Every day, our partner Friends in Action of the Eastern Panhandle works hard to bring about positive changes in the lives of motivated low-income families in their West Virginia community.
In the past 5 years alone, FIAEP has recruited and trained more than 185 volunteers, logging nearly 5,550 volunteer hours. These hours have been used to provide training in life skill areas that we might take for granted, such as job hunting, household budgeting, parenting and preparing cost-effective meals.
Friends in Action really makes a difference in the lives of the people they work so hard to help. Check out this inspiring story from FIAEP about one of their families:
“One of our mentor teams has been working with an intergenerational family who was living in a trailer park when they first entered the program. Today this family is buying a home in a nice subdivision complete with a yard for the little girl, ample room for privacy for the mom and closer to work for the grandfather. When the team first started working with this family, the mother was seriously depressed. Through the support and encouragement of her team, her depression is well maintained on medications and she is enrolled in college part-time, eager to work after being unemployed for more than a year. The team assisted her in enrolling in a course of study, obtaining financial aid and provided tutoring which resulted in a “B” average. Recently, the team was able to find resources for her to continue receiving the medications which have helped stabilize her depression. She is also taking a yoga class for the first time which will help her feel better physically and mentally. The next goal is to orient her to internet usage which will assist her in continuing her training program and aid her job search.”
If you’d like to support Friends in Action of the Eastern Panhandle, our “Teach a Person to Fish” shirt is available by clicking here. For every shirt purchased, $5 will go directly to FIAEP. And you can do even more by visiting www.fiaep.org to make a donation or find other ways to help.
