DOVE's Adopt-A-Family Program Spreads Holiday Cheer to Families in Need

January 12, 2017 | Blogs

In this post, Audrey Bergin, manager of Northwest Hospital's DOVE program, shares a firsthand account of DOVE's annual holiday Adopt-A-Family program, which helps families facing domestic violence.

While domestic violence affects both men and women, most of our clients at DOVE, the domestic violence intervention program at Northwest Hospital, are women.

It seems the families we helped this recent holiday season through our annual Adopt-A-Family program had similar stories: Many of the families had just relocated to apartments that, because of the financial implications of the mother's brave decision to leave a toxic relationship, were mostly unfurnished-no furniture, pots and pans, plates or silverware.

DOVE established Adopt-A-Family to make the holidays more cheerful for these families who are trying earnestly to create a stable home, but don't have the money to purchase gifts. This past year's efforts were a great success. By Dec. 19, 2016, our offices were swamped with well over 400 donated gifts for our clients.

For many reasons, we ensure that the families remain anonymous (although one family allowed us to share a photo). The program brings a lot of smiles, especially for our staff. Even though these families are facing very serious issues, the Adopt-a-Family program reminds them that people are thinking of them.

Leaving an abusive relationship can be difficult on mothers, especially around the holidays. The abusive partner is often the breadwinner of the family, and the victim finds herself torn because she is uprooting herself and her children from a violent, yet familiar environment that provides integral necessities. The abuser may become upset at the victim for leaving, and may threaten to withhold financial support if she doesn't return home.

Some domestic violence survivors have to find a job and a new place to live-essentially starting over. Having to deal with such a difficult situation during the holidays only adds to the burden.

That's where Adopt-A-Family comes in. We start organizing our annual gift-giving program in the fall, compiling a list of families in need as well as the departments at LifeBridge Health who want to help. The DOVE staff helps clients develop a list of gifts their children would like. Often, the mothers are hesitant to list things for themselves and focus only on basic needs, such as clothes for the children and kitchen items. But we try to add fun items to the list, like toys, board games and gift cards. We usually send participating donors lists of potential gifts to purchase.

We try to get extra presents for families we may be able to help at the last minute. For instance, as we were wrapping up our most recent gift drive, an officer from the Baltimore County Police Department reached out to DOVE about a call she received from someone at a local school about another family in need. The police department raised money to purchase a new bike and helmet for the children, and we filled the back of a police car with additional gifts, including food.

We thank the following groups and departments at Northwest Hospital and LifeBridge Health for making generous donations to the 2016 Adopt-A-Family program:

Brian White, president of Northwest Hospital, and his family
Northwest Hospital Guest Services
Northwest Hospital Rehab Services
Northwest Hospital Inpatient Subacute Unit
Northwest Hospital Supply Chain Operations
Northwest Hospital Pharmacy
Northwest Hospital Outpatient Pharmacy
Northwest Hospital Behavioral Health Unit and 4C
Northwest Hospital Lab Services
Northwest Hospital Finance/Pay Roll
Northwest Hospital Inpatient Unit 3a/b (Geriatric and Respiratory units)
The Northwest Hospital Employee Activity Committee
Northwest Hospital Imaging Services
Northwest Hospital Heart Care Unit
Northwest Hospital Emergency Department
LifeBridge Health Strategic Marketing and Communications Department
Northwest Hospital Post-Anesthesia Care Unit
Terri Burrell and the medical students at Northwest Hospital

In addition to this list, as well as the DOVE staff and their relatives and friends, the Beth El Congregation of Baltimore also helped with donations.

This was the first year that Beth El adopted families identified by DOVE. The Beth El volunteers shopped for and wrapped gifts together and discussed the Jewish value of Shalom Bayit (Hebrew for "a peaceful home") as well as the need to help more adults and children throughout Baltimore in tough situations.

The holidays are my favorite time of year. My coworkers and I found a lot of joy in making this past holiday season a happier time for families in transition, as we do every year.

What one mom told us in a thank you note really sums up the impact Adopt-A-Family makes:

"I am so grateful. I had already explained to my kids that the holidays were about faith, hope and love, and although we wouldn't have much this holiday we had plenty of that. Thank you for making me believe my own lesson."