Children's Homeless Outreach

Short and Sweet: I am raising money for my after school organization to participate in a Homeless Outreach project next month.  Our students will be given the opportunity to fill shoe boxes with hygene and other care products as well as write heart felt letters to each recipient of the boxes. Our students are donating what they can but we are nowhere near what we need to fill these boxes.  There are 80+ children in my program and I want so badly for each student to be able to see one box through from start to finish (filling, decorating, and letter writting). I estimate that this project will cost between $800-$900 however, there are many things that our program can use the additional money for.  One example-  Our students are paticipating in a program called Battle of the Books where they have commited to reading 6 novels and competing  in a contest for reading comprehension and recall. I would love to have prizes/rewards for students who took on the challenging task of reading 6 books in addition to all of their other school work.  Other examples- Our children have hearts of gold and already have their sights set on other outreach projects such as ones targetting senior citizens and military service men and women.  Will you please join us in providing the children of our program with the opportunities to enhance their education and further their reach into their community? 

Why is this project so important? When taking over this program, I trained my team on the implementation of the 40 Developmental Assets.  The 40 Assets are research proven qualities that foster academic success, resillience, and self belief.  It is important to note that these assets are not at all dependant on an outsider's view of the child but rather, depend entirely on the child's perception of themself.  Children who believe they posess 30-40 of the assets fair better in life and becasue of that, our team truly believes that this Homeless Outreach project is mutually beneficial- not only benefitting the recipient of these boxes but benefitting our children as well.  
Below is a list of assets that this project targets in our children and if you would like to learn more about the assets, please visit   http://www.search-institute.org/

7. Community Values Youth-Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.
 8. Youth as Resources-Young people are given useful roles in the community.
 9. Service to Others-Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.
26. Caring-Young person places high value on helping other people.
27. Equality and Social Justice-Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty.
33. Interpersonal Competence-Young person has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills.
39. Sense of Purpose-Young person reports that "my life has a purpose."

The Elephant in the Room:  I wish so badly that I could post photos of our kiddos on this site but in order to protect them and to protect my program, I cannot upload their faces into their photos.  What I CAN and WILL do, is upload photos of their progress as they put together these boxes.  

Questions? Partnerships?  Please feel free to email me or reach out to me on facebook (send me a friend request while you are at it! :) I will peronsally respond to each question.  If you are in Orange County or Los Angeles county and  wish to partner with our program on this or any other projects- again, reach out to me.  I would love to hear from you. 

Whether you can donate or not, please share our page.  On behalf of our kiddos- thank you will all our hearts!