This year’s Continuity Insights’ Continuity Cares Volunteer effort benefited the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Project UP-START which seeks to ensure a successful educational experience for homeless children and youth in South Florida by collaborating with parents, schools, and community through opening the doors to academic opportunities, removing barriers, and promoting a healthy sense of self with hope for bright tomorrows.
Continuity Insights 2018 Management Conference attendees, speakers, and suppliers came together on Tuesday evening’s Back-to-School Night event to give back to the community and touch the lives of those in need. More than 100 volunteers filled schools bookbags with much-needed school supplies for these Miami-Dade County School system students in need.
The Back-to-School Night volunteers filled nearly 300 bookbags with calculators, notebooks, presentation folders, pens, pencils, highlighters, rulers, hand sanitizer, notepads, and more than a dozen other school supplies.
“We wanted to send you a big thank you to all of the Continuity Cares volunteers for participating in this effort to supply our organization with these much needed supplies,” said Debra Albo-Steiger, Program Manager for Project UP-START. “They are going to be such a help for our students and we cannot thank you enough for thinking of them. Please extend our appreciation to those who assisted in making this possible, we are so grateful for the support for our students.”
Joining in on the collaborative effort were corporate sponsors Fusion Risk Management, Ripcord Solutions, Strategic BCP, Continuity Logic, Fairchild Resiliency Systems, and BC in the Cloud, who provided the school supply bookbags. Also contributing to the school supplies were Everbridge, OnSolve, The Business Continuity Institute, and The Association of Continuity Professionals (ACP).
Project UP-START assists schools with the identification, enrollment, and attendance of students in homeless situations. Each school has a designated School Homeless Liaison to help identify students in transition, as well as work with Project UP-START staff on service
s for the student. Upon enrollment in the Project UP-START, students will automatically receive free lunch. Project UP-START also works to increase advocacy on behalf of students through dissemination of information to school-based personnel on homeless issues and available community resources.
Additionally, Project UP-START has an after-school tutorial component that is designed to supplement the learning taking place in select shelter sites. Activities to promote a healthy sense of self and to strengthen academic competence are part of the tutorial sessions. The parental component brings participants into the tutorial sessions to learn ways to help their children with homework, to read, or to observe the learning taking place. Parental involvement meetings are scheduled on a regular basis to encourage academic success of students.
Learn more about the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Project UP-START.
