Families Helping Families ChicagoLAND
About Us
Families Helping Families Chicagoland!
FHFC works with social service agencies and schools in Lake and Cook Counties to meet the needs of children and families experiencing homelessness, poverty, food insecurity, and other challenges.
Our Story
Our founder Amy Newman, a teacher in Waukegan, started Families Helping Families Chicagoland out of her home in honor and memory of her mother, YY who was continually giving and providing to others.
Amy put her idea out on Facebook for help with her mission, and a number of volunteers with various backgrounds (business and otherwise) stepped forward and FHFC was born!
Within two years having helped thousands of families, the FHFC Board had successfully achieved 501c3 status, and was ready to dive in with both feet to help members of our community.
FHFC is still run by an all Volunteer Board who are all parents who come to us with a variety of experiences, talents, and skills. Some of us go to work full-time outside of the house, some of us work full-time inside of the house, and some of us are a mixture of the two, but we all share a common goal - to help children in families in need in our community.
Our Board
Who We Serve:
Families Helping Families Chicagoland!
We support families and foster children in need and/or in crisis in Lake and Cook Counties.
We accomplish this by:
Holding monthly donation drives
Collecting birthday gifts for children living in foster care each month
Gift sponsorship for children in Foster homes
Holding hands-on events, such as serving meals to local families and wrapping holiday gifts for local children
Hosting birthday parties for children residing at A Safe Place emergency shelters
Our mission is simple
We are a grassroots organization mobilizing and linking our communities to help families with children, and children in foster care during times of crisis and hardship. Our goal is for everyone in our communities to thrive.
Our Success
- Hundreds of diapers collected
- Thousands of food items collected for students in the Moraine Township area
- Hundreds of sanitary items collected for Pads 4 PADS
- $1000's of dollars of used and new school supplies collected for schools from North Chicago down to South Chicago
- Over 100 Foster children sponsored for their birthday every year
- Hats, gloves, and scarves collected for our brutal Chicago Winters
- Winter coats provided to children in local shelters
- Hundreds of children sponsored for the Holidays with their gift wish list
- 30 Caring kits created for Refugee One to allow new families to the Chicago area have an easier start
- Immediate needs met including 2 months supply of formula and food for a family of 3 year old twins with special needs who lost their mother unexpectedly
Our Testimonials
Casa Central
Amy O'Leary, Executive Director, Youth Services
Emily Schmidt, 3rd grade teacher, George W Curtis School, Chicago
Tim Smith, 4th Grade Dual Language Teacher Lyon Magnet School
How You Can Help
Donate
Financial support is vital - it allows us to operate and help the many organizations and families we work with throughout the year. We often receive urgent requests, such as a shelter desperately low on supplies. Your donations can ensure we have the funds to act quickly in these situations.
​Volunteer
​We are a non-profit organization run solely by a a volunteer board and a team of community members. We often need the help of our community to carry out activities from sorting school supplies to delivering collections to a food pantry.
Promote Us
We want to grow our community and need your help! Tell your friends and family about the great work being done by FHFC. The more people who know about us, the more support we have available to help families in the Chicagoland area.
