(Alpharetta, GA – November 6th, 2012) Their biggest event yet, the Venza Group celebrated five years in business by acknowledging the needs of Georgia’s foster and adoptive families. This year’s charity fundraiser was sponsored to provide financial assistance to Supporting Adoption and Foster Families Together (SAFFT). SAFFT is a Georgia-based not-for-profit that provides supportive foundations to improve the lives of children in care.

The Venza Group chose to return this year’s event to the Sage Woodfire Tavern’s Garden Room, the location of their first two charity fundraisers. In addition to a record-breaking number of attendees, the 5th annual event yielded a long list of sponsors. This year’s roll-call of support for SAFFT included Chase Bank, Genesee General, Flip.to, Carroll & Company, POND, Hospitality Upgrade Magazine, INFOR, and the law firm of Arnall, Golden, Gregory (AGG). Banners and promotional printing was provided by Atlanta’s very own, Trinity Press.

Keeping with their tradition, the revelers enjoyed tasty sensations that make up Sage’s menu, all prepared over their signature hickory-oak woodfire grill. Perfectly synchronized with the delicious food and stimulating conversations, live music was provided by jazz vocalist, Tempe, along with Darren Ginn (piano) and Emrah Kotan (drums). The indoor/outdoor splendor of the Sage Woodfire Tavern’s Garden Room, allowed party-goers to take full advantage of another perfect autumn evening.

Through participation in the silent auction and raffle ticket sales, the revelry generated $16,040.41 for the worthy local cause. With a one-for-one match offered through the United Way, the Venza Group’s 5th Annual Charity Event raised a total of $32,080.82 for SAFFT. What a night!

About the SAFFT
In 2008, two foster parents in Forsyth County, deeply affected by a tough situation fostering a child, felt lost, burnt out, unsupported, and unsure about whether they should continue fostering or give up. They felt that they were traveling this journey called “fostering” alone. So, they decided to start a support group for foster and adoptive families. The group initially began meeting on a monthly basis at the local public library and started to support one another. Quickly, the community started to rally around our group and volunteers began providing child care for our support group meetings. This allowed everyone to participate and for the first time the foster children could begin interacting and fellowshipping with others like themselves. A monthly “Parent Night Out” program was established which enabled more contact between the children in care and provided a break for the families that care for them so often. After just a few meetings, the founders decided to form a board of directors.

SAFFT began supporting multiple programs including a child resource closet,  scholarships for foster and adoptive children to participate in extracurricular activities, a monthly “Parent Night Out”, social and support group meetings, as well as constant awareness and trainings. In June of 2010 SAFFT opened the Community & Family Visitation Center located in Cumming, GA. The vision for this center was to provide families a safe, uniquely comfortable, reassuring, and accessible homelike environment in which a structured, neutral alternative to unsupervised visitation can take place. This supervised visitation is the provision and maintenance of a safe, neutral setting in which the contact between a child (ren) and an adult (usually a parent) can be monitored by personnel able to protect the rights and safety of all involved.  The SAFFT Family Visitation & Community Center also offers an individualized, needs based parenting curriculum to enhance a caretaker’s ability to provide a nurturing and structured home environment. This parenting curriculum satisfies Juvenile Court and Department of Family & Children Services court ordered parenting requirements.

The Center now serves hundreds of people a year. SAFFT continues to launch new and unique programs with the goal to serve our families in the most need and help support those loving caregivers who provide a temporary or permanent home for children in broken families. The board of directors still includes some of the original founding board members and the original co-founders of the organization.

About VENZA

VENZA is passionate about the development of technology and services that enable hotels to feel more secure concerning guest data breaches and human vulnerability. With decades of experience, VENZA has the knowledge and experience to empower hotels and their employees to tackle the dynamic cybercrime and guest security landscape.

Over 10,000 properties in over 100 countries look to the VENZA for tools, technology, and strategic security support. Founded in 2008, VENZA is a privately held company and headquartered in Roswell, GA. For more information, please call 770.685.6500 or visit www.VenzaGroup.com.