On Sunday afternoon in Cherry Hill, a neighborhood hair salon quietly transformed into something far more powerful than a beauty destination. For four hours, the chairs, mirrors, and styling stations inside Louis Christian Robert John Salon became the setting for a community-driven fundraiser designed to deliver real support to families raising children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Camden.
The event, titled Styled With Heart, was hosted by Raise the Bar Family Services, a Camden-based nonprofit whose work has rapidly become essential for families navigating the emotional, financial, and logistical realities of disability care. From noon to 4 p.m., guests filled the salon along Route 70 for manicures, blowouts, and full haircut-and-style packages—knowing that every dollar spent would be redirected back into services for local families.
The fundraiser was intentionally simple in its concept. Manicures were offered at $30, professional blowouts at $50, and haircut and blowout combinations at $80. Yet behind that straightforward menu was a carefully designed community benefit model. There were also plenty of clothing, accessories, and jewelry available for sale at GemNi Boutique, located inside the salon. One hundred percent of the proceeds generated through salon services were committed directly to Raise the Bar Family Services’ programs supporting families caring for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Among the community partners helping bring Styled With Heart to life was host location Louis Christian Robert John Salon, whose entire professional team donated their time, talent, and space to ensure that every service directly benefited local families. The event also featured GemNi Boutique, the South Jersey-based fashion and accessories retailer that joined the pop-up as a participating vendor, offering guests a curated selection of specialty pieces while helping amplify the fundraiser’s visibility throughout the region. Additional local small businesses and independent makers participated throughout the afternoon as supporting vendors and raffle partners, reinforcing the grassroots, community-powered nature of the event and highlighting how collaboration between neighborhood businesses and nonprofit leaders continues to play a critical role in sustaining programs for families within Camden’s intellectual and developmental disabilities community.
The salon itself became a welcoming hub, with local vendors set up throughout the space, raffles running continuously, and refreshments available for guests who lingered to connect with organizers, volunteers, and other families. Rather than feeling like a traditional fundraiser, the afternoon unfolded more like a neighborhood gathering—intimate, relaxed, and deeply personal.
That sense of accessibility mirrors the way Raise the Bar Family Services approaches its work in Camden.
Founded in October 2022, the organization was created by Karly Forman Cohen after years of firsthand experience advocating for her nonverbal sister, Sydney. What began as a personal mission quickly evolved into a structured community nonprofit focused on closing the service gaps faced by families caring for children and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
In a region where public systems are often fragmented and families are left to navigate complex programs alone, Raise the Bar was designed to act as both a support network and a practical guide. The organization now operates around three central pillars that shape every initiative it offers: youth programming, caregiver and family support, and hands-on resource navigation.
At the heart of its youth programming are two signature initiatives. Kids Club serves children ages three through eleven, offering structured social experiences that support communication, independence, and peer connection. For older participants, the Social Squad program serves teens and young adults beginning at age twelve and extending into adulthood, providing age-appropriate social opportunities that help reduce isolation while building confidence and life skills. Just as important, both programs offer families meaningful respite—time that caregivers can use to rest, recharge, and manage the demands of daily life.
Equally vital is Raise the Bar’s commitment to family support. Each month, the organization hosts Caregiver Support Nights, which combine educational sessions, wellness-focused activities, and open peer discussion. These evenings give parents and guardians a space to speak honestly about challenges that are often invisible outside disability communities—burnout, anxiety about long-term care, school placement issues, and the emotional strain of advocacy.
The third pillar, resource navigation, has quickly become one of the organization’s most impactful services. Through structured office hours and direct consultations, families receive step-by-step guidance through public and private support systems, including benefits applications, school-based services, therapy access, and community programs. For many caregivers, this hands-on assistance represents the difference between stalled paperwork and real progress.
As of late 2024, Raise the Bar Family Services had already served approximately 42 families and facilitated more than 40 community events throughout Camden and surrounding areas. While those numbers continue to grow, the organization’s leadership remains focused on depth of impact rather than scale alone.
Cohen, a University of Pennsylvania graduate and the daughter of Forman Mills founder Rick Forman, serves as executive director. Her leadership style reflects both professional rigor and lived experience, creating an organization rooted equally in operational discipline and personal empathy. That balance has earned Raise the Bar recognition well beyond the local nonprofit community, including being named AmeriHealth’s 2024 Be of Service Corporate Citizen of the Year.
The organization’s main office operates from 808 Market Street in Camden, positioning Raise the Bar directly within the neighborhoods it serves. That geographic proximity has become a defining strength, allowing staff and volunteers to build relationships with families and community partners that go far beyond program enrollment.
The Styled With Heart pop-up fundraiser in Cherry Hill was designed specifically to help sustain and expand these programs—particularly youth programming and resource navigation services that require consistent staffing, training, and coordination.
While the afternoon centered on self-care and community connection, the underlying goal was long-term stability. Funds raised through the salon event will directly support operational costs tied to programming delivery, caregiver workshops, and expert-led navigation sessions that help families overcome bureaucratic barriers to care.
Events like Styled With Heart also reflect a broader trend across South Jersey, where nonprofit organizations increasingly partner with small businesses to create hyper-local fundraising models that blend commerce with community impact. From retail pop-ups to fitness studios and creative spaces, grassroots philanthropy is becoming an important driver of neighborhood resilience and local economic participation. Coverage of how community-based organizations intersect with regional development and housing stability can be found through ongoing real estate and neighborhood reporting within the regional community and property development news section.
For Raise the Bar Family Services, however, the value of Sunday’s event went beyond dollars raised.
Throughout the afternoon, caregivers spoke with volunteers about upcoming youth sessions, siblings met one another while parents waited for appointments, and organizers shared details about future programs, including summer camps and monthly activities. In many cases, families attending the fundraiser were learning about Raise the Bar for the first time—often through word of mouth rather than advertising.
That organic growth is central to the organization’s long-term strategy. Volunteers are actively recruited to support Kids Club sessions, Social Squad outings, monthly caregiver nights, and summer programming, with training provided to ensure inclusive and supportive engagement for participants with a wide range of needs.
As the Styled With Heart fundraiser wrapped up and the final raffle prizes were announced, the salon returned to its usual rhythm. But for the families and organizers who spent the afternoon together, the impact extended far beyond a single day of self-care.
In a region where disability support systems remain difficult to access and families frequently carry the burden of coordination alone, Raise the Bar Family Services continues to build something rare—a reliable, human-centered network rooted in trust, advocacy, and practical support. Sunday’s fundraiser was not just a community event. It was a visible reminder that when local businesses and nonprofit leadership align around shared values, small spaces can generate meaningful change for some of South Jersey’s most underserved families.
