Focus In The New Year

We just held our January board meeting and discussed our plans for the new year. Above all we want to secure funds for our ongoing programs for long term drug treatment, School on the Water camp, homeless resources, and supporting our communities and families.

Last year was a tough financial year that cut our kids School on the Water mentoring program and summer camp short. The camp is attended by 35 kids ages 7 to 15 three days a week throughout the summer and they love it. We coordinate a field trip each week to museums, environmental canoeing trips, and New York City. The rest of the week is filled with speakers, artists, tutoring, and exploring the Chesapeake Bay. All of our staff volunteer their time at sacrifice of other paying jobs. The best part is that the mentoring for these kids continues throughout the rest of the year. They rely on We Care and Friends as a safety net in their lives with family, friends, and school. This year, we want to make sure that the camp runs throughout the summer with affordable bussing, meals, and field trips. We are always looking for people who are willing to come talk to the kids for an hour to about their interests or life including animal rescue, art, police work, computers, race cars or life experiences.

At this time of year, we are always concentrating on the homeless population battling the weather and elements outside. We are blessed as the city recognized the need to create more available beds and will be setting up a shelter in the Stanton Community Center to support and protect our clients. In combination with the Naval Academy, Food Bank, Annapolis OEM and your donation we could care for those in need. Larry Griffin and his crew don’t just let people know they are waiting for them, they go out under the bridges, in the woods and behind buildings where they can find our homeless clients and encourage them to come in for shelter. For some people, this is a difference between life and death after days in the bitter, wet, cold weather. We Care and Friends understands the needs of the homeless because many of our volunteers have been homeless at one time and want to give back to an organization that once saved them. The shelter also provides an opportunity to provide further services such as health care in the clinic, personal ids, showers, meals, supplies, warm clothing and blankets, counseling, and finding employment opportunities.

Of course, connecting our clients with long-term drug treatment programs within three days of them showing up to the office to commit to changing their lives. We have already sent men and women to treatment this year as they considered their new year resolutions to do better for themselves and their families. Our greatest strength is the support they receive in conjunction with their families as drugs and alcohol affect so many around us. We are blessed to have solid working relationships with local treatment centers and Teen Challenge in New England. A client can go to one year of treatment to gain life and job skills for less than $500. Our success rate is over 80% due to our commitment to help them when they return to find housing, jobs, and peace within their families.

We look forward to this year and working with our clients, the agencies, government representatives, community churches and you.