GFWC-NH Construction Zone Ahead: “Building Strong Partners, Strong Families and Strong Kids in NH”

This concept builds on our previous administration’s very successful project of “Clubwomen Supporting Moms and Babies.” Our new emphasis will focus on families and kids. The  need has never been greater. Families and children are more at risk than ever and the need for assistance services is rising.

Some of our partners are like “best of friends” and we want to revisit and continue working together. One such partner is the New Hampshire Children’s Trust. Their Pinwheels for Prevention gardens during April’s Child Abuse Awareness month have always been favorite club projects. We want to continue to support these programs while learning more about the important evidence-based programming NHCT is focused on to help build strong families and reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect.

A new program GFWC-New Hampshire will be learning about and supporting is called Kinship Navigators. An estimated 18,000 children in New Hampshire live informally with grandparents or other relatives. Another 5,000 are legally in the care of grandparents. Kinship caregivers are grandparents, aunts, uncles or other relatives, or even close family friends such as godparents, who are raising children that are not their own.

The Kinship Navigator Program provides free, voluntary, and confidential services, linking kinship caregivers to programs and support where needed, including food assistance, gas to get to appointments, school supplies, respite care, financial assistance, emotional support and community information and resources.

Kinship Navigator programs are available in almost all states. In New Hampshire, Kinship programming is available through a large network of Family Resource Centers (FRC’s), making them excellent local partners for our clubs.

GFWC-NH clubs also will be encouraged to partner with local organizations providing healthy activities and programming that families and kids can enjoy together. 

As we kicked off our 3 NH District meetings this fall, we were thrilled to have our local host clubs embrace our partnership building theme. We enjoyed speakers from a local Kinship Navigator program, at our Seacoast District Meeting. We learned that sometimes it’s not just grandparents or auntie raising kids but, sometimes it’s even a big brother raising his 2 little sisters.  And sometimes the greatest need of caregivers is to share a cup of coffee with someone who will listen!

Our second District meeting brought us together in an amazing location, an old NH ski mountain, now transformed into the Andres Institute of Art, a world renown outdoor sculpture and hiking park, a perfect location, always free of charge, that brings families of all ages together outdoors in the woods. A wonderful presentation by sculptor John Wiedman was followed by a truly uplifting hike.

At our final district meeting, our speaker shared  information on a brand-new End 68 Hours of Hunger program that was just getting started in the host club’s hometown!  End 68 Hours of Hunger is a weekend backpack food program for school children to get them through the weekend hours when they don’t receive meals at school. 1 in 5 children struggle with food insecurity in the USA.  End 68 Hours of Hunger was started right here in NH and is now available in 7 other states. Each weekend this all volunteer organization, partnering with other volunteers, including many GFWC-NH clubwomen, feeds over 5,500 children. 

Kicking off this year with so much club support and enthusiasm for “Building Strong Partners, Strong Families and Strong Kids in NH” has been an amazing experience and we look forward to learning more about partners and participating in club projects that inspire us as we continue “Living the Volunteer Spirit”.