On Friday, April 27, guests gathered at the beautiful home of Drew and Jodi Duffy in Haddonfield for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.  In true Progressive Dinner fashion, guests then moved on to one of the six dinner homes where they enjoyed dinner prepared by a local chef. We were lucky enough to have the support of some of the area’s most talented chefs:

Chef Markese Beverly, The ChopHouse
Chef Gilbert Guinoiseau, Personal Chef
Chef Jonathan Jernigan, Cathedral Kitchen
Chef Natalie Palles, Palles Events
Chef Pedro Reyes, Casona
Chef Mark Rooks, Rent-A-Chef
Chef Peter Severino, Severino Pasta Company
Chef Bryan Thoman, Brio Tuscan Grille
Sensational Host Catering, Inc.

It was truly a wonderful evening. We’re so happy to have the support of our community members, chefs and local businesses that made this event so successful!

Check out all the event pictures on our Flickr page.

-Rachael

I was born at the GlaxoSmithKline office in Philadelphia, PA on Tuesday, February 28 at 2:23 p.m. My parents are a team of GlaxoSmithKline employees who were participating in a team building exercise called Team Teddy Bear Rescue hosted by TeamBonding. TeamBonding brought all the fixings to make cute and cuddly teddy bears (like me!) and the GlaxoSmithKline team worked hard to bring me and my sisters and brothers to life!

GlaxoSmithKline Employees with their Bears

Ms. Rachael came to pick us up and brought us to the Fish Pond Group Home. The Fish Pond Group home gives children with severe autism spectrum disorders a loving, caring environment. We’re excited to live at there and can’t wait to play games, read books and have lots of fun with the kids! Thank you GlaxoSmithKline and TeamBonding for making sure I had a bear-y special place to live!

-Ralphie Bear

For children and adults alike, your world can be completely different in a matter of days or weeks. Certainly, after an entire year apart, you can feel like strangers instead of family.

But that was a long time ago, right? We’re talking about pre-World War II America and this separation doesn’t happen to children in the system anymore, right? Except things like this do happen.

When children enter the system, every effort is made to keep them together in most cases. Unfortunately, they are often times separated. Weeks, months, years can pass before they are reunited and sometimes, siblings can lose touch all together.

To combat this, Twin Oaks created our DISCOVER Program. The program is designed to provide an opportunity for foster children to spend quality recreational time with their biological siblings who reside in separate homes. This program stretches state-wide with Twin Oaks workers dedicating time to transport siblings to each other or to a meeting place for some fun family time.

Each month, biological siblings from separate foster homes spend 16 hours together. Activities vary based on location, interests and age. Twin Oaks especially strives to schedule these hours during special moments in a child’s life – a school play, a dance recital, a playoff game. Recently, a young man in the program graduated from high school. Thanks to the DISCOVER program, he was able to look out into the crowd and see his biological siblings cheering for him and beaming with pride.

Milestone moments are events a child will remember forever. However, a special moment and a lifelong memory can be created in the most ordinary ways. As one Twin Oaks employee noted, the siblings are less concerned with what they are doing, but with whom they are with. Simple things like playing board games or meeting at a playground can be an amazing reunion for these children. The 16 hours a month allow siblings to communicate, bond and enjoy each other. Meetings offer children an opportunity to deepen and strengthen relationships that would have been truncated if it were not for the DISCOVER Program. Not to mention, the program helps create memories the children will share for a lifetime.

-Rachael

From top L: Bryan Bramley, Roma Bank; Keyanna Turner, Twin Oaks;
Ryan Crammer, Trenton Thunder;
John Taulane, Hardenbergh Insurance Group;
Robert Jost, Lippincott Jacobs Consulting Engineers;
Rebecca Ingram, Lippincott Jacobs Consulting Engineers;
Flo Ryan, Emerson Personnel Group,
Carli Gannone, Protocall Staffing; Rachael Ginter, Twin Oaks

Bottom L: Sara Knaedler, Big Sky Enterprises; Pam Collins, Twin Oaks;
Jaimie Geddes, BCCOC; Meghan Goins, The Enterprise Center at BCC

It was a lot of work (in the rain!), but as you can see, everyone had fun!

Visit the Burlington County Chamber’s website to learn more about the Young Professionals Network. And visit our Food Pantry page if you or your group would like to volunteer in our pantry or hold a food drive to help stock our shelves.

-Rachael

Through our Food Pantry, Twin Oaks strives to provide emergency food assistance to each of our struggling consumers and community members to ensure they can receive the medication they need AND heat their home.

Month after month, year after year, we see an increase in consumers at our pantry. People coming in who are struggling and need extra assistance to get them through the winter months when the little income they have is needed for their higher heating bill.

This January was a record breaking month for our Food Pantry.  We served over 300 families, and saw an increase of 24% in the number of meals given out from December.

