12/4/2020 Foundry (Double Whammy!) Giving Friday: Ampersand Families and Avenues For Youth

• Posted on 4 December 2020
• Posted in Foundry Giving Friday
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Every Friday The Foundry Home Goods donates 5% of our total sales to a different community-nominated small-and-mighty cause. This Holiday Season we're going doubling down on our season of festive generosity, choosing TWO worthy recipients each week to multiply and share the giving spirit of joy. This Friday's Foundry Holiday DOUBLE WHAMMY recipients? Ampersand Families and Avenues For Youth!

This time of year, when we hold our loved ones close to our hearts (if not quite as close as perhaps we'd like to be with our physical selves...stay safe out there!) it feels especially crucial to support the work of elevating and empowering families of all shapes and celebrating the bountiful possibilities of all children. This week's recipients:

Ampersand Families is a St. Paul-based nonprofit that works specifically with older children and sibling groups in the child welfare and foster care systems to establish permanent safe and stable family relationships for them. Ampersand Families works on the personal level to give kids the dignity of "permanency" that they deserve, to find them forever homes and support all parties on the wild journey with the generosity and openness required to get there, and also on an advocacy and policy level, helping address and correct systemic issues and failures with the deep institutional knowledge of "how it works in practice". Read more about their good work here.

Avenues For Youth is a Minnesota based nonprofit that partners with youth in Hennepin county experiencing homelessness. Avenues For Youth has supported young people ages 16-24 for over 25 years, providing stable housing, building trusted relationships, and partnering with each human on an individual level to advocate for (and working together building the skillsets to advocate for themselves) in navigating education, career, health and wellness, and housing goals. Read more about their good work here.

If you don't need anything from us, please consider donating directly: here for Ampersand Families and here for Avenues for Youth.

If you do find yourself in need of some cozy woolens, flickering candles, or a few sustainably sourced and thoughtfully chosen Ruby-approved gifts, then know that your purchase goes to support good change happening on the community level.

To learn more about our Foundry Giving Friday initiative or if YOU have a worthy cause to nominate, pop on over to our Nomination Page and drop us a line. We're all in this together.