[00:00:03] Speaker A: The Journey Hometown Journal.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: It's looking again at the whole family. Every family works with a family engagement specialist who talks to the family about what are your goals, what do you need to move toward that, Whether that's housing or education or financial support, financial coaching, they really look at the whole picture and try to help families make change to help them meet those goals.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Welcome to the Hometown Journal. I'm Mark Edwards. And this week we're going to share with you the work of humankind. The Lynchburg based Virginia organization has as its mission to strengthen families and communities. And today we're going to learn how they're doing that through a number of different services. Donna Dunn is the director of communications and Chloe McFadden is the volunteer coordinator.
Donna, so big picture, when you look
[00:00:55] Speaker D: at all that humankind is involved in, what does that mean to be able to strengthen families and strengthen communities?
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Yes. And first of all, thank you so much for inviting us to talk about humankind.
You know, our vision is to create a compassionate society where every person is valued, families are healthy and communities prosper. And, and with that, when families are thriving, the whole community benefits. And so we have a number of programs that are in place really across Virginia, especially here in Lynchburg. We have a lot of programs because this is where humankind started in 1903 as the Presbyterian Home. It was a home for children to live residentially who either did not have parents or came from a broken home. And so we had this long legacy of caring for children in that way. And over the years, and especially in the last 20 years, that care has sort of broadened out to the whole community. And we provide services from childcare through Early Head Start to we have a treatment foster care program, we have a home visiting program called Healthy Families. Then we have a whole suite of like, economic resources, financial coaching, vehicle loans to again, provide support that really wraps around the whole family so that we're not just addressing one thing, but we're like really holistically looking at what a family needs and how they can move toward their goals.
[00:02:34] Speaker D: Donna, you mentioned the Early Head Start program and humankind had some news recently about expanding that program.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Yes, we are so excited about that and we are so thankful to our whole community for supporting that expansion. Our Early Head Start center in Lynchburg just opened in 2021 and really the community came behind that and helped to build it. Liberty University was a big part of building that original building on Fenwick Drive. And then very quickly, immediately, really there was a waiting list. There's so much need for childcare in our area, and especially affordable child care.
And so within the last year or so, the national office of Head Start asked us if we would expand the program. It was doing so well. They saw the need, and so we did apply to expand. We get a grant from them, but then we have to match that with community funds, which actually makes a lot of sense, right. To show that community support. And so then we were able to get the matching funds to go ahead and start building. The expansion we started last August, took about nine months, and we had a ribbon cutting just a few weeks ago.
Right now, those new families are starting to come into our Early Head Start center. We did have capacity for about 48 children, and now that's raised up to 90.
And these are children who are like 6 weeks old up to age 3. So that's especially where there's a critical need for care for children. Because, you know, those early weeks and years, I think something like 75% of your brain develops in those first three years. So being in a place that is helping those children develop, looking for any signs that maybe they need extra support if the development milestones aren't, you know, kind of getting hit on a regular schedule, there's. There's just a lot of support for the families. We always say it's much more than childcare because it's looking again at the whole family. Every family works with a family engagement specialist who talks to the family about, you know, what are your goals, what do you need to move toward that, whether that's housing or education or financial support, financial coaching.
They really look at the whole picture and try to help families make change to help them meet those goals.
[00:04:56] Speaker D: How are the children admitted into the Head Start program?
[00:05:01] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you for asking that. So, again, we follow the criteria of the National Head Start program, and they have very specific criteria about income, about different factors that would allow you to be eligible for Early Head Start. If your child is in the foster care system, they're eligible. Again, your family meets a certain income requirement. They are eligible because Early Head Start is offered at no cost to the families who are eligible, who get accepted. So it's a phenomenal chance for parents who need to stay in the workforce or need to finish up school or start school, that they actually can do that. Because, you know, if you know, anyone who's paying for childcare right now, or if you yourself are paying for childcare, you know what a huge impact that can be, and it can be really prohibitive to keeping you moving toward employment.
[00:05:57] Speaker D: Donna, you Mentioned foster care. So is Humankind. Is that a foster care placing agency? How does that work?
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. You know, unfortunately, you know, our.
Our need for foster families is huge. And so we work obviously with the Virginia Department of Social Services, with local social service agencies really around Virginia. We have offices in. We have foster care offices in Lynchburg, Bedford, Danville, Richmond, and we also serve some areas of Northern Virginia. So we have foster families across the state. We actually just came out with our impact report, our annual report recently, and we served over 200 children last year.
100 of those were in Lynchburg. We have 55 in Richmond, 46 in Danville, 37 in Bedford. And so we're always looking for families who have a heart for foster care. We really support those families and train them and are with them because, again, the need for foster families is much greater than what the state agencies can handle.
[00:07:11] Speaker C: It really is.
