GoFundMe - Save one of Sunday Friends' flagship programs

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Oct. 24, 2019 - PRLog -- Sunday Friends, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a recipient of YMCA Project Cornerstone 2019 Asset Champion Award, empowers very low-income families to break the generational cycle of poverty. Children and their parents work together to develop the life skills needed to graduate from poverty into opportunity. Due to rising expenses and an unexpected loss of some grant funding, Sunday Friends needs to raise $150K by Dec 31st, 2019 to continue to operate at Santee Elementary School. Closing that site would mean cutting the program by a sizeable 33%!

For over 22 years, Sunday Friends has supported over 10,000 children and parents with programs funded mostly by individual donors and grants and run in collaboration with hundreds of local community organizations. "Collectively, we take pride in our operating model: the working alternative to charity," said James McCaskill, Executive Director of Sunday Friends, "we don't believe in handouts; instead we provide opportunities to serve, to learn, and to earn."

Sunday Friends' families struggle to barely survive in Silicon Valley. They are hard-working people trying to make ends meet and many are on the edge of homelessness, where a sudden illness or job loss will put the family out on the streets. Despite the financial stress, these parents are committed to giving their children a brighter future. For many, Sunday Friends is the only available resource to provide guidance, education, and support within the family context.

On a typical Sunday, more than 75 families attend the program, held at elementary schools located in economically-stressed neighborhoods. Children and parents come to work together to contribute to the community, learn practical life skills, and earn basic necessities. Sunday Friends emphasizes family engagement to build parenting effectiveness and to strengthen youths' sense of self-worth, their foundation of being loved and valued, and their dedication to being contributing members of society.

In a Santa Clara University study of Sunday Friends' programming, researchers concluded that, 99% of parents are now more actively involved in their children's education and 93% report that their children are doing better in school. Results such as these awarded Sunday Friends the YMCA Project Cornerstone 2019 Asset Champion Award in recognition of its significant impact on youth engagement within the community.

The Sunday Friends model works. Sadly, however, Sunday Friends is at risk of closing a THIRD of its programs!  Your generous donation, however big or small, will help highly-motivated families foster successful futures for their children. To donate, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-one-of-sunday-friends-flagship-programs

About Sunday Friends
Visit http://www.sundayfriends.org