September E-Newsletter

Check out Family House's September E-Newsletter!

Here at Family House, we are lucky to have wonderful volunteers come and help out on a weekly basis. Every Wednesday and Thursday, WorkLink comes in and brings fresh bread and pastries to our families. They also disinfect and organize common areas to keep the house safe and welcoming for everyone!

WorkLink provides innovative employment and transitional services for individuals with disabilities. Their mission is to establish a collaborative relationship among government, education, private agencies, advocacy groups and employers in order to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We respect the work that they do and really appreciate them coming in every week to support our families!

One employee who volunteers at the Koret house would like to share some words of encouragement with our Family House community:

To all Kids and Parents of Koret House,

My name is Jeff Malick. I am a client of Worklink. I volunteer at Koret House every Thursday. I have a personnel and family story to share with all of you.

Just before my 17th birthday I was diagnosed with Leukemia. I had 3 years of therapy. During that time  my Dad and I spent 150 days in the hospital. I know how hard it is for the kids and their family to go through medical treatment. While I was in treatment my Mom was diagnosed with Cancer. Our family knows how important it is for the whole family to help each other.

I want everyone at the Koret House to know to be strong, keep positive, and do your best to keep a happy attitude. There is a end to your difficult times. Both my Mom and I are doing fine.

Jeff Malick

Thank you Jeff and the entire WorkLink community for all that you do. If you would like to look further into the work they do, you can click HERE.

The Intern's Look Back...

It has been exactly a month since I left San Francisco and my work family at Family House. 

I can still remember my first day at Family House...I was so excited, but nervous. I really wanted to make a good impression. Its crazy how fast time flies. Those three months went by in the blink of an eye, but there was time enough for me to see what a special place Family House really is. 

Looking back I remember starting this blog as a fun side project. I wanted a way for Family House's extended family (patients, parents, siblings, volunteers, donors, staff, board members...everyone basically) to be kept up to date about what Family House was doing. It didn't take long for this blog to become so much more than that. I remembering writing one of my first weeks about the Family House spirit, about how inspired I was by the people I worked with, and how blessed/lucky/spoiled I was to be able to work with them. It definitely was the best first job after Undergrad I could have ever asked for.
The people who work at Family House are a special group of individuals.
One of the families I interviewed said, "It is like everyone here is doing exactly the job they were meant to be doing."
I can relate to that grandmother's sentiment as I saw more compassion and heart in the people I worked with then I ever thought humanly possible. They were always willing to go out of their way to help out any family in any way that they could...sometimes even pulling money out of their own pockets to try and help. They took me in as one of their own from day one, and made me feel as though I was at home. We were more then just coworkers... we were a FAMILY.
Its honestly kind of weird how much I have thought about each of them since I left...but when you are part of something great you can't help but miss it I guess.
And Family House really is a special place...it is the type of place that brings anyone and everyone in with a warm embrace. It is there if you need a shoulder to cry on...a joke to make you laugh... or a person to remind you that you are important and loved.

To my Family House work family... I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I had to be a part of the Family...I miss you all everyday...but I find comfort in knowing that you are doing exactly what you were meant to...you are all using your wonderful light to touch the lives of everyone who finds their way to Family House. They are all so lucky to have you.

So Until We Meet Again...I am sending you All of My LOVE!
Miss you all the way beyond the stars and back!

<3 Jill

SEPTEMBER VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH!

Dana comes to Family House on a weekly basis to help ease the stress of our families through massage. She is a certified in Swedish massage, acupressure, and reflexology. And if that was not enough, she teaches 5th grade as well. Her wonderfully warm personality shines through the house when she is here and makes everyone feel at ease. Her kindness and generosity at helps give others a time to themselves to relax, breathe, and simply take a break from the day. We are extremely lucky to have Dana sharing her time and talents with our families!

THANK YOU DANA!

