Yesterday a young girl at my school came up to me and asked for blankets and clothes, because she knew her family wasn't ready for the winter.

The week before that a mom came up to me in tears because she didn't have enough money for food that week.

In this world where everyone is choosing 'sides,' and the news cycle works only to push us farther apart and into smaller and smaller teams, I've come to realize it is not a reflection of reality.

Our social media posts, our comments, it's all curated. It reflects whatever algorithm you are part of. Not the people.

We are who we are OFF of social media.

We still need one another.

As a social worker, I have encountered numerous families like the ones I mentioned above, who need help.

In order to help these families, we need support.

That's why I set up a new non-profit: Say yes 505. Because I got tired of having to say 'no' to families in need.

I needed a way to make it easier to apply for grants, and receive donations to help the students that we work with at our school.

I work at an amazing charter school; Technology Leadership High School, where we work specifically with community in mind, however our non profit is chartered to help anyone in the state.

Any donations sent to us goes straight to our youth. Whether it's food and clothes for the families I talked about above, or buying sports equipment for a student who would otherwise never have an opportunity to play or be part of a team.

We can provide receipts for any donations sent. We can provide photos of the work we have done. However we can't do this without people in the community helping us out.

So, if you have any to give feel free to donate here, or reach out to me directly.

Also, if you would like to collaborate, or volunteer with us, feel free to reach out as well.