Breakfast is often described as the most important meal of the day, providing sustenance and energy, and it certainly was true for Family & Children’s Place in April, as nearly 500 community, business, faith, education, and healthcare leaders joined us for our annual Champions for Children Fundraising Breakfast.
I am pleased to report that it was the best and most successful breakfast we’ve ever had!
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Guests helped us celebrate our 135 years of successful service, and heard Adrianne Morris tell her story of abuse. But they also heard her story of recovery. With help from Family & Children’s Place, she overcame the trauma and today advocates to protect children, and to raise money and support for the agency.
Attendees generously opened their hearts and their wallets, and Kosair Charities and two anonymous donors offered a $25,000 total matching grant. It was inspiring and humbling, and does much to energize and sustain our work with children and family hurt by abuse.
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Your gifts and support ensure help and hope, and that there are ears willing to hear children disclose abuse here in Louisville and Southern Indiana. Your support provides the stories that inspire. The victories worth celebrating.
And there are many. For example, the stories in the news recently, surrounding the Kentucky Derby, of human trafficking victims that have been rescued, and their captors charged and prosecuted.
Many of the juvenile victims of human trafficking are brought to our Kosair Charities Child Advocacy Center, where they receive care, and our forensic interviewers and clinicians help reveal facts that can be used to aid in prosecution, and to restore the child’s trust, health, and safety.
It’s important work succeeding with your help. And because of your investment, we’re growing, expanding services into hard hit and high need communities.
For example, in the summer of 2019, we’re looking forward to expanding behavioral health services into Louisville’s West End through the new YMCA being built at 19th and Broadway. With the opening of these offices, residents of the Russell, California, and Parkland neighborhoods will have access to these critical services for the first time in too any years.
And we’re moving immediately to provide a behavioral health provider at the Smoketown Family Wellness Center on Hancock Street. This high-need area – Smoketown and Shelby Park – is riddled with poverty, crime, and substance abuse, so having a behavioral health provider there for children and families is critical.
The service also will complement work already going on through our Collaborative Learning After School Program with students at Meyzeek Middle School.
I cannot thank you enough for your investment in our client children and families’ success. As you can see, the payouts are nothing short of inspiring. Thank you for being true Champions for Children.
With appreciation,
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Pam Darnall
President/CEO
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CHAMPIONS FOR CHILDREN BREAKFAST
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Nearly 500 business and community leaders joined staff, friends, and clients for the breakfast at the Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center. Following some networking and coffee, guests were treated to a short performance by members of the Atherton High School choir.
Read more here.
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VOLUNTEERS GIVE A DAY, MAKE A DIFFERENCE
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On Friday, April 20, volunteers from Brown-Forman, Genscape, and Net Impact Louisville joined forces to help clean up the Family & Children’s Place campus by weeding, mulching, trash collection, and working with Louisville Grows to plant five new trees around the Kosair Charities Child Advocacy Center.
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CLASP STUDENTS ENJOY DINNER AND A SHOW
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Recently, a group of students in our CLASP program enjoyed dinner at 4th Street Live! and a production of "School of Rock, the Musical."
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While I am now retired for a few years, I remember something one of my “big bosses” – former PepsiCo Chair and CEO Wayne Calloway – used to say. “When the cause is right, make sure you do your part.”
For my wife Coleen and I, Family & Children’s Place (F&CP) is certainly the right cause. Children cannot thrive until they are safe. The prevalence of child and sexual abuse in our community is incredibly disturbing to us and we felt compelled to search for solutions.
Family & Children’s Place is at the top of the solutions list. Their counseling, family support, and work with partners such as LMPD’s Crimes Against Children Unit (and counterparts in suburban counties) and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has made a difference and will have an even bigger impact when more people “do their part.”
For 15 years, my wife and I have been financial supporters of Family & Children’s Place through annual contributions and support of various fundraisers and capital campaigns. Yet, while we’re financially comfortable, we were not able make the type of “game-changing” contribution that would have a major impact on the children and families attempting to heal from abuse or better yet, prevent such abuse outright.
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As we looked at options, “planned giving” stood out. A
planned gift is a contribution that is arranged in the present and allocated at a future date. Commonly donated through a will or trust, planned gifts are most often granted once the donor has passed away. Since I’m retired, and my wife will be so in the not distant future, we saw an opportunity to really help without risking our immediate financial plans.
A planned gift can take many forms. For some, a simple bequest in a will suffices. For others, more detailed planning will point to various forms of trusts such as donor-directed funds where you can immediately take the charitable tax deduction but execute the disbursement at some future point.
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Coleen and I determined that a Charitable Remainder Unitary Trust (CRUT) was our best option. In a CRUT, you set aside the money to the trust at once but drawl down a set percentage as retirement income until your death. The value of the charitable deduction varies according to your current age and the percentage of the trust that is dedicated to yearly income.
With most charitable trusts, making your initial contribution with appreciated stock may allow you to avoid capital gains taxes in addition to whatever charitable deduction might apply. Every family’s financial and tax position is different; you must count on the advice of financial planners, accountants and lawyers who specialize in estate planning, trusts and charitable giving.
My personal learnings from setting up a planned gift for Family & Children’s Place is that you don’t have to be rich for this approach to make sense. Second, what sounds complex is not that difficult. Finally, it a great way to “do your part.”
If you’re interested in supporting Family & Children’s Place through a planned gift, you can start by contacting Larissa Reece, Vice President of Development at:
lreece@famchildplace.org (502) 855-6156. She can help set you in the right direction and answer any of your generic questions about the agency or planned giving. I would be happy to share more details about my family’s experience.
Just ask Larissa to put you in touch.
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Bill Ehrig, Board Member
Family & Children's Place
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Pinwheels remind us that every child deserves a safe, happy, and healthy childhood. #childabusepreventionmonth
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In-Kind - Along with financial and volunteer support, Family & Children’s Place has ongoing material needs that help facilitate our work with children and families. Click
HERE to see our wish list.
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Volunteer - Are you interested in volunteering? Contact Janet Tinsley at
jtinsley@famchildplace.org or 502-893-3900 x 265 for more information on volunteer opportunities.
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