Students Tara and Averi are graduates of Move More Eat Healthy’s (MMEH) Placentia Youth Resident Leadership Academy (YRLA). They are juniors at Valencia High School who chose to focus on Homelessness Intervention as their public health project. Since the graduation of the Resident Leadership Academy, Tara and Averi have led the group in raising money and food to donate to His OC in Placentia, hosted workshops with His OC to learn about the needs of the community and how to put together hygiene kits. Currently, they have come up with a new program to be able to help during the cold months of the year.
These two students created Warmly Woven to help knit hats and socks for those in need. They will also be seeking out donations of yarn and other volunteers who can knit/crochet items to drop off. They are working with local businesses to host donation bins at local sites in Placentia where people can easily drop off donations. Tara and Averi meet bi-monthly with Melissa Arvizu, CAP OC’s MMEH Program Coordinator, to create the action plan and ideas for Warmly Woven. The goals are to have 100 pairs of socks and 100 hats by October 2021 to donate to His OC and City Net. The students will create social media videos and posts to help encourage residents and community members to donate. Averi and Tara will present their program at the Placentia Collaborative to showcase their work and ask for help from local volunteer groups. We will be working with the collaborative to help identify partners who want to host donation bins or donate yarn. They will also host a donation bin at the school campus and recruit other members of the YRLA to participate and support.
