Meeting Families Where They Are: Our 2021 Back to School Supply Drive

The 2020 academic year was a year like no other for students across the country who had to abruptly adapt to virtual learning environments outside of the classroom, and navigate additional challenges and changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 18 months later and students are now back to school and re-adjusting to learning in the classroom as schools reopened for in-person and/or hybrid learning for the 2021-2022 school year. We know the adjustment can be a challenge, so this year, we sought to make the load a little lighter for our families with a new approach to our annual school supply drive.

Due to the continued pandemic, BRHP has adapted its operations and become more innovative in the ways in which we communicate with and serve our families. The same can be said for our school supply drive. In 2020, we adapted our drive to an outdoor drive-thru format outside of our office building, and this year decided to make supply pickup more convenient for our families by hosting pickup at locations throughout the Baltimore region. Locations included Howard County Library’s Central Branch, Odenton Library, Randallstown Community Center, and Loch Raven Recreation Center, and distribution occurred over 5 days with additional office pickup days and even some home deliveries. It was a wonderful experience to connect with our families in their communities, and to meet some of the students in our program.

We are proud to have provided close to 250 students with backpacks stuffed with a variety of grade appropriate school supplies that will help them be successful this school year. We thank our generous donors, PNC Bank, our partner locations, and our supplier, GEDDES, for helping us to be successful in this effort, and we wish our students a healthy and happy school year!

Tiffani Long is the Senior Communications and External Affairs Manager at the Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership.