NEWS RELEASE
Richmond Kiwanis Foundation donates $9,000 to support youth programs
Photo: Richmond Kiwanis Club President (left) presents a check to First Things First Executive Director Truin Huntley (center). Kiwanis Club past president and FTF board member Marc McGahee is on the right.
Richmond, VA (December 20, 2013)—The Richmond Kiwanis Foundation donated $9,000 to First Things First of Greater Richmond (FTF) to provide at-risk youth with healthy relationship programs and to help fund a part-time youth and singles program specialist. The support comes as part of a growing partnership between the two organizations.
At their weekly meeting held at the Virginia Historical Society on Dec. 16, Kiwanis President Mark Atchison presented a check to FTF Executive Director Truin Huntley.
The partnership will provide increased volunteer opportunities for Kiwanis to support FTF’s major events, youth and fatherhood programs.
“The Kiwanis Club of Richmond has a tradition of supporting causes that benefit children,” said Charlie Trible, treasurer for the Richmond Kiwanis Foundation. “That is our primary mission, and we believe that First Things First plays an important role in benefitting children. We believe that teaching healthy relationship skills will result in an improved economic benefit to young families and their children.”
In 2013, First Things First facilitators taught healthy relationship skills to nearly 400 at-risk teens in Henrico County Public Schools, Richmond Public Schools, Camp Diva, Peter Paul Development Center in Church Hill, Beaumont Juvenile Detention Center and Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center.
The national, best-practice curriculum taught by First Things First, Relationship Smarts, teaches self-awareness, maturity, values, how to handle peer pressure and conflict resolution. The curriculum provides knowledge, guidelines and skills for how to build positive relationships that don’t include sex, but encourages students to finish their education, begin working, and get married prior to bearing children.
First Things First of Greater Richmond is a community nonprofit dedicated to strengthening families for a better community by: advocating for strong, healthy, lifelong marriages; increasing fathers’ and mothers’ active involvement in the lives of their children; and working to prevent out-of-wedlock and teen pregnancies in the greater Richmond area.Visit www.FirstThingsRichmond.org for info.
The mission of the Kiwanis Club of Richmond is to improve the quality of life for children in the metropolitan area of Richmond by contributing the time and talents of the membership and the financial resources of the Club in an atmosphere of caring, service, fellowship and learning.
