Who
Our program serves children and youth in Richmond City, James City County, Petersburg and Hanover’s local child welfare system (foster care + families served by CPS) who otherwise will not be celebrated this holiday season. Most of the children we serve do not have involved family members to celebrate them this holiday season. Many of the children we will serve live in group homes or treatment centers, live with a kinship family or will be celebrating with their teenage parent who is in foster care. We will serve lots of teenagers and some infants, those who celebrate Christmas and some who celebrate Kwanzaa, those who want video games, baby dolls, new shoes or simply need a winter jacket.
Sponsors will chose one (or more!) specific child to sponsor and ensure that child is celebrated this holiday season!
What
Similar to the Angel Tree program, sponsors will have the ability to chose a child that they would like to sponsor (maybe you want to shop for a little girl who celebrates Christmas and wants a baby doll, or maybe you’d prefer a young man living in a group home who likes LeBron James). Sponsors will shop for their child using a wishlist that we provide with their wishes and needs. We are recommending that sponsors spend a minimum of $150 (on average in past years, sponsors report spending more than this to fullfill the needs/wishes of the child) on each child. This is a lot of money for some so we encourage you to use your own social media network, your employee group or your own family members to help make this possible for a local child!
When
A list of children and youth needing a sponsor for the holidays will be released on October 29th both by email and on our social media pages. Sponsors will then have time to shop and prepare for their young person before delivering them during the week of November 18th or at our drop off event on November 23rd from 10am-1pm in the Scott’s Addition area of Richmond.
Gifts will then be are sorted and delivered to agencies by the beginning of December to ensure they can be delivered to the child in time for the holidays. Drop off locations are located in Willow Lawn area, Midlothian, Colonial Heights and Mechanicsville (see below). Please note that if your gifts include especially large items (such as a bike or toddler bed) that it is best to coordinate directly with us for delivery! Please email caroline@worthdays.org to coordinate delivery of such items.
Giving Guidelines
Gifted items must be new. We are unable to accept any used items (if you have a unique situation and have a question about this please, send us an email at holidays@worthdays.org!).
When able, please include gift receipts. We encourage you to include an envelope where these receipts can be placed for easy finding. Just with any other child and teenager sometimes clothes don’t fit even if you purchased the right size.
For children ages 13+, we strongly encourage you to consider that a portion of your gift be in the form of a gift card. This not only allows youth to get items that they desire most but also giving them experience with purchasing, budgeting, making independent decisions, etc.
We strongly encourage you to include at least one relevant book because of our belief that reading is good for all children/youth and many kids in foster care have limited access to libraries and books in general. Here are some good ideas to start with.
When we release information about each child, we will have provided you with the most information we have been given and have asked social workers to be as detailed as possible. Some of the wishlists will be very detailed where others will require more creativity on behalf of the sponsor. Please pay close attention to the wishlist as some will include specific information. Some wishlists will even include specific information such as the race the child most identifies with and what holiday they are accustomed to celebrating. Social workers are incredibly busy right now and may not be able to answer additional questions about the young person requiring the sponsor to get creative!
Gifts can not be fully wrapped! There are other creative ways that allow us to fairly easily “see” the gifts such as using small gift bags inside of a large duffel bag or adding tissue paper/ribbons to the outside of a piece of luggage. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT gifts are contained in a piece of luggage, duffel bag, plastic “Rubbermaid style” tote, laundry basket or other reusable storage container. This allows us to simultaneously address the national issue of children in foster care carrying their belongings in trash bags from place to place. PLEASE DO NOT PACKAGE GIFTS IN LARGE PAPER GIFT BAGS (smaller gift bags inside a piece of luggage, tote or duffel are allowable).
Prior to delivering your gifts, it would be incredibly helpful if you would print out and complete this inventory list. This helps social workers know what is included in the gift to the child and saves them time of going through the gift prior to giving to the child. Don’t feel like you have to write every single thing included in the gift however marking the most important things would be great along with including any special notes about the gift. Please place this document at the top of the gifts so that we can easily find.
We will likely not ever know how the holiday went for the child you will sponsor. We, however, hope that through this giving opportunity you feel the intrinsic value of helping a child experience a small window to joy during the holiday season. We are so grateful that you have joined us in this conspiracy of love for the foster care community!
