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Adopt a Family and Show Them That You Care This Holiday Season

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Each year, through Lanterman’s Holidays are for Sharing Adopt-a-Family program, the Center’s neediest clients and their families are adopted by other members of the Lanterman community, including other families, staff and service providers, and also the general community.

This year we are reaching out to the entire Lanterman community, as we have triple the number of families waiting to be adopted and we need your support to help make their holidays merry and bright.

There are a couple of ways to adopt a family, including:

- donating food cards or a food basket to be given to a family, and/or

- selecting a family and purchasing toys, clothes and other items, and working with the Center to ensure the items get to the family you adopted.

“It’s an annual tradition for our team to adopt a family,” shares Edward Perez, family support specialist. “We work with the family’s service coordinator to identify what the family is most in need of, usually it’s clothes, but over the years, we’ve heard stories of children with no toys to play with, nothing warm to wear for the winter, and families that cook dinner on a hot plate, need a heater for their apartment, a car seat, etc. Some of the stories you hear are heartbreaking, and while you can’t solve all of their problems, by adopting them for the holidays, you know that you at least made a small difference in a family’s life. You’ve given them a little bit of hope, showed them that someone cares, and this can go a long way.”

If you are interested in adopting a family or learning more about how you can support the program, contact Karem Chacana at 213.252.4924 or hafs@lanterman.org.