Donate Backpacks & School Supplies for Homeless Children!

 

It's Back To School time, and Studio Evolve Tattoo needs

your help as they collect school supplies for less fortunate children! They're a proud donor for the ForKids organization, and this is just one of the many ways they've been able to contribute to helping children across Hampton Roads!

 

As the school year draws near, ForKids really needs help

collecting 500 backpacks and school supplies this year for underprivileged children in our area. If you would like to participate with us, please purchase one (or more) backpacks and fill it with the necessary supplies. Donations must be dropped off at Studio Evolve NO LATER THAN AUGUST 17.

 

**THERE IS NO NEED FOR CRAYONS, PENCILS & NOTEBOOKS!** Thanks so much for already meeting that need! You guys are awesome. :)

 

Here's a little info about the ForKids organization:

 

Our Mission:

Breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty for families and children.

 

Our History :
Over twenty years ago ForKids was founded by local citizens to shelter families in the Ocean View neighborhood of Norfolk. After opening Haven House as a 30-day emergency shelter those same citizens quickly found that short-term shelter was not an adequate solution for family homelessness and they embarked upon a new mission. In the succeeding years through many federal/private partnerships, including U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Norfolk’s Community Development Block Grant and Virginia HOME, ForKids lengthened the emergency shelter stay to four months, added critical clinical services for both the adults and children and funded the purchase, renovation and construction of our eight additional properties. We opened Norfolk’s first Transitional Housing Program in 1994 and the area’s first Permanent Supportive Housing Program in 1998.  In 1995 ForKids founded the Norfolk Homeless Consortium in conjunction with two other family shelters and has led the Continuum of Care process which brings millions of federal dollars to Norfolk’s neediest citizens. Elizabeth Place, Legacy, and our newest permanent supportive housing, Dillon Place, is part of our long-term plan to revitalize West 38th Street in Norfolk.  These four housing facilities provide a safer neighborhood for not only our families, but all the residents of 38th Street.  ForKids has five residential programs in Norfolk and one in downtown Suffolk serving 39 families every night.
 
A partnership initiated in fall 2007 with the Norfolk Department of Human Services for non-residential services, has resulted in ForKids serving an additional 45 families, more than doubling our daily capacity.  This partnership assists families facing imminent homelessness or who are already homeless to obtain ForKids case management services for 12 months:  DHS places these families in housing.  This approach has been successful in other states as an alternative to families living in costly shelters for an extended period.  Furthermore, in 2006, ForKids began receiving grants from the City of Virginia Beach to assist 12 homeless families annually.