Saturday, May 4, 2013

Camden County Walk-a-thon for Good Counsel Homes of South Jersey - Saturday, June 1st


by Mary Troost

This is my second year of hosting a walk-a-thon for Good Counsel Homes of South Jersey. I am really so excited to do this again. I'm praying for sunshine, and praying for you to come on out and help make it a big success! Please say you'll come and bring lots of friends! Become a walker, a volunteer or make a donation on this page.  No donation too big or too small. It all adds up to something good. Remember it's all for the moms and their children and all donations are tax deductible. 
When?
Walk-a-thon is Saturday, June 1st and I need walkers!

Registration begins at 8:30am and walk kicks off at 9am.
Walk runs anytime from 9am til 12pm. So even if you only have 30 minutes to spare that is just fine. You are needed to help build awareness.


 
Where?
Cooper River Park at the Columbus Statue Area
1301 North Park Drive Pennsauken, NJ 08103
New area of park since last year
To the left of Lobster Trap Restaurant Parking Lot

Who?
Good Counsel Homes of South Jersey is a maternity home for pregnant women and their children. It's such a great non-profit as they save so many lives and heal so many women and relationships. More than just a shelter, Good Counsel is a safe-haven and maternity home with a program in place which helps women with their education, counseling and job skills.


Mother and baby are safe as the transformation begins. Each mom stays for approximately 18 months.

It's just a win-win-win as they save women and children from very desparate situations. Mom wins, baby wins and you win for helping out!

Good Counsel Homes is a non-profit 501c(3) organization, and all donations are tax deductible.

What?
Kid Activities and fun!
Laughter!
Goodie totes and prizes!
Exercise!

Good Counsel has provided more than 540,000 nights of shelter to 5,800 women and children since the first home opened in 1985.

Nearly 840 babies have been born to Good Counsel mothers at our homes since 1985.

Last year Good Counsel opened a fifth home outside of Camden, NJ one of America’s poorest and most violent cities. On April 6th the first mom to enter the Riverside home had been living in a car and was 6 months pregnant. In less than one month all 9 beds were filled.

The five homes had an occupancy rate of 97% for the year. While nearly every home was at or near capacity, no mom who is in need is turned away as emergency bed rooms are always available when pregnant moms are in a desperate situation needing housing immediately.

Last year Good Counsel moms had a total of 6,737 individual one-on-one counseling sessions. Additionally, our moms received more than 1,200 Life Skills classes from staff, volunteers and through on-line programs.

Of those who left Good Counsel successfully completing our program, 75% were working last year.

In terms of tracking values there are hopeful signs too. For those who successfully completed the program, 93% were attending Church at least some times. Even 58% of those we’re in touch with who didn’t complete the program are attending Church some times.

For those who successfully completed the program, 87% were not cohabitating and even 67% of those who didn’t complete the program were not. These numbers are above the national average.

We at Good Counsel have helped homes open in 8 other states in rural, suburban and urban areas. We’ve also helped consult with dozens more maternity homes around the country.

Thousands of others have been helped in person through outreach and follow-up programs, or over the telephone.

Additionally, the Good Counsel 24/7 helpline (1-800-723-8331), received 2,844 calls last year. More than 30,000 people have been helped through this 24/7 helpline since it began.

On December 8, 1999, Good Counsel opened the Daystar home in Harrison, NY, a unique residence for pregnant women who have mental illness and may also be dual diagnosed with an addiction.

More than 230 mothers have been helped in this special home. Much help is given to Good Counsel by dedicated volunteers, and some 200 plus volunteers donating thousands of hours tutoring, cleaning, painting, repairing, fundraising, and much more annually.

3 comments:

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  2. If you cannot come to the walk, please consider an online donation. Every dollar really matters as GC relies heavily on their Walk-a-thon donations to run their non-profit org. Donations can be made at this link: https://funds.gofundme.com/index.php?route=donate2/donate&url=Walk-for-Moms-and-Babies

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  3. Hi Patricia! This is awesome you posted this! You might want to re-phrase this as "Camden County" as opposed to Cherry Hill. The walk is now in Pennsauken because I could not get the original site. Contact me anytime! marytroostemail@gmail.com

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