Family Service of the Piedmont offers a Beacon of Hope to individuals, families and children who are at low points in their lives. When faced with mounting debt, violent abuse, substance addiction, depression or homelessness, people frequently do not know which way to turn to raise themselves out of their difficulties. Our programs aim to illuminate the way for families in crisis, to show them what needs to be done, and empower them to make a change.

The current economic climate is affecting more and more families in our area. Financial difficulties, unemployment and stress often exacerbate other issues and make healthy relationships more difficult to maintain. In just the last year, the number of people making appointments with our Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) has more than doubled, and other programs are seeing rising client numbers as well.

Our agency has responded to this growing community need by hiring additional CCCS counselors and by focusing the efforts of our core services, as well as adding new ones. For instance, our recently created Latino Initiative offers counseling services to Spanish speaking clients, as well as education to reduce the stigma of mental health in the Latino/Hispanic community. Another new program this year is our Child Response Initiative (CRI) which works in partnership with the Greensboro Police Department to counsel and support children exposed to violent crime.

Even as the need for our services is increasing, our agency is experiencing financial difficulties of its own. Funding at the federal, state and local levels is becoming harder to come by. Family Service of the Piedmont staff are working hard to manage expenses, better structure our programs to reduce the negative impact on clients, and explore new funding opportunities.

We are confident we can maintain a high level of quality service by learning to do more with less, and by keeping our core programs strong. We are also thrilled by the incredible level of financial and volunteer support we receive from you, our friends and donors in the Piedmont community. Despite the troubled economy, last year we did not see a decline in charitable giving to our agency. We thank you and know we can count on you to continue your generous support of our mission in the coming year.

In 2009-10, Family Service of the Piedmont will focus its attention on strengthening our services and infrastructure, to allow more resources to serve our clients and support our staff. We will examine our data and service outcomes to see where we are doing well, and become more effective by maximizing our strengths and reducing our inefficiencies.

We can look around and see many examples of despair and hardship; or we can choose instead to see examples of hope, caring and steadfastness. We can see a Beacon of Hope in the stories of those who have worked hard to turn their lives around (see our Annual Report and we can inspire and empower others to do the same.

Family Service of the Piedmont is proud to be a part of this incredible community, and prouder still to work with so many like-minded people committed to building safe and healthy families in the community we share.