Children’s Assistance & Families in Crisis
Chair: Libba Wilkes
JAES provides funding and services to local schools along the Eastern Shore for children in need. This project helps children with school needs such as field trip expenses, school supplies, tutoring, clothing/uniforms, shoes, jackets, undergarments, hygiene items and many other needs. Our Children’s Assistance and Families in Crisis committee also assists with social, emotional and other other specific areas of concern that affects the welfare of children and their families.
JAES provides funding and services to local schools along the Eastern Shore for children in need. This project helps children with school needs such as field trip expenses, school supplies, tutoring, clothing/uniforms, shoes, jackets, undergarments, hygiene items and many other needs. Our Children’s Assistance and Families in Crisis committee also assists with social, emotional and other other specific areas of concern that affects the welfare of children and their families.
Hands for Our Community
Chairs:
Working in our community to help and make a difference. We have helped at work days with Fairhope Elementary’s, aided students at Silverhill Elementary and helped with water stations for our local schools’ 5K runs. This committee serves in a large capacity throughout our community. Some of the service projects embodied under this sector include:
- Stand Beside Her Week () – JAES members have aided in establishing “Stand Beside Her” week, participating in conjunction with our local girl scouts to empower and up-lift school aged girls in various ways. We are in our 3rd year of this service project.
- Project Prom (Terri Thompson/Annie Dixon) – Project Prom is coming into its 5th year thanks to generous donations from individuals and local businesses of formal gowns, dresses, accessories and shoes. This free event is held once a year by JAES, which provides free dresses, accessories, discount hair/makeup, and tux rentals to high school girls in our community as they prepare for their high school Prom. This event has allowed hundreds of girls attend a milestone moment – their Highschool Prom – while removing the extreme financial burden that comes along with it.
- Forgotten Initiative (Teresa Lipscomb) – Through the Forgotten Initiative of Baldwin County, JAES is able to serve our foster community with our area. Currently, we are able to host 1 to 2 Foster Night Out’s each year for local foster parents within our community. This event allows parents to drop off their foster children and their own children for a night away to have a “date night”, do needed shopping, or simply have some quiet, down time kid free.
Blessing Bags
Carla Coleman
With the closure of schools in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JAES immediately saw the need to provide food assistance to children who normally rely on school for their daily meals. These students are often times free and reduced lunch students. With overwhelming support from the community, JAES was able to start packing and providing weekly snack packs that feed one child breakfast and snacks for 5 days. We are currently packaging and distributing approximately 100 snack packs every week to children in need on the Eastern Shore. This program has continued throughout the summer (2020) and will transition into our weekend Blessing Bags program at Fairhope East Elementary. Children who are deemed as benefiting from this program by counselors are discreetly provided a bag full of food to feed him/her breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for the entire weekend while away from school. This program is committed to providing these packs to each student each weekend for the duration of the entire school year.
Food insecurity within our local children as at an all-time high. To learn more about this program and how you can make a minimal donation to make a HUGE impact in support of our children in need, click here.
Crown of Character
(Fairhope East Elementary School); Jamie Breaux & Kristen Wooten (Fairhope West Elementary School) Samantha Cooper & Kim Huffty; (Belforest Elementary School) Andrea Napiontek; (J. Larry Newton Elementary) Jennifer Farlow & Veronica Bishop; (Daphne East Elementary) Nancy Ranck (WJ Carroll Intermediate School) Misti Hickman & Jessica Duggan
In 2012, the JAES implemented a new project, Crown of Character, to recognize Fifth grade students with good character. We currently award students at Fairhope East Elementary School, Fairhope West Elementary School, J. Larry Newton Elementary, Belforest Elementary School, Daphne East Elementary School and WJ Carroll Intermediate School. Fifth grade students are nominated by their teacher quarterly to receive the Crown of Character Award. These students exemplify one or all of the five points represented in the Junior Auxiliary crown: Charity, Youth, Health, Leadership, and Service.
Crown Cards
Chairs: Neshanta Linson
Through this project, members are “pen pals” with a local 4th grade girl. The program is ongoing for the school year and allows the member + young lady to form a mentor relationship…via writing. At the end of the school year a “social” is held to unite and introduce the mentor and mentee.
Adopt-a-Graduate Program
Chairs: Kelsia Robb
New this year, the JAES Adopt-a-Graduate program is a 2-year graduation program that will kick-start its first year with a select amount of high school juniors who are in need. This program aims to help and assist, both emotionally and financially, those juniors and seniors on the Eastern Shore who may be considered “at-risk” or unable to graduate based on financial needs and/or hardships. JAES Adopt-a-Grad will provide graduation guidance, mentor-ship, service opportunities and financial help for the high costs associated with graduating to include ACT testing in their Junior year, and moving into their Senior year, senior fees, on prom ticket, basic senior portrait package, senior year book, cap & gown and diploma expenses.
Our organization was shocked to learn that their are seniors in high school that are unable to “walk” at graduation due to not being able to financially afford the high costs of caps and gowns. These are only just a few expenses that graduating seniors (and their families) face. Through much discussion, our JAES Adopt-a-Grad program was born and we look forward to launching it into its inauguration year in 2021/2022. To learn more about this program and how you can make a minimal donation to make a HUGE impact in support of a local graduating senior in need, click here.
jaeasternshore.org 