More than 20 local families have been kept from homelessness in the first half of this year thanks to Normal-based agency The Baby Fold, according to its vice president of development and public relations, Aimee Beam.
Not that it's been easy. Beam said the ever-rising costs of gas and food have made it more difficult to get families on track to stability.
"Many of our clients at this stage have been working to pull themselves up out of where they were, to follow our instructions and provide their children with a good life," she said. "They are doing everything that we asked them to do — and then the world failed them."
To offset the challenges that inflation has brought to the families the agency serves, Beam said a planned fundraising event Friday will be aimed at creating a new "Child and Family Stabilization Fund." It's a temporary solution to a — hopefully — temporary problem, she said.
"Whatever it is that we have to do, I'm going to find long-term solutions. But in the short term ... I've got to stop the bleeding before we can move on to that next level," Beam said. "If your grocery bill and your budget was $100 a month and you're a working poor person and all of a sudden your food is $100 a week and the gas goes up — they're not able to live anymore. It's a very serious problem."
The 102-year-old agency is seeking $50,000 for that fund. In addition to working with families, The Baby Fold offers services related to fostering, adoption, autism and education.
