2020 began as the start of a new decade, with the aspirations and dreams of what this year could bring. It quickly became a year of global and U.S. pandemic, civil protests and unrest, closures of schools and businesses, the most massive unemployment we have ever experienced, disruption of normal daily life, and one of the most stressful presidential elections of our history. In this environment, Lincoln Heights Tutorial Program (LHTP) continued to build on our mission.
At the LHTP, the challenge was to transform our services to become virtual, and seek new ways to serve our amazing community. Our tutoring program transitioned to safely serving our children through Skype and Zoom. Our youth clubs continued to meet on Zoom to ensure our youth have a healthy place to to continue to connect and build relationships. Our parking lot and front curbside hosted 5 Food banks, 4 of which were hosted with our FCBC partners that included our school supply giveaways. We also assisted with 2 others hosted by our City. Through our 5 food banks, we gave 1,700 bags of groceries out to our community members, and 675 school supply and backpacks to children. One of those food pantry and school supply giveaways was prepared and distributed by the teens of our “Increase the Peace” youth advocacy committee and Support teams. We held a Christmas toy giveaway, held regular Zoom meetings, virtual college tours, and AMA information sessions for our youth clubs.
We look back at the challenges of 2020 and know that we could not have done this without the support of our friends, partners, and donors that continue to give back to LHTP and this community. More than ever, your community needs your support.
We hope 2021 will be a year of restoration of our pre-COVID ways of life. For us, we look forward to seeing children and our teens back on site and in person, not just in virtual. We also look forward to getting back to all the community service events we normally do every year, and get back to the deeper influence and leadership development that comes from our face to face and live group interactions. Until then, we’ll continue to innovate and continue to strengthen this community however we can.
There is light at the end of the tunnel; we hope you will continue with us there and continue to support our great community. We wish everyone the best of health and safety in 2021- great times are ahead!
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