[00:07:12] Speaker D: We've done some programs with other foster care agencies, and you realize just how great the need is nationally, but locally as well.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. And it's so important that any child that's coming into foster care has had experience with things that are hard, you know, and so making sure that those families are trained and equipped for that, you know, whether it's, you know, it could be that treatment, foster care encompasses a lot of things. It could be that it's, you know, a larger number of siblings and they, you know, need a different setting. Or it could be that they've experienced some trauma, which unfortunately, almost any child coming into foster care has. And so we just want to make sure the families, you know, can provide that nurturing, loving environment and that they feel supported in that.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: That is Donna Dunn with Humankind. In a minute we'll hear from volunteer coordinator Chloe McFadden. You can learn more about the services humankind provides to families in Lynchburg and other locations throughout Virginia at their website, humankind.org back with more in a minute.
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[00:09:12] Speaker C: Mark Edwards back with you along with our guests Donna Dunn and Chloe McFadden from Humankind. Humankind began as the Presbyterian Home and Family Services in lynchburg back in 1903. And today they continue to offer services to families, including the Head Start program for children, foster care and financial guidance and coaching, as well as job training. Chloe McFadden is the volunteer coordinator with Humankind. And Chloe, with all of the services Humankind offers to families, it obviously takes a staff, but it also takes a lot of volunteers.
[00:09:47] Speaker E: Yeah, so we have a lot of volunteers. We had over 400 last year that came out. We help with every program. So like Donna was talking about, the early Head Start program, we have volunteers that can come out and work directly with the teachers, and they work in the classroom room setting. They have to get background checks and everything to make sure the the children are safe. And then we have our fur foster care program. We have a first night backpack initiative. So, you know, kids are coming into foster care with absolutely nothing or they come with a trash bag filled of stuff. So our foster care program actually provides a backpack with everything that they need, plus, you know, toys and little things that would be really great for them to have. We have volunteers who come in and donate those items, but then also come and put those backpacks together for children.
Um, we also have so many different events. We are the nonprofit who runs the Lynchburg Turkey Trot. It takes a huge army to run that event. And so last year we had 200 volunteers for the Lynchburg Turkey Trot that came out. We have about over a hundred volunteers who come out on race day. But then we also have four different big events before race day that volunteers come out. And we have events that go out throughout the whole year. So you can check it out on humankind.org and click on volunteers and it'll give you all the opportunities.
[00:11:08] Speaker D: Yeah. A lot of ways to be involved.
[00:11:10] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:11:10] Speaker D: Well, when you're talking about strengthening families, you're talking about strengthening communities. You can't do that if families that are involved in some of the programs don't have some guidance on finances. Humankind has a couple of different financial programs. Donna, tell us a little bit about that and how those work.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Yes, thank you for asking. So, a few different things. We have a program called Ways to Work, which also serves across Virginia. It is a fair interest vehicle loan program, and there is a financial coaching portion of that for every participant. You can be eligible for that basically, if you have been in a job for six months and meet a few other eligibility criteria. And we just did a survey last year of the folks who have gotten a loan through Ways to Work in recent years. And I personally loved reading their stories because their experience with Ways to work, it just opened doors that you wouldn't expect. You think of like it's a car, but it's not just a car. It means you're reliably getting to work every day. It means you can work overtime if you want to. It means you could go take classes. It means you could take your child to the doctor when they have a doctor's appointment without having to rely on a friend or public transportation. It might mean that you can get a different job because you're not just relying on public transportation.
For some folks, it meant that their savings really went up because they weren't having to pay for rideshare, which can get really costly if you're relying on that on a daily basis to get to work. So that I think, is such a. Such a great program for anyone who's working and needs a vehicle at a fair interest. And they really surround you with support for that because they give you financial coaching. And if you run into a month where the ends just aren't meeting, they will work with you. You can talk to your coach, you can talk to contact there. And you know, they. They have an emergency household pantry, which is another kind of volunteer opportunity that we have a lot of wonderful folks who donate to that, especially during the turkey trot. So if you're like a client and you can't make it work that month, you could say, I'm really coming up short. And they can say, come get some of the stuff you need from our emergency pantry. Here's a gas card to help you out this month. We can't help you with your car payment, but we can help you kind of make. Make it all work. And they're always kind of working through that financial coaching piece. We also have a Financial Opportunity center in Richmond which does specific, like financial coaching. We do workforce development. We have a program in Roanoke, and then we also are the local sort of operators with Virginia Career Works. So out on Odd Fellows Road in Lynchburg. If you have any sort of workfor whether you are entering the workforce and you need some training, whether you have been in the workforce and maybe got displaced through layoffs or some other thing that has caused you to need some retraining or to look at some different career paths, they also work with employers. And one of the neat stories I heard recently was a young person, we have a youth program that's part of that.
