Join Delegate Sam Rasoul and Sharon Hicks in helping Family Service! image

Join Delegate Sam Rasoul and Sharon Hicks in helping Family Service!

Please consider making a donation to help us reach our fundraising goals as Champions for Family Service!!

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Help us bring hope to those who are struggling with mental health challenges.

he Mission of Family Service of Roanoke Valley is to support individuals and families as they journey toward lives of emotional wellness, healthy relationships, and a future filled with hope.

Family Service of Roanoke Valley is asking us to rally our friends, family, and networks to support their work. By making a donation to our duo, you will help support more Family Service Counseling, Youth Development, Healthy Relationship Groups, Public Guardianship, and Personal Affairs Management services for the Roanoke Valley. This funding will help bring hope to those who are struggling with a mental health challenge.

Please consider supporting our Celebrity Champion Duo and giving to Family Service of Roanoke Valley!
(Please note that donations are non-refundable).


Delegate Sam Rasoul - My sisters, brother, and I grew up in Virginia where my family had settled in the Roanoke Valley after leaving war-torn Palestine in the late 1960s to find a better life. I grew up in a corner store in the Hurt Park and Blue Stone neighborhoods, where we learned the value of community and taking life one challenge at a time.

As a religious and ethnic minority in Southwest Virginia, I learned the value of building bridges wherever I could find them. Our neighborhood friends might need some groceries until payday, and our family business stepped up to help them out however we could because we believed in the value of serving our community.

Throughout my life, I have been guided by the values of respect, fairness, and liberty that I was raised with. Roanoke College pushed me to understand the world on a deeper level, and a master’s degree in Hawaii introduced me to cultures I had known nothing about.

With the loving support of my life partner, Layaly, I was drawn to a life of public service. I was eager to find ways to elevate the voices of everyday Virginians while forging lasting coalitions. In 2008 I ran for Congress as the youngest candidate in America. An idealist with much to learn, my core philosophy stayed simple: Treat people as I would want to be treated. Layaly and I have been blessed with three awesome kids: Jennah, Amirah, and Issa. The innocence and wisdom of my children keep me grounded and hopeful. They are a big part of the reason I'm working to help build a better, brighter future for all Virginians.

I worked in health care to build more compassionate ways to care for our seniors and improve maternal and child health in East Africa. Ushering in new programs with my teams, we faced endless problems but focused on helping and empowering people, one life at a time.

In 2014, the beautiful people of Roanoke entrusted me with the opportunity to represent our community in the Virginia House of Delegates. I immediately got to work rejecting special interest PAC donations, starting the Impact Center initiative which helps empower new age leaders, and modeling a new approach to politics in our Democratic Promise initiative which builds goodwill by investing in our neighbors.

Sharon L. Hicks is an educator in Montgomery County Public schools. She has been in education for twenty-seven years and has held several positions during her tenure. Ms. Hicks is a native of Roanoke, Virginia. She received her Bachelor of Arts in History from Roanoke College and earned her Master’s in Educational Leadership from Radford University. She also has her certification in Gifted Education from the University of Virginia and is endorsed as a Teacher Leader.

In 2017, Ms. Hicks launched her own event planning business, Creating Every Occasion, LLC after attending a small business summit and being inspired by her parents, James and Yvonne Hicks who launched a family business in1970. In addition to her other efforts, Sharon recently started her own development company, SHE Development Group, LLC.
Ms. Hicks has volunteered with organizations to help give back to the youth and community. She attributes her servant leadership to her Grandmother, Georgia B. Croson, who taught her to meet the needs of children and to work with community leaders to bring about change in Roanoke. Ms. Hicks watched her grandmother start the non-profit organization, The Charity Community House, to feed hundreds of children through her summer feeding programs.
This exposure sparked Sharon’s drive to be a change agent as she created innovative extracurricular activities for the students which she served. Sharon’s family legacy is the root of her heart, and life-long commitment, as a child and family advocate. Her calling is to build strong family units in our communities. She believes that when families are provided with education, financial opportunities and support children become eager to learn and are better prepared for life.
Ms. Hicks has a son and three grandchildren.