Have a question that is not addressed here? Email holidays@worthdays.org and we are happy to answer it!
FAQ
You mentioned that your recommended amount spent per child is $150. Is it okay if I spend more than that? Yes, of course! The kids we serve are very rarely showered with extra so we say go for it! If you are working as part of a group and want to sponsor multiple children and need guidance about the number you should sponsor, don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly for guidance!
Can I wrap the gifts? As much as we would LOVE to have the gifts all wrapped nicely with bows it simply won’t work for our program. For many reasons, the social workers need to be able to “see” (without too much work) the gifts. As long as it is something that we can fairly easily view the gift then it is fine. We DO encourage you to get creative and give the items a festive look! This can be done by adding tissue paper, bows, small gift bags contained in a larger bag, decorating a plastic tote, etc.
Can you tell us how the child responded when they received the gifts? We most likely will never hear how the gifts were received however we are confident the children we serve will be surprised to be celebrated.
Can I include a card? Yes, please include a card and feel free to sign it. We can not, however, include personal contact information in the cards. You can sign the card “the Jones family” or signed with your first names.
Am I allowed to know the name of the child I sponsor? Yes, we typically share the first name of the child you are sponsoring. In unique situations involving Child Protective Services cases, we might only be able to provide the first initial.
Why do some of the entries on the list say FAMILY or SIBLINGS? If you are working with a group and would like to celebrate multiple children, consider choosing a family or siblings to sponsor! When signing up for a family or siblings, you are sponsoring EACH person listed. It’s great when you can team up with others to help out!
7. Why is it important to share the race of the child? On the sign up list, no demographic information such as race the child identifies with is listed. At a later date, however, we will share this information with the sponsor if the information was voluntarily shared with us. The reason we are sharing the race the child identifies with is we believe that it is important that the children we serve receive items that are reflective of themselves. For example, a baby doll, makeup, toiletries may be requested by the child and knowing the child’s race allows us to get items that match (and embrace) the race they most identify with. If, for example, a child requests a book about cooking and the child is Black then finding an amazing cookbook by a person of color may even further inspire and empower them.
8. Everyone on the list has been sponsored - are we too late? We have an amazing village that blows us away each year with their generosity! If you have come to this page and there are no children currently available who need a sponsor, please complete THIS FORM to be placed on our standby list. This will allow us to notify you when we add. a young person to our holiday list (typically means a family has experience an imminent crisis and the social worker has determined they are in need of a holiday sponsor).
9. My company or group would like to help! Are there other ways to get involved? We love it when people are passionate about ensuring kids in our local child welfare system are celebrated and their needs met. Check out this page that gives more information about other sponsorship opportunities for this program! We also typically need birthday box sponsors during the months of December and January and would love for you to help with that, too! We are encouraging companies to join our Joyful Battle of Lights to help bring joy to kids throughout the year! We can tailor opportunities to corporate groups and encourage you to reach out to learn more.
Holiday Drop Off Location Information
Be would love to see you on Saturday, November 23rd at our office (3900 West Broad Street) from 10-1 when you drop off however we recognize it’s a busy time of year so we have partnered with local businesses who will kindly accept donations on our behalf. Please note that days and hours vary based on location. Holiday deliveries can only be made at these locations during the week of November 18th.
Scott’s Addition: Worthdays Office @ UMFS, 3900 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA, The Walker House; Monday, Tuesday 10-2:30pm; Thursday 10-2pm, (email for directions)
Short Pump/Goochland: St. Matthews United Methodist Church, 1706 St. Matthew’s Lane Richmond, Va; Monday-Thursday 8:30-3pm (email to contact)
Moseley: Bella Cuttery, Moseley, VA; Dates/hours variable, including after hours (email to contact + for address)
Tri-Cities: ACE Hardware, 27 Dunlop Village, Colonial Heights, VA; Monday-Friday, 8:30-6pm (call (804) 766-4223 if needed)
Mechanicsville: Church of the Redeemer, 8275 Meadowbridge Rd, Mechanicsville, VA; Monday-Thursday 8:30-4:30pm (call 804) 746-4911 if needed)
James City Co: James City County Human Services Center, 5249 Olde Towne Rd. Williamsburg, VA; Monday-Friday 9-5 (leave at the attention of Catherine Bingman)
