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| MRT Photo by Ben Shaffer |
By Ben Shaffer, Reporter
• Midland Reporter-Telegram
MIDLAND, TEXAS - Buckner Midland, a branch of the non-profit charitable organization Buckner International, announced the opening of its Family Hope Center at the Buckner Children and Family Services office on Monday.
The family preservation program will be the final installment of the organization’s three main services dedicated to caring for vulnerable families, children and seniors in Midland-Odessa.
“We have family-based foster care and adoption as well as the family pathways program,” Buckner International President and CEO Dr. Albert Reyes said.
There are only three Texas cities that have all three services active – Dallas, Lubbock, and Longview, according to Reyes. In early 2023, Midland will join them. Candace Gray, senior director of Buckner Family Hope Centers, said they help local families in need.
“Typically, the families that Buckner serves through our Family Hope Centers are low-income families that have an income level that is often $50,000 or less,” she said. Families struggling with anything -- stress, poverty, lack of resources, abuse and neglect -- can find assistance by seeking out the Family Hope Center.
“They come to the Family Hope Center to find hope, support and empowerment for their families,” Gray said.
The center will primarily serve families in Midland and Odessa but is committed to all families in the Permian Basin.
Buckner’s Family Hope Center will be the first Buckner program in Midland since 2003, according to their press release.
Patricia Acosta, director of administration and operations for Buckner West Texas, detailed the recent impact of the organization’s service.
“In 2021, our team was able to facilitate 69 foster care placements, nine children were able to be in their forever home through adoption, and we were able to secure safe and affordable housing to 19 single mothers who are working toward a college degree, in order to break the generational cycle of poverty, through our family pathways program,” she said.
She added that they were able to assist more than 200 adults and children through services like parenting classes as well as other activities meant to create strong family bonds and end neglect.
Acosta made clear the organization’s mission through their “three E’s.”
“Engage, equip and elevate,” she said. “We will engage the families through assistance and community events. We will equip the families through education, financial empowerment and child and youth development. And we will elevate the families through family coaching, counseling and spiritual enrichment.”
The Family Hope Center’s Manager Gabriella Saldivar became slightly emotional while discussing the long, hard behind-the-scenes work that came prior to the announcement.
“I’m so excited this day has finally come,” she said. “This announcement makes everything official. For more than a year, our team has been hard at work trying to find the
perfect location for the Buckner Family Hope Center.”
According to Saldivar, they were seeking a location that was able to accommodate various types of classes, activities and services as well as being in an area that was accessible to families in need ...
• Read the rest of this MRT report ...
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