A message from our YPAC Chair, Karen Banks

So ready for a story that’s sad, happy, amazing and a little lucky? So here we go……

My back story might be a little sad to some but it lets you understand how I became the type of person who would be willing to clean, paint, take out the trash and do any other activity to help such a special cause. My mother passed away when I was at the ripe age of 9. This was upsetting but it has allowed me to become the person I am today for which I am grateful. I live life to the fullest and giving back is something that my mom deeply believed in – she almost become a nun she was so giving! Needless to say, I believe in giving back to the community and it just makes you a better/friendlier/nicer/karmic person. Period.

I became involved with the amazing organization Family House because a friend of mine was volunteering for school credit at this non-profit I had never heard of. He would go and volunteer at these houses doing cleaning, chores etc., and I thought to myself why would you want to go and clean and organize someone else’s home? I don’t even like to clean mine! So he went along volunteering at these houses for awhile and then he asked if I wanted to volunteer at this event - Cabernet for Connoisseurs back in February 2009. I didn’t know what this was and at the time I had a prior commitment so I couldn’t go. (I learned later that it was my loss for not attending this event because it is quite remarkable, more on that later.) So finally! He asked once more with two of our other friends to volunteer at Supper club for an event. I thought to myself volunteering at a club with drinks and people and partying? That’s awesome count me in! We all agreed to spend our evening volunteering, even though we didn’t really know what we were volunteering for.

We showed up and met Amy Lenz, she was friendly and very excited to see her four new volunteers. She gave us a rundown of what Family House actually is all about (besides AMAZING!) and we set up the infamous Family House posters, blue light pens, bags and we were ready to go. The doors open and the party goers start flooding in and forking over cash to us. Say what!! All of these people, 100-150 were giving us cash! Generally $10 and $20 a person – to a charity! The back story is that Bobby “The Bunny” – a long time volunteer and advocate for Family House rented out the club and asked his friends and family to make their club entrance fee a donation to Family House. Now, I, going to clubs and evening activities for quite some time have never witnessed individuals excited to shell out money for club entrance fees. It is just unheard of! And here people were giving us oodles and oodles of donations for this wonderful cause! Something special was up in here and I knew it right away.

Long story short as well as clichéd, this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I became part of something that was bigger than myself and helped more families than I could ever hope to imagine. I jumped at the chance to join the young professionals group that was just being created at Family House by Amy Lenz and Greg Mora.  This group was my age and had two purposes: 1) obviously raise much needed funds for Family House – it costs a lot to provide FREE housing to 107 people a night! (Imagine your hotel bill for one room for one night! Geez!) and 2) Spread the word to young people to get involved and become lifelong fans of Family House. Life is about giving back and this is the perfect opportunity to give to those who desperately need it financially, emotionally, and physically.

In short, your take away from this should be to do anything: yell, scream at the top of your lungs, run through the streets and tell each and every person you know that Family House is the most impressive, giving and comforting home away from home families with children who are seriously ill could be. We need your help in any way you can provide through volunteer efforts, financial donations or just spreading this message. I am truly lucky to be part of an organization that makes miracles happen every day.

Karen Banks

YPAC Chair – Young Professionals Advisory Council

Mitzvah Kitchen!

These are the students of  Temple Emanu-El's Mitzvah Corps Program. For the next six months, they will be working with professional chefs to create healthy homecooked meals for our families. They call this project Mitzvah Kitchen. The Family House-Mitzvah Kitchen partnership began five years ago and consists of two six-month programs. At the beginning of each program, the students visit to Family House to learn more about what we do and have a discussion about service to thier community.

Last Sunday, these students were given a tour of the house and had the opportunity to listen while families shared thier stories. They learned about how cooking meals for Family House can help ease the burden and stress that our families are faced with. We are looking forward to the lasagna and turkey, rice, and vegetable soup that is on the menu for September and October!

Thank you Mitzvah Kitchen!

Laundry Locker

Thank you to Laundry Locker, http://www.laundrylocker.com/, for teaming up with Family House and sharing our mission with the community. We now have our "All-Star" posters up at 147 Valencia Street and 566 Haight Street along with more information about what we do and how you can help!