Grace Epperly. Development Coordinator at Wesley House Family Services, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
Wesley House helps with foster care.
Epperly explained, “Wesley House is a nonprofit that is a Keys wide nonprofit. We have an office in Key West and in Key Largo. We handle all of the foster care for Monroe County. When a child needs to be removed from their home to keep them safe, which is determined by the Department of Children and Families, they turn to Wesley House to find a safe and loving and stable placement for that child. We also license foster parents. We have a Strengthening Families Program, which the goal of foster care is to reunify the children with their families and we work hard to do that. We work hard with the courts, and we come up with a case plan for the family. We have parenting classes to strengthen the family and just help them be self sufficient and better overall, and address whatever issues it was that brought them to the attention of DCF. Then when a child cannot be reunited with their family, we have adoption services for children within foster care, and then we have our Healthy Families Monroe program, which is a free, voluntary program and that is open to anyone who is pregnant or their children are three months or less. It’s a wonderful education based program where we work with the entire family, and we call it the focus child. That program continues until the focus child is age five, so it’s a really great program. Then in Key West, we have our preschool, which is the Inez Martin Child Development Center serving ages two to five. That’s also an incredible, incredible program. Wonderful staff at that school, very loving, very caring, really, giving the children a great future to start kindergarten and beyond.”
The black tie benefit will be held next Saturday.
Epperly said, “We definitely would love to have anyone who enjoys a good time, enjoys getting dressed up. We would love to have you attend our Key West black tie benefit. It’s going to be Saturday, March 29 at Beachside Resort and Residences. Our cocktail portion is from 6 to 7:30 and then dinner and dancing begin at 7:30. We are honoring Mayor Denise Henriquez. Our black tie benefit this year is generously sponsored by three wonderful presenting sponsors, Darla Snyder and Steve Brenner, Hanks Hope and Pier B development. So we are thrilled to have them as our three presenting sponsors. The tickets are $300 and it includes a full three course dinner, open bar throughout the evening, access to the live and silent auctions, which are filled with trips throughout the United States and all over the world. We’ve got some amazing trips. And then we have DJ Cardi, who is a world renowned DJ. He’s so much fun to dance to, and it’s just going to be a wonderful night. The decor is one of my favorite things, and I go all out with the decor, so I get really excited about it. It’s definitely worth coming to check that out. Tickets are available on our website. Tomorrow is the deadline. I’ll probably have to cut off sales about noon tomorrow, and we do have a few very limited tickets left, so I encourage everyone to just get your tickets today, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We hope to see you. We can sell a ticket over the phone at 305-809-5000.”
How is everything going at the Key Largo office?
Epperly said, “We are humming along up there. It’s doing really well. We’ve always got stuff going on. Staff is busy working with families and just doing what we do. It’s good work.”
There are openings for the healthy families program.
Epperly said, “We have openings for anyone who is interested in joining the Healthy Families Program. Inez Martin, I know that they also have some space available in some of their classes. It is a first come first serve basis. So particularly if you have children that will be turning two or in that two to five range, I would recommend that you call them again, 305-809-5000, ask to be transferred to Inez Martin and get on the list for the upcoming school year too. We’re a year round school too. We don’t take breaks. We only close, like, maybe, I think, two weeks a year, whereas some other preschools operate on the Monroe County school schedule, we are year round. So it’s a great resource for working parents, and you can get in over the summer and have your child starting for next school year as well. So it’s definitely worth checking it out. Scholarships are available on a case by case basis, and we also participate in the ELC voucher program as well.”
For more information, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org/