We invite you to join Kiddie Academy locations across the nation in observing Family Promise’s “Night Without a Bed” event on June 26.
Family Promise is a national nonprofit organization that helps families experiencing homelessness and low-income families achieve sustainable independence through a community-based response. Night Without a Bed is a social media challenge to raise awareness about family homelessness. In the United States today, one child out of six lives in poverty, and families with children make up 35% of the people who experience homelessness.
Kiddie Academy® Educational Child Care announced a philanthropic partnership with the New Jersey based charity in January. “Family Promise shares our commitment to improve communities and build brighter futures for children,” said Kiddie Academy CEO Greg Helwig. “We are always looking for learning moments in our everyday lives and this event provides just that. It aligns with our Character EssentialsSM curriculum, helping to teach empathy while raising awareness of a very serious, but often unseen, problem in our nation.”
Character Essentials creates opportunities to teach your child important character-building cornerstones, including respect, sharing, manners, friendship and compassion. Explaining homelessness to young children can be difficult but laying a developmentally appropriate foundation and answering questions will help them start to understand what some families without a permanent home experience.
Here’s how you can participate
Supporting Night Without a Bed is easy. Your family can participate by sleeping anywhere but in your beds: in a tent, car or even on your own living room floor. You can post photos with the hashtags #NightWithoutABed and #KiddieAcademyFamilyPromise and promote them on your social media feeds to drive awareness.
This fun and relatable experience allows the powerful topic of homelessness to be more easily understood by young children. Along with the social campaign, many Academies will also be collecting financial donations for Family Promise. Check with your local Academy to see if they’re taking donations or have additional ideas on how to observe this special event. You can also donate through our corporate page.
Thanks in advance for helping us support Family Promise in this incredibly worthwhile effort!
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