2020 has been quite a year for everyone. In March, we were able to get in our 2nd annual Night of Hope right before Covid came to Cleveland. We then transitioned our many Community meetings to Zoom, and got busy calling and checking in on our youth and volunteers. We all struggled with being physically distanced from one another.
As time went on, we came out of our homes and met in parks and porches and patios. We launched 10 new Communities this year, despite a global pandemic. Our volunteers were ready and willing to meet with youth who needed them in safe and new ways. Zoom became a new normal for meetings.
It was not ideal, but our work has continued. Youth continue to get love and support. At Thanksgiving, we were able to help 21 young people get a full turkey meal. We weren’t able to gather for our usual Friendsgiving celebration, but we were able to tell everyone how much we loved them. Our gratitude for volunteers and youth has only grown during this hard time.
During Christmas, we partner with Fostering Hope to help youth with children get some Christmas cheer. So, next week we will turn into Santa’s elves and help get some things passed along to our young families.
We will continue our work in Cuyahoga County next year and we are excited to announce that we will be launching a 2 year pilot project in Lorain County as well. We were asked by the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board of Lorain County to bring our HOPE model to their county to serve youth 18-25 impacted by different systems in their county. They understand, just like Cuyahoga County, that people and relationships matter more than programs.
We believe that surrounding each youth with their own team of people empowers youth to see life through different perspectives. We also know that our volunteers learn and grow from their new friendships and time with our resilient youth.
Relationship skills are fundamental for us all and as the pandemic drags on so to does the sense of isolation and separation. We are better together. We believe that we will be back together in person again, hopefully sooner than later, but for now we just wanted to say thank you to all the helpers. There are so many people working so hard to do good and we are thankful to everyone who has helped us continue our important work in 2020.