Ladies Auxiliary 12497

The Fox Valley Hands of Hope Project Hope school collaborated grief support program, now partnered with 46 schools throughout the Fox Valley community, supports students ages 5 through 18.  The benefits of school-based grief support are:

• Accessibility to support within a familiar environment
• Students are made aware of others at their school who have loss-related needs
• The grief process is “normalized” through interactions with other students
• It provides an outlet for emotional needs which then helps the student throughout their academic day
• Collaboration between Fox Valley Hands of Hope’s bereavement team and school staff encourages a positive link between emotional and academic performance

Naomi’s House (NH) is based in Wheaton, IL and started in 2016. It is estimated that an astounding 24,300 people are trafficked in Illinois each year. (Safe House Project 2023 Annual Report and Polaris Project) NH provides tailored support to victims and survivors wherever they are. Whether that is fully ingrained in commercial sexual exploitation, preparing to leave it, or beginning a new life of their own, NH wants women to know that they are not alone. The majority of their clients are from DuPage, Cook and Kane counties. In 2023, they helped 194 women. For more information about Naomi’s House, go to https://www.naomishouse.org/.

NIFB relies on the community at large and organizations like the Ladies Auxiliary to help feed neighbors in need. This year the Auxiliary created a fundraiser on the NIFB website. This way we could track our personal donations through our Fundraiser and when it reached $1,000 of personal donations, the LAX would donate a matching $1,000. Happy to report that reaching our goal didn’t take very long and a check was issued to the Food Bank in January 2024. We chose this charity as we knew that the need has grown over the last couple of years. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, the NIFB served more than 500,000 neighbors each month, 30% more than last year and 75% more than pre-pandemic. For more information on the Northern Illinois Food Bank, go to https://solvehungertoday.org/.