Hearts to Homes Furnishings, Inc. will be hosting a “friend” raising event on Saturday, August 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. The gathering, Open Hearts Out East, is designed to introduce the mission of Hearts to Homes to potential supporters on the East End. The event will include live music and refreshments.
Hearts to Homes is an organization with a mission to assist newly independent young adults who have just aged out of foster care. By providing the essentials to furnish a new home, Hearts to Homes seeks to alleviate some of the stress during the initial transition to independent living. Many young adults leave foster care with few possessions and no family to help them make this transition. By helping to create a more comfortable living environment, Hearts to Homes is able to help reduce potential negative outcomes such as homelessness, incarceration, and multi-generational foster care.
Since 2016, Hearts to Homes has provided over $1,000,000 in essential home furnishings and furniture to 500 young adults in need in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties. H2H works with twenty-seven referring partners, including foster care agencies on Long Island to identify young adults in need of services.
“Just over a year ago, we expanded services to youth in Nassau and Suffolk counties, through our work with several foster care agencies on Long Island. We learned that young adults on Long Island are not provided with a discharge grant to help during their transition to independence. This means that Hearts to Homes will need to provide additional furniture assistance – such as a bed or dresser – to young adults who are referred to us. Young adults in New York City receive a discharge grant, but that’s just not the case out here on Long Island,” said Executive Director Mary Theresa McCombe.
Open Hearts Out East will be held at Sea Green Designs, located at 68 Jobs Lane in Southampton. Sea Green’s owner, Shannon Willey, said, “We know how important having a comfortable home environment is to a person’s well-being and success. I was so excited when Mary Theresa told me about her idea to start Hearts to Homes. Now that they are also working with organizations in Suffolk County, I’m really excited to host this event so others can learn about the amazing work they are doing to change lives.”
For more information or to RSVP to the event, contact Mary Theresa McCombe at mtmccombe@heartstohomes.org or call 914-400-7193.