Engaging Your Community This New Year
Regina Jackson-Willis, PC at Engelhard Elementary School
By Regina Jackson-Willis, program coordinator at Engelhard Elementary School, Louisville, Ky.
Pictures by Jaclyn Melcher
The New Year comes with new opportunities to engage your community in your Blessings in a Backpack program. It is the perfect time to reach out to organizations and businesses in your area. You are the best representative there is to speak at a meeting about your program. It only takes five or ten minutes to share information and engage community partners regarding your program needs, wishes, and goals, and get on their volunteer calendar.
Many companies give their employees time off to volunteer in the community. Tap into the resources that are already available to you. How do you find them? On your way home today start to notice the names on the marquees and buildings, as you watch television tonight, notice commercials for local companies. Google the company and write a letter addressed to the ‘Volunteer Representative/Organizer.’ Trust me when I tell you that the receptionist or mailroom will put the letter in someone’s box. Follow up in a couple of weeks with a phone call. Once you have made contact with the person who coordinates volunteer opportunities, you can have the conversation about fundraising within the organization for your program. For example, Dollars to Dress Down days are a good way for everyone within the company to participate and be a part of your program.
Another resource is the special education department at your local high school. They are always looking for opportunities for students to experience life skills in the community. It is a good resource and a win/win situation.
Opportunities to engage your community are everywhere. If you are passionate about your program, there is no need to practice what to say. Your love for your program will come out and encompass the minds and souls of the big-hearted people who hear your voice. Once, while my husband and I were waiting for a table at a local restaurant, a woman walked up to me and said, “Okay, I’ll bite,” and not knowing what she was talking about, I asked for clarity. She pointed to my shirt. I was wearing a Blessings in a Backpack t-shirt that said, “Ask me how you can help a child.” I told her about Blessings and my students and their challenges and needs. While sitting in the restaurant, this same woman handed me a check made out to Blessings in a Backpack for $200. Bam! Those five minutes just fed two students for an entire school year.
In the Jefferson County Public School system in Louisville, Ky., I am an FRYSC (Family Resource Youth Service Center) Coordinator at Engelhard Elementary School. My task is to remove non-academic barriers that prevent students from being successful at school as well as at home. I follow five State Core Components and a needs assessment that is conducted every other year by parents and staff as a guide to removing those barriers.
Most of the students who attend Engelhard Elementary School live in food deserts and qualify for free lunch and, eat hot fries and Big Red soda for pre-breakfast that they pick up from the corner store on the way to school. They lack meals with any nutritional value and sometimes only eat meals at school. Blessings in a Backpack provides not only supplemental nutrition for the weekend, but sometimes become the only meals that our students eat over the weekend.
For the past three years, every student who attended Engelhard and wanted to participate in Blessings (this is what the students call it) was able. Before that, only half of the school was able to participate. I do not have a corporate sponsor to provide the $40,000 per year needed to pay for the entire school to participate. However, I do have great support from the weekly volunteers and the organizations they represent. I also write small local grants to support the program. My desire has always been to feed one child at a time, and it seems to have always worked out.
Before distribution begins, I always tell the volunteers a little about the school population, the lives that many of the students live and statistics that support their needs. Facts about Blessings in a Backpack, as well as stories from the families of the students who participate, always opens their eyes to the struggles of those students they will come in contact within less than 10 minutes of hearing the stories.
I keep my volunteers engaged in every aspect of my school. One of the organizations that volunteer for Blessings also volunteers to read one-on-one with students one day a week for the entire school year. Another organization holds a swim-a-thon fundraiser every summer to support the program. One group of women that volunteers once a month also brings in school supplies, uniforms, and books. One of the companies that allow their employees to volunteer while on the clock also donates their weekly dress down money on behalf of Engelhard. Sometimes volunteers leave me a check for $100 to feed one child for a school year.
I feel many of my volunteers love and care about the well being of the students as much as I do. Many of them form relationships with the students just through the positive interaction that develops from the 3 to 4 seconds it takes to smile, speak, and place a food item in a student’s bag. We all work hard so that each student can play, be a child, and not worry about having food to eat. There is no need to try to run your program by yourself. Many people/organizations in your community are looking for opportunities to contribute their time and money to worthwhile programs. Why not the Blessings in a Backpack program at your site?