(gentle music) - Children's Service Society of Utah empowers families, and caregivers through services that support the safety, and wellbeing of children.

And here to tell us more, about their upcoming gala and auction is Emily Brown.

Hi, Emily.

- Hi.

- Thanks for being here.

Before we get into the fundraiser, tell us a little more about Children's Service Society.

You've been around almost 140 years.

- Yes, we are celebrating 139 years, of serving Utah children and families.

We have five programs under CSS, care about childcare, home visitation, grand families, and our childcare center building blocks.

- All right, I know you do a lot and you also do adoption?

- We do also do adoption.

That is our oldest program.

That is how CSS started.

- All right, and your upcoming fundraiser, what happens at that?

- Yes, so it's an evening of celebration.

So we have a few speakers, from every program, and it's families who tell about their experience with CSS who we are to them, and how we've impacted their lives.

And we are honoring Paul Ray, with the Children's Advocacy Award.

And then we do a silent auction and a dinner.

- All right, and I wanna know a little more, about some of your programs.

- Yeah.

- Grand families.

- Yes.

- I'm guessing it's grandparents?

- Usually, yes, so it's kinship care.

So we work closely with DCFS, to keep kids out of foster care.

So we connect to them with family members.

Usually it can be family, friends, aunts, uncles.

A lot of times it's grandparents, and we provide them with resources and support, so that they can help the children that are in their lives.

- Okay, and tell me about the need for your services.

Do you see that going up?

- Yes, definitely.

I think that we've seen an increase since COVID, too, a lot of families learned about us during the pandemic, and we were still able to continue all of our services, including home visitation, which was really impactful, for a lot of families who felt secluded, from the rest of their supports during that time.

- Well, you do great things and I'm glad you were here.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- And if you would like to know more, about Children's Service Society, of Utah and their upcoming fundraiser, it's September 8th, from six to 9:30 at Willow Creek Country Club in Sandy.

Go to CSSUtah.org.

That's CSSUtah.org.

(upbeat music) I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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