A young person was trying to get started in trades, wasn't sure what to do and actually got placed with an H Vac company in town and through a grant through Virginia CareerWorks that was able to pay for the first. I think it was a couple hundred hours of his salary for him to get on the job training. So it didn't cost that partner, that employer money and they got to kind of help someone get the skills they needed and then they actually hired him full time after that. So it's really a win win with some of these youth programs to just help people get started in a career. And it also helps our employers who are looking skilled tradespeople to get them started in that direction.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: This week on the Hometown Journal, we are learning more about the programs offered through Humankind in Lynchburg and other locations in Virginia. When we come back, we'll talk more with Donna Dunn, director of communications and Chloe McFadden, volunteer coordinator. If you are interested in learning about the services Humankind offers to families or ways that you can be involved and volunteer, go to humankind.org we'll be back with our final segment in a minute.
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[00:16:27] Speaker C: Mark Edwards with you this week we are highlighting the work of Humankind, an organization that offers a number of programs to families in Virginia. Donna Dunn, director of communications, and Chloe McFadden, volunteer coordinator, are with us today.
You both have shared the various programs and you've talked about the volunteers that help make the services possible.
Chloe, I'll start with you. What does it mean to you to see the results of the efforts in helping individuals and families improve their lives?
[00:16:58] Speaker E: Yeah, my heart is to serve the community. And you know, I might not be the one that's out there directly serving these clients, but I get to read the stories. I get to work with the volunteers that go out there and work with these clients or support our staff members to be able to do their jobs better. And it just gives me joy. It just. It brings me to my purpose, to what I felt like the Lord has brought me on earth to be able to do. And I just love this Lynchburg community, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: I totally agree. And I've been with humankind about a year and a half now, and I've just loved getting to know it better. Because I think for a lot of people, you hear the name and you're not quite sure what we do because it is sort of multifaceted. And so to become a part of it and really see how it is connecting with real people every day and helping them work through some hard times. And don't we all have hard times in life?
And to really focus on the strengths and the skills and helping people build something that could have a generational impact.
When your child goes through early Head Start and you're able to kind of go in a different direction, that can impact everything for that family. And so that's what's so exciting to me, that we're not just.
And we need crisis help out there too. But this isn't just helping someone through a crisis. This is like, let's look long term at what your family needs and how you can maybe move in a different direction, make a generational change. And I think that that's really beautiful and loving and caring for the people
[00:18:36] Speaker D: in our community along with that, too. A lot of people, they do need help, and they know that they need help. They want to work, they want to see their kids be on the right track, but they don't know where to go. And humankind gives them that opportunity.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yes, I think every one of our programs has coaches or engagement specialists, folks who.
Their whole job is to look at that whole picture, that whole person, and to figure out, okay, here's where you're here and you want to go here. Let's figure out how to build that bridge. I also wanted to mention our Healthy Families program. It is a home visiting for parents, and it's from before birth up to age 5. And really those family specialists, they are there with the parent in those early days, early months. And, you know, gosh, I feel like I could have used that, you know, just understanding, like how to bond with your baby. What are the developmental steps, what to be watching for, where to ask for help. And so so we are so thankful that we get to have a healthy families program here in Lynchburg.
[00:19:42] Speaker E: I think it's really cool, our community partners that we get to work with, because if we can't do it, then there is another nonprofit in Lynchburg or somewhere around that could help, which is really awesome. And our coaches don't just, like, make whatever goal for this client. They don't say, hey, this is what you should be doing. They say, what are your goals? And let's figure out a plan that we can get to that and how we can jump over those hurdles together, which is really awesome.
[00:20:06] Speaker D: About how many community partners are involved with Humankind.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. I feel like Chloe brings up such an important point that we love to say that we are with our community, but we're with them because they are with us. And we can't do everything and nor would we even do everything. Well. We have such amazing partners in the nonprofit space, in the corporate space, small businesses, just individual community members.
I mean, it is truly a beautiful network, and I think we're always trying to grow that, too, to really be. For us, to be a good partner and to work with so many good partnerships in the community.
[00:20:47] Speaker D: And again, you can find out more about that on their website. We'll give that to you here at the end of the program as well. Donna, Chloe, thank you so much for being with us.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Donna Dunn and Chloe McFadden from Humankind have been our guests this week. If you would like to find out more about the services offered or opportunities to volunteer or perhaps be a coach for a family or individual, be sure and Visit their website. Humankind.org I'm Mark Edwards. Thank you for joining us for the Hometown Journal.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: You've been listening to the Journey Hometown Journal. If you're a part of an organization or know of one in the communities we serve and would like to be considered as a guest, please make your
[email protected] email officeyjourneyfm.com or call 800-424-9594. The Hometown Journal is a presentation of the Journey.
