A Pilot Partnership with the Cokesbury Retirement Community
For the past two years, after the Catholic Charities Thrift Center closed due to COVID, ILYA has only been able to make available to our young adults, who have aged out of foster care, furniture that was offered from time to time by church members. ILYA’s relationship with the Thrift Center had previously allowed youth authorized by ILYA to select furniture for their first apartment from the store’s wide inventory. That arrangement all ended with the arrival of COVID and it appears that there are no plans in the near future to reopen the furniture portion of the Thrift Center. The easy access to furniture was a popular project which has been sorely missed by the youth and their independent living workers.

Thus, ILYA is thrilled to announce that the Furniture Barn run by residents at Cokesbury Village (including some First U members and friends) has generously agreed to offer to our youth access to the excess furniture their residents can no longer use.

In addition, thanks to a very generous anonymous donation, ILYA will be able to offer vouchers up to $300 each to our young adults to select the basic necessities (such as a bed, love seat or comfortable chair, table and chairs, dresser, mirror, lamps, or rug) for their new apartment from the Furniture Barn.

Sue Hodges has agreed to lead this revitalized project. In addition to the project with Cokesbury, ILYA will continue, on a case by case basis, to try to find a home for furniture which church members may wish to donate. Since we have no storage facilities, finding a new home with our young adults for those donations requires favorable timing between the member’s need to get rid of the furniture with a youth’s need for the furniture.

The ILYA team is very grateful for this new partnership with Cokesbury and is so appreciative of the gift from our anonymous donor that now allows us to offer some basic furniture for our young adults as they set up their first apartment, thus enabling them to create their very own place to call home. We are also extremely fortunate to have found a volunteer truck driver who can help move the furniture from Cokesbury Village to the youths’ new apartments. We are seeking additional volunteer support for lifting the furniture into place.

For more information or to volunteer, please contact Sue Hodges, Furniture Project Coordinator, at 302-239-6675 or by email: suzerr@comcast.net.