Karma for Cara Foundation microgrant recipients have competed in an application process alongside other young people who have spearheaded exceptional service projects that benefit their communities. In order to qualify for a K4C award, an applicant must be 18 years of age or younger, and the project must take place in the US.
K4C microgrant recipient Ellie (17 from NYC) & her cousin founded West Side Smiles to support people experiencing homelessness. With her award & in collaboration with Winter Walk, Ellie + team both educated young students about homelessness and helped create “dignity kits” to distribute across the City to individuals experiencing homelessness.
| What inspired you to start this project? | Throughout the pandemic, the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in my NYC community grew exponentially. I watched as local hotels filled with people and families of all ages. In the spring of 2021, with Covid-19 still on the rise, my cousin and I founded West Side Smiles, an organization dedicated to donating kits of hygiene supplies to those in need. We knew we couldn’t single-handedly solve the larger issue of homelessness, but we wanted to help people feel slightly more comfortable as they navigate a challenging time. Our first event was a small Zoom “game night” with family and friends, where all profits raised went toward buying hygiene supplies that we donated to a homeless shelter nearby. We now host monthly events including fundraisers and kit packaging activities, and collaborate with numerous NYC organizations. This fall, with the help of Karma for Cara, we visited public schools around NYC to host events for elementary schoolers, running kid-friendly presentations in partnership with Winter Walk’s educators. Afterwards, we involved students in packaging hygiene supply kits replete with handwritten messages to donate to shelters. These workshops combined our efforts toward decreasing stigma with our aims of helping people have a more comfortable transition, one toothbrush at a time. |
| While working on your project, what surprised you? | One thing that we were surprised by was how enthusiastic and motivated students and teachers were from our events. After our first event at a local middle school, many of the students asked for our contact information. Two students in particular followed up to further talk to us about how they can make an impact. We had a zoom call with them and helped them brainstorm how they can get involved in combating homelessness in our community. After the call, they started to build an organization of their own. While we were intending to educate and show people that action against homelessness was tangible, it was surprising to see how the students were excited to continue taking action after our event. In addition, many teachers were enthusiastic about hosting future events. We were surprised at how motivated our event made others, which pushed us to continue with our mission and continue to educate ourselves and others and grow our organization. |
| What do you feel you learned from this experience? | We learned through receiving the Karma for Cara grant the importance of adapting to different audiences. With the Karma for Cara grant we were able to fund two different events, an event for 50 middle schoolers (seventh and eighth graders) and an event for 200 fourth and fifth graders. In order to present about homelessness to these two audiences, our presentations had to differ greatly to ensure it was impactful. In presenting to the elementary school kids, we learned how to keep them engaged through examples such as small games throughout. Whereas, with the middle schoolers we presented more facts to emphasize the extent of the issue. Another important lesson was problem solving. For our second event with the elementary school, we did not have enough money to fund the packing of toiletry kits, so instead we utilized the school’s student government to help plan and execute a school-wide bake sale. In addition, the week before the event, our speaker dropped out. We emailed all of our contacts from different homeless shelters from around the city and quickly got a new speaker, however this taught us the necessity to have a backup plan and diligently follow up with the people who we are partnering with. Finally, we learned about the impact of learning through action. Through the creation of dignity kits, the students were able to make a physical difference which emphasized the importance of our mission. |
| How did Karma for Cara impact your project? | One of our largest struggles of developing West Side Smiles has been obtaining additional funds to complete projects. West Side Smiles relies heavily on donations to purchase toiletries so that we can create and package the hygiene kits. A key goal of ours has been to involve the broader NYC community, specifically children, in our events. However, to achieve this, we recognized the need for additional financial support. The Karma for Cara grant allowed us to spread our mission by involving children around NYC to participate in kit packaging events. With the funds from the organization, we were able to purchase necessary materials and host events at local elementary and middle schools. These events did more than just involve students in our mission; we also partnered with an organization called Winter Walk to educate students and help break the stigma surrounding homelessness. |
| How will your project impact others? | Our project will continue to impact others through motivating youth to educate themselves on homelessness and to help combat homelessness within our neighborhood. A key focus in our events was fighting the stigmas that are associated with people experiencing homelessness. Through our educational presentation and packaging of dignity kits we were able to successfully open the door to education. Our hope is that this presentation sticks with the students when they see people experiencing homelessness and in the future they are motivated to help take action. In fact, the elementary school where we hosted the event asked us to come the following year to continue to educate on homelessness. In addition, to both the middle schoolers and elementary schools we advertised the Winter Walk, which is occurring in NYC in December. Many of them committed to attending. The Winter Walk is a program where you walk side by side with people experiencing homelessness, people who have experienced homelessness and people who are helping combat homelessness. We hope that through this event and others the youth will continue to be motivated to take action. Overall, our project set the foundation for education about people experiencing homelessness in attempts to break stigmas. We think this will create a cascade effect to ensure that these people are more motivated to take action and educate themselves. |
