Our mission statement is straight forward and simple: To provide hygiene products to the homeless/needy children of North Port which will improve self-esteem and enable them to remain in school, clean and well groomed.
We continue to rely on the school guidance counselors, nurses and teachers working with their social worker(s) to identify the needy children in the North Port schools. We also use the Schoolhouse Link, a long-standing partnership between the School Board of Sarasota County and the Sarasota Family YMCA, to identify homeless/needy North Port children via their YMCA Homeless Youth program. We supply the North Port Social Services with supplies to be given to families who demonstrate a financial need. We have also worked with the Warren Foundation and the All Faiths Food Bank to supply help for the homeless/needy children.
We do not deal directly with the homeless and/or needy. The organizations we work with know and identify who needs help. All of our supplies are delivered through these organizations. We know how many bags are requested by each school/group, how many bags we fill, and to which organization they are delivered. We do not know, and do not wish to know, which individuals receive the supplies.
“Needy” falls into the category of students who come to school with a specific need that has some impact on their ability to access curriculum. Examples would be: students who do not come to school because they have limited clothing, no shoes, parents who have lost jobs and cannot afford clothing, hygiene items, medical services, school supplies,etc..., students that have parents who are barely paying the bills and have no "extras" in the home...and on and on. Unfortunately our coalition cannot address all their needs. We limit our help to personal hygiene items.