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HAMILTON — This year's holiday season will be extra special for families sponsored through Supports to Encourage Low-income Families' 10th annual Adopt-A-Family program.

The nonprofit organization finds sponsors who can adopt entire families rather than just children, as in

surrounding programs, said Jeffrey

Diver, executive director of SELF. SELF aids families with self-sufficiency goals throughout the year,

"We're strictly working with families working to get ahead so we're giving a hand up rather than a hand out," he said.

Each year the program supports anywhere from 100 to 200 people and provide sponsors with "wish lists" for each individual being adopted.

Because most families are working on becoming economically independent and free from government assistance, many times their lists consist of very practical things, said Diver.

"It's quite heartening because every year what the families are looking for is clothing, educational games for children or household items," he said."We have a number of families this year who have overcome homelessness, so they need items like bedding linens, pots and pans."

In order to ensure that each family is supported fairly, SELF is also participating in the Butler County Community Project to make sure there are no duplications in holiday assistance.

"Butler County has been very generous over the last decade in sponsoring our families in recognizing that what we do at SELF is helping families help themselves," Diver said.

The deadline to adopt a family is Tuesday.

For more information, visit SELF's Web site at www.selfhelps.org/adopt.