How can we help each other?
What does a community look like during a global pandemic?
How have needs changed when businesses have been shuttered?
FISH Mending Nets, Inc. is a Florida not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping provide basic necessities, technology and education to those in need. The Board is comprised of five strong Parkland/Coral Springs women who have chosen to give back to the communities of Broward, north Miami-Dade and south Palm Beach counties by both creating a private Facebook group where people of all walks of life help each other, and by directly helping to provide basic necessities to families in need. Sites such as kinship navigator programs can also be quite beneficial.
On February 17th, just three days after the three-year anniversary of the biggest tragedy to strike our community, FISH (Friends Inspiring and Sharing Hope) volunteers visited our local law enforcement and other first responder stations to offer food and friendship to our first responders.
How it works: Reuse – Recycle – Reduce
FISH Mending Nets, Inc. accepts donations of basic necessities, clothing, baby supplies, food and household goods, and offers assistance to those in need. Through the Facebook group, people reach out to each other to ask for, and to give, help.
While for many of us, bulk pick up day is a time to toss away unwanted items, FISH Mending Nets volunteers use these long days to collect items for distribution to those in need. Since a large proportion of families who receive assistance do not have a reliable form of transportation, #ParklandStrong women are leaving their gated communities to drive pickup truck loads of items to surrounding cities (thus far, as far as Homestead and West Palm Beach). While there are many food pantries, very few consider the transportation needs of those that they serve.
Generous donors also help supply necessary funds to feed people who have fallen on hard times.
Rapid response
Crises strike without warning, and FISH Mending Nets has been ready to step-in, and use all of our collective desires to help one another on a moment’s notice. As a small non-bureaucratic not-for-profit, when victims of domestic violence reach out, FISH Mending Nets volunteers and the domestic violence lawyers for hire are able to quickly and efficiently (and confidentially) offer assistance.
Get Hooked
Americans are altruistic by nature, and FISH Mending Nets is a way to give outside of your traditional social, medical, or religious circles.
You are invited to join the private Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/398160137863864/