21st Annual Angel Tree Opportunity-YWCA Salem

www.ywcasalem.org

(SALEM, Ore.) - Monday kicks off the YWCA Salem Resource Assistance Program’s 21st annual Angel Tree Opportunity. Last year the Angel Tree helped over 85 households to fully celebrate the holiday season.

Through the kindness and generosity of members of our community 85 angels were collected from the decorated tree in the lobby of the YWCA Salem. Each angel represented a need of a child or an adult and was filled and returned to the YWCA Salem.

Throughout the year the YWCA’s Resource Assistance Program helps women and their families to connect to needed services through an integrated system of service providers. Service delivery can be as simple as a phone conversation, but many times it involves helping women and their families walk through a maze of services while in crisis.

For several years now the staff in the Resource Assistance Program of the YWCA Salem has provided unexpected gifts during the holidays for the women and families that have passed through their doors.

This year the program has helped over 500 people connect to: language services, transportation, primary health care, housing, employment preparedness, legal representation, substance abuse, and more. The goal is to have wrapped gifts for each and every family. We need your help to meet this goal.

Visit us online at www.ywcasalem.org or stop by the YWCA Salem lobby, located at 1255 Broadway Street NE (the corner of Broadway and Market downtown), choose an angel from online or on our tree, fill the request and return the wrapped item, with the angel attached, to our lobby. This is a wonderful way to engage your family, children, co-workers and neighbors to make a family‘s holiday season brighter. Crispin Ogo, Coordinator of the YWCA Resource Assistance Team, states:

“Open your heart this season and pick an angel off the tree and place a smile on someone who needs it most this holiday season. Please come and visit our Angel Tree and meet our friendly staff.”

Angel Tree ornaments will be available online at www.ywcasalem.org and pick-up Monday morning November 8th in the lobby of the YWCA Salem on the corner of Broadway and Market. Linda Macrae and Jessie McGraw, YWCA Salem Resource Assistance Program Family Advocates, anticipate this year’s need to be even greater due to families financially aching from lack of employment, the increased cost of living including the cost of food, utilities, and rent or mortgage payments. Ogo suggests “make this a family event, involve your children… take time and give back today!”

Source: YWCA Salem