Country of Residence
United States
Age
16
Project title
kind kits
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Our project provides hygiene kits filled with essential personal care items to people experiencing homelessness in our community, promoting dignity, comfort, and well-being.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
I think what really inspired this idea or the moment when everything clicked was when I was driving past the supermarket with my dad and in our community homeless people used to sleep on the sidewalk right next to the super market it would take up the whole side walk like from one end of the plaza to the end of the plaza and all I would see was tents, people, trash, etc. So while driving I had the idea, what if I started making hygiene kits or kits with food, water, socks, first aid kits, underwear, pads / tampons (for the girls), wet wipes, deodorant, winter hats, gloves, sunscreen, etc. Its hard because homeless people are seen as less than and thats degrading so basic hygiene supplies and food can really go a long way to help someone feel more human again and possibly giving these outs can give them hope and to help them get on the right track to creating better lives for themselves.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Im trying to help solve the issue of homelessness in my community. This issue matters to my community because it's hard to see people like this every time you go to the supermarket or just walking down the street. I am a big empath and it breaks my heart. I think my community would also appreciate it because our community complains a lot about homelessness in our city and I would love to contribute to helping my community and the homeless people because in the end they are also human who are struggling and need help.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Although it is a new idea, I have been planning it out. To solve this issue in my community, I am planning on getting my friends and family and even possibly create a new club at school called kind kits to get teachers and other students on board to help me out with the supplies , bags, and handing them out. I am expecting to possibly get 9 or 10 people involved or more. It is a hard job going out and getting everything alone and even handing them out so a team makes this part a lot easier. Next, as a team we will need to plan everything out. We need to do research as to where the majority of homeless people are concentrated and start there. We will all need to go out and buy the following supplies; food, water, menstrual products, sunscreen, gloves, winter hats, first aid kits, tissues, wet wipes, toothbrush/tooth paste, socks, and underwear. Once we have collected everything we need we will need to assemble our kits and to put everything possibly in a drawstring bag or a clear tolietry bag. My team and I will then go out a hand everything out to people and make a positive impact in someone's life. We will do this 3x or 2x a month at first but we will build up to once a week eventually and also grow our team. I was also thinking if I do create this new school club that we could also partner up with homeless shelters to hand out these bags.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Since my project is in its early stages, the impact I hope to make is putting a smile on someones face and to give hope to let people know that it does eventually get better and it wont be like this forever. I want to send the message out that someone out there cares for you and you're not alone. I want to leave a long lasting positive impact in someone's life. I think this will work because this kind kit has a lot of basic hygiene products and food and water goes a long way. You dont know how long that person has gone without eating or drinking water and you could imagine the impact that could make. Imagine if someone was on their period with no way of accessing period products and I think including that in my kind kit is the most important thing because I also believe that period products should be free and accessible to all girls and being homeless and being on your period is hard so I hope giving out period products could also make a big impact on someones life.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
I think what's different about my project compared to other programs or solutions out there is that I want to create something new at my school while also helping my community. My school doesn't offer much opportunities for its students. I was hoping by creating my club, "kind kits," that it would give my school something new to work on. I was hoping to get teachers and students on board with my project to help me create the kits and to host drives where people could donate items for the kits. I was also hoping to get partnership with homeless shelters to help hand out these bags. Along with these kits, we will be writing little encouraging notes to help bring a smile on someone's face. I am trying to get my school and community involved in this matter to help my project grow so we can reach more places with a lot of homelessness and not just my community. In a way, im helping my school and my community at the same time.
How many people are on your team?
6
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
Since I am still building my idea, I would love to have people from my school involved like teachers and students. I think with support I could expand this project and reach more communities than just mine. Parents, students, staff, teachers, everyone could get involved. I would love to have a whole team of support and people I could rely on.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
The first step I will take to launch this idea is creating my club, "kind kits", at school. First to just get the idea out there to teachers and students. We will have weekly meetings to discuss what my club is and our goals. The next step is to talk about hosting a drive where we would ask families, students, and teachers to donate supplies (we will provide a list of the items) and get donations. We will then discuss a day where everyone could come together and assemble the kind kits and to also write positive, uplifting notes and possibly get staff, families, teachers to participate. Then, my teacher sponsor and I will reach out to homeless shelters and ask if we could partner up and if they could help us with handing the kind kits out.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
To encourage other people to join my project and to learn about this problem I am creating a school club to further educate people on homelessness in our community and the impact it's leaving on people and the community. I will hand out flyers, create an instagram page where I will post about this subject, announce it at school, speak about this matter with teachers, etc. I will even go around to students asking them to come to our meetings to see if they would be interested in our cause. Overall, I am going to campaign in a way at school and also tell my family about it as well.