If you think these numbers are staggering, brace yourself for the yearly percentage increase. In January 2012, we gave out 3,906 MORE meals than we gave out in January 2011. This translates to a 78% increase in just one year!

As you can see from these numbers, during the winter months of a weak economy, assistance is needed now more than ever.

YOU can make a difference!

1. Hold Your Own Food Drive Involve your friends, family, and co-workers to help.

2. Drop off food donations Monday – Friday, 9 am – 5 pm. Call 609-267-5928 ext. 186 for instructions.

3. Make a monetary donation online or mail to Twin Oaks, Attn: Development Office, 770 Woodlane Road, Suite 23, Mount Holly, NJ 08060.

Every item donated (canned goods, gently used coats, hats, gloves, household and personal items) prevents our consumers from making the decision “to heat or to eat” this winter.

The artwork is on display at our RITE (Realizing Independence Through Empowerment) self-help center in Lumberton.  Ebony’s art focuses on African American figures and local landscapes.  She credits the Twin Oaks RITE Center for giving her a new outlook on life and bringing inspiration to her work.  We’re honored to have Ebony as a part of the Twin Oaks’ family and are so proud to see her artwork getting the attention it deserves!

People often get turned around in the courtyard unsure of what door will lead them to the help they need. We receive many knocks on our Development Office door that faces the courtyard.

“Where is the Food Pantry?”
“Where is so and so’s office?”
“How do I get to the….?”
“Am I in the right place?”

We hear all these questions and more. We answer with a smile, happy to help, and set the person on the right path. But yesterday, something happened that was a little bit different.

At 3 o’clock, there was a knock at our door. I turned around see an unfamiliar, but kind face.

“Hi, I’m not a Twin Oaks consumer, but I have a referral form. Where do I go?” she asked.

I stepped out into the courtyard, pointed toward our Intake Office and assured her they would be able to help her.

I have to admit, what she said next stunned me.

“What about housing? I’m homeless. Can they help me with housing?”

I wasn’t expecting that. I truly wasn’t. Living in South Jersey, I knew we had homeless people in our community. When I came to work here, I learned that we provided housing assistance. Every day when I come to work, I walk through the courtyard and say “hello” to everyone I pass. But I never wondered if they were homeless or not. I work in the Development Department, so while I work every day to raise funds for our programs, I don’t really get to know many of our consumers.

I calmly stated that she needed to go to the Intake Office first and then she should go to Housing Office. She thanked me and smiled and turned to walk away.

I felt a pang of guilt. There must be something more I could do.

“Wait,” I said, “Do you have any food?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“Wait here, I’ll get my coat and take you to the Food Pantry.” I ran inside, grabbed my coat and called my co-worker Keyanna who works in the pantry to tell her we were coming over.

In the pantry, I helped her read the forms we needed her to fill out, while Keyanna filled bags for her. All I could think of was that this sweet woman hadn’t even thought of food, she didn’t even ask for it, because first she needed to figure out where she was going to put her head that night. I had just spent $15 on a sushi lunch because I wanted sushi.  My sushi lunch was not a need, just a want. Then less than 2 hours later, I was meeting a woman who was ignoring her need for food, because she was focused on finding shelter.

Later, I learned from our Housing Office that they were able to help her find temporary housing for the night. It was hard to think of anything else when I got back to my desk. And later when I had dinner. And last night when I got into my own bed. And this morning when I decided to write this blog.

That’s the interesting thing about working at Twin Oaks.  Every knock on our door is an opportunity to change the day, the life, of someone in need.  And in turn, my co-workers and I never know who will knock on our doors and change our days, change our lives.

-Rachael

The Twin Oaks Foster Home Program provides stable, loving homes for children and teens of all ages unable to live with their biological families. Children referred to the program are often victims of abuse and neglect and have special emotional needs. Our program prepares each foster home for certification by the State of New Jersey’s Office of Licensing and provides unconditional personal support through monthly training, case management and therapy.

We believe that all children deserve and should benefit from the love of a family.  Think about the child who never gets to hear the warmth behind the words, “I love you,” or the encouraging phrase, “You can do it.”  Foster parents make a difference by helping youth overcome their troubled past and realize their full potential. They give hopeless children once struggling just to survive the drive not only to succeed, but to surpass society’s expectations.

Thanks to the many advocates, child welfare professionals, elected officials and support groups around the country, the total number of children in foster care has decreased over recent years.  But more help is needed. While some improvements have been made, the state and the community still have much work ahead before every child in NJ is safe and growing up in a stable, loving, permanent household.

Remember- foster parents are people just like YOU with love to give.  Take the first step and visit www.fosteryes.org or call
1-877-Foster Yes to speak with a Twin Oaks foster care recruiter.