Students of the Phi Alpha Honors Society School of Social Work Create and Distribute 100 care kits
From (left to right): Jessie Panoski, Qiting Huang, Sheleka Carter, Erica Bush, Sabrina Degnan, Maira Clancy, Cullen Ruiz
On May 15, 2022, students of the Phi Alpha Honors Society School of Social Work at San Francisco State gathered together in community to create and distribute 100 care kits consisting of snacks, basic need supplies, clothing items, and COVID related PPE for unhoused and oppressed communities in SF and Oakland
After many months of collaboration and research, they won a national grant towards their community service project to build and distribute 100 care-kits for unhoused folks around the Bay Area.
Erica Bush, Maira Clancy, and Sabrina Degnan (all MSW students), met monthly over the past year to establish a plan to provide resources and support to members of our community that may be unhoused or oppressed by the system. They brainstormed ideas of how they can best support those communities and decided that creating care kits filled with necessary supplies in order to provide a little comfort and aid, would be the best option.
Sabrina explained, "Maira specifically researched which items are the most desired among communities without homes. She found that hygienic supplies (like toothbrushes, sanitary pads, ChapStick, etc.) were of high demand, as well as clothing (socks, hats, and mittens), and of course food (snacks, meals, water). once we talked about all those items and what we thought we could fit into our budget, we created a spreadsheet with where we could buy those items in bulk. We then split up the list and all three of us separately purchased those items to be brought together and made into a unified package. After the items were purchased and the plan was made, we sent out an invite to our Social Work community to be a part of creating the kits and then helping distribute them directly to our community members. So, on May 15th, we met on campus at SFSU and made an assembly line to put all the items into 100 care kits. Seven members of the Social Work community at SFSU came to support making the bags and distributing (they are pictured in the images I sent previously). After the bags were made, each of the seven individuals divided up the bags and took them to different areas of the city including Haight-Ashbury, Oakland, Daly City, etc. We handed out each bag to a person that was willing to accept it.
Overall, the project was highly successful and 100 members in our Bay Area community now have care packages filled with essential items.
We enjoyed working together on this project and are proud of all that came together to help make it happen."