Department Resources

Related Resources

Adopt-A-Family Holiday Program

two adults holding gifts What is the Adopt-A-Family program?

The Adopt-a-Family Program was developed to help children and families who are in need of clothing, food and toys for the holidays. Every fall, the program begins taking donations to support families who are working with Fairfax County Department of Family Services, Children, Youth and Families Division. The program matches generous donors with identified families to make their holidays more joyful.

With the help of the community, this program has expanded its mission since its inception in 2006. Volunteer & Partner Services works within the community to help these families in times of need, not just during the holiday season.

It's that time of year again!

Starting in October 2022, we will begin matching interested donors with families in need for the holiday season. Check out these instructions for how you can adopt a family!

How Can You Help?

variety of wrapped holiday gifts If your family, business, company, organization or faith-based group is interested in helping to support a family experiencing difficult times during the holidays, this might be the program for you.

Please consider Adopting-A-Family today to help make their holidays brighter!

Make an impact and help families at the holidays or any time of the year by making a monetary contribution or providing gift cards for food, clothing, toys, new baby items, etc.

To get involved, contact Krissa Slone by email or call 703-324-7751.

How Does Adopting a Family Work?

two message dialog boxes Good news! It’s that time of the year again! If you, your family, or your organization want to adopt a family, follow these steps:

To become an Adopt-A-Family donor, contact the Volunteer and Partner Services Supervisor by email.
- Include your name, organization/company name, email, phone number, and mailing address.
- Indicate the number of children you would like to support in your adopt-a-family (plan to purchase about four to five gifts per child in addition to winter clothing).
- You can also buy something for parent(s)/caregiver(s) (a gift card to a big box store is recommended).
We will email to you the information for your specific adopt-a-family, including:
- first name of each child, their age(s), clothing and shoe size(s). If clothing is not noted on the form, that means they would prefer a gift card to pick out their own clothing.
- each child's wish list.
- their referring worker's name and phone number.
- the office address where you can ship or drop off gifts.
Please do not wrap the gifts, but, if possible, donate wrapping paper for the family to wrap their children's gifts.
At least one week before the delivery date, connect with your Adopt-A-Family's referring worker to coordinate a mutually convenient shipping delivery date or drop off date/time.
Deliver the unwrapped gifts or have them shipped to the referring worker by Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. Please do not deliver gifts to the family's home.

Provide a Thanksgiving Dinner to your Adopt-a-Family

When you sign up to become an Adopt-A-Family donor, please indicate in your email that you are interested in providing a Thanksgiving dinner to your Adopt-A-Family.
Deliver the grocery store gift card to the referring worker on or before Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022.

Record Giving for 2021 Holiday

Adopt-A-Family donors have outdone themselves during the 2021 holiday season! They lavished gifts on families in our programs at an unprecedented level. More than 509 donors provided peace of mind for 638 families and brought joy and laughter to 1,371 children, surpassing the total number of recipients in 2020.

A special thank you to all the fabulous donors who generously reached out to help others have a Happy Holiday! This program would not happen without each of you and your spirit of giving! You can learn more about the 2021 program.

Krissa Slone, Director of Volunteer & Partner Services

Department Resources

Related Resources