For immediate release

Homelessness Initiative Earns Award

HAMILTON, November 13, 2002

The Children's Aid Society of Hamilton was presented with a 2002 Award for Action on Homelessness and Poverty at the Vision 2020 Hamilton Sustainable Community Awards held at Hamilton City Hall on November 13, 2002.

The award was presented to the CAS in recognition for its work in contributing to the needs of the Hamilton community over the long-term.

While the primary mandate of the Society is the protection of children and youth in our community, the Society has made it a priority to work in partnership with community agencies and organizations to support and provide programs that prevent children from coming into care.

In 2001, the Society received special funding from the federal government's Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative to assist clients whose housing conditions have deteriorated to the point where children must be placed in foster care.

The Society provides families, who have no place to live, with short-term accommodations in hotels/motels, to eliminate the need for children to be taken into foster care while support services are provided to assist finding suitable living accommodation for these families. In some cases, services provided ensure housing conditions are clean and safe to allow families to continue to occupy their homes.

To date, the program has maintained 51 families in tact, reducing the number of children coming into care and at the same time providing some relief to an already overburdened shelter system in our community.

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For more information, please contact:
Dianne Pearson
Manager of Communications & Development
905-522-1121 ext. 2110