As families brave congested byways and inclement weather to reunite for the holidays, a New Englander might reflect on the timeless observation of our region’s poet laureate, Robert Frost: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
Thanks to Rhode Island’s “Adopt-a-Family” program, scores of people, no matter how deprived, can rely on the open arms of a family when the holidays approach. Administered by the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, the mission of Adopt-a-Family is to find donors from the community to provide Christmas presents for needy families.
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Founded six years ago, Adopt-a-Family is a core component of the DCYF’s broader Christmas Drive, which includes such efforts as the “Gift Campaign” for children and teens, which solicits and distributes toys and other gifts.
Adopt-a-Family is different from traditional charities and assistance programs, because it fosters involvement on a highly personal level. Under the program, a business, individual or church group adopts an entire family – even the parents – and provides DCYF with Christmas gifts for that family. The adopted family tells its sponsors what it wants or needs, and DCYF serves as the distribution go-between.
Jane Ahles, DCYF supervisor in the Providence area and co-chairperson of the agency’s statewide Christmas Drive, said the need seems particularly great this year and the agency still seeks new sponsors.
DCYF’s territory is divided into four regions: the Providence metro area; northern counties, out of a Pawtucket office; East Bay, in Warren; and southern counties, in North Kingstown. Among all four regions statewide, DCYF is now assisting more than 100 adopted families, slightly more than last year. In Ahles’ Providence region, 15 families are benefiting from the program.
“I have about a dozen more families that need to get adopted,” said Ahles. “There are a lot of needy people out there that still need help.”
At Adopt-a-Family, the labor is long, but the reward is great. She said the program does more than fulfill Christmas gift lists – it also fulfills wishes of the heart.
“We often tailor the specific requests of sponsors to the appropriate families,” she said. “This month, for example, I received a particularly lovely request from a sponsor who is a single mother, who told me she knows how hard it is to be a single mom, and she specifically requested the opportunity to sponsor another struggling single mother. Making those match-ups happen is the most satisfying part of my job.
“You have to realize, these families aren’t asking for luxuries. They ask for things like blankets, kitchen utensils and clothes. We don’t just hand out toys; sometimes the parents will get basic necessities.”
Ahles said the receiving families are truly among Rhode Island’s neediest. “Some of these families have moved several times, or they’ve been evicted, or they’re parents who have lost their jobs, or maybe they’ve even been homeless. These people are not asking for things that are extravagant.”
The Adopt-a-Family program has no fixed budget; its largesse directly depends on the generosity of the sponsors who decide to join.
“We don’t ask sponsors to spend a specific amount,” she said. “It’s whatever they can afford. It’s volunteerism; they’re Christmas angels. No money comes in that we tabulate. We just hook people up with each other.”
Nor does DCYF impose any means testing as a prerequisite to becoming an adopted family. DCYF every year asks its social workers in the field to provide the name of one family they deem to be a particularly needy case, as a candidate for entry into the program.
DCYF emphasizes discretion with its program.
The agency’s policy is to keep sponsored families anonymous and to protect the privacy of sponsors, but Ahles does reveal that the sponsors make up a cross-section of the community. Sponsors run the gamut from large corporations such as Verizon, to small companies such as Rhode Island Resource Recovery, a recycling company based in Johnston, to church groups and individuals from all walks of life.
She acknowledges that the Adopt-a-Family concept isn’t new; it exists in other states in various forms. But charity, as they say, starts in your own back yard.
She cited Verizon in Rhode Island as an especially avid supporter of the program. Jack Hoey, director of media relations at Verizon’s Northeast bureau, said his company is a big believer in Adopt-a-Family and supports it through internal voluntary giving programs.
Ahles pressed her case for additional support.
“Christmas is getting awfully close, but I’d be more than happy to sign up new sponsors at the last minute,” she said, with a weary but good-natured sigh.
