Help Them To Hope/Mothers Trust Foundation: ‘They had nothing’
By Judy masterson jmasterson@stmedianetwork.com December 28, 2010 8:06PM
Emellie Ventling of Lake Bluff, Jeanne Alt of Lake Bluff and Rommy Lopat of Lake Forest attend a Mothers Trust Foundation meeting at the Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest. | Ruthie Hauge ~ Sun-Times Media
Mothers Trust Foundation
400 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest, Ill. 60045
(847) 482-9189
www.motherstrustfoundation.org
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Updated: April 2, 2011 5:36PM
Mothers Trust Foundation Executive Director Cheri Richardson summed up another year: “Just more and more need.”
This year, the agency helped three young teens who were abandoned by their parents and living on their own, sleeping on the floors of other people’s houses.
“They had nothing,” Richardson said.
Mothers Trust paid for clothing and other essentials, like eyeglasses and school fees. The agency specializes in limited financial assistance to poor children and their families. The 2,500 children it has served this year represents a 35 percent increase over 2009. Grants, which this year average $75 and total $125,000, are up 40 percent.
School social workers turn to Mothers Trust to help their students cope with the fallout of divorce, parental incarceration, lack of child support, domestic violence, and child abuse,
“We get an awful lot of cases where the father just up and left the family,” Richardson said.
Teen pregnancy can also lead to sudden need.
“It’s babies having babies,” Richardson said. “Sometimes, not always, those young girls are kicked out of their homes by their parents for making those decisions. They may be homeless or living with a friend, and then the baby comes and they have nothing.”
One new teen mom was feeding her baby with just one bottle.
“Diapers and formula are incredibly expensive,” Richardson said. “Trying to nurture a baby with so little is a depressing situation.”
Mothers Trust recently helped a mom who was working four part-time jobs just to “keep the roof over her family’s head,” said Richardson, who worried about the children being left alone so much.
“Just because you’re living under the poverty line doesn’t mean you’re not good, caring people,” Richardson said. “We see a lot of parents who are working hard to survive. For us at Mothers Trust, having the means and ability to try to help these kids is just such a gift.”
Mothers Trust is one of six nonprofits that will benefit from the Lake County News-Sun’s 2010 Help Them to Hope holiday campaign. The agency has helped 12,000 children with $1.2 million in grants.
“As bad as we feel when we hear the stories, at the end of the day, because of all the people who help support us, we’re able to take a little bit of the load off the shoulders of someone who is struggling,” Richardson said.
Mothers Trust relies on a network of partner social agencies in Lake County, including Catholic Charities and various townships, to find help for their children.
“Those partnerships and collaborations allow us to maximize every dollar we have and the assistance each of our clients are able to get,” Richardson said.
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