, something we have never done before, in order to continue helping adoptive and pre-adoptive families and their precious, precious children. 

Adopted children suffer deeply from feelings of abandonment, in their minds feeling they have been abandoned by their biological moms, often abandoned by a myriad of foster moms, and are now, because of their emotional wounds, in danger of being abandoned by their adoptive moms.  The teens in our Teen Scene support group said to us, “You cannot abandon us too.  We need you.”

We cannot let these children and families down.  The board and staff of the Sylvia Thomas Center are committed to raising the funds not only for this year but for the years to come.

However, we need YOUR help!

Partner with us and you could save a family.  In fact, you will save a family.  In eleven years of operation we have had only one adoption dissolve among families receiving our case management services.  However, many of the families have said that, without our help, they would have dissolved the adoption.  The Sylvia Thomas Center puts the “forever” in forever families but we cannot do it alone.

Through our website or through the mail, please consider making a one-time donation or support us on a monthly basis.  The healing continues only if partners like you stand up and stand beside us.  Any amount makes a difference in these families’ lives.  If you can make a gift of $5,000 or more, please call me directly (813.651.3150) so we can talk about ways to leverage your gift.

It only takes a minute, and you could save a family…

Dee Jamieson, CEO