• By Teresa Bryant
• Posted Monday, July 16, 2012

Share a rainbow of opportunity, support a child!

Remember the excitement around the starting of each NEW school year… you may have enjoyed connecting or reconnecting with friends, teachers, family, or you may have enjoyed getting your supplies etc.

Help us share excitement about school with children and families who are in need and are unable to live with their biological parents.

The Relatives as Parents Program, “RAPP”, seeks your support in providing school supplies to children who live with their grandparents and other relatives parenting the children of others.

Any group can organize a Community Service Project and help local families.

Why do these children need help? RAPP families need help because unexpectedly parenting someone else’s child is challenging. RAPP families are responsible adults who are committed to helping children and have a more stable home life. These families understand the impact on life created during childhood years and the importance on long-term growth and outcomes.

The Relatives as Parents Program is a part of the Forsyth County Department of Social Services’ Family and Children’s Division and has been a partner in the community since 2003

Email Teresa Bryant or call her at (336) 703-3744 to organize your community service project.

Click here to view the flyer listing supplies that are needed.

Click here to view a list of the community groups, organizations, and individual donors who helped last year.

1. Contact your group contacts RAPP Coordinator, Teresa Bryant.
2. Advise you will be collecting school supplies for RAPP.
3. Collect and/or purchase items you wish to share with families.
4. Schedule a delivery date to bring items to the FC Department of Social Services, RAPP Program, on the ground floor by Monday August 13th at 12 noon – or sooner. Our preference is sooner as it helps us teach ‘planning’ or working with the end in mind.
5. RAPP takes your supply gift items and fills the orders for RAPP families. RAPP staff delivers or arranges pickup by all families between August 7 – 17th.
6. If your group would like to make a monetary donation in place of collecting supplies please make the check payable to: FC-DSS-RAPP Program, P.O. Box 999, Winston-Salem, NC 27102-0999, the subject line should show “RAPP Back to School Project”.
7. Formal thanks and volunteer hour forms (if needed) are sent upon the completion of the project, usually after Labor Day.

Who are some relatives raising children (also called Relative Caregivers) in our community?

• Great-grandparents (age 65 and 68) raising their five-year-old great-grandson.
• A widowed grandmother (age 67) raising her adopted child’s six-year-old son.
• A divorced grandmother (age 59) raising her grand-daughters age four and six-years-old.
• A sibling (age 38) raising her special needs adult brother, ten-year-old sister and her six-year-old brother.