aboutus
Me & You is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, advocating for students from underprivileged communities, and those without a home. We partner with schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia to provide students with the necessary items and services for a well-rounded life. We work with teachers and administrative staff at the schools to determine needs and fundraise to fulfill them.
Since 2015, we have supported more than 1,000 students in the D.C. metro area through our programs, making a direct impact on their lives. Our programs have included providing students with school supplies, clothing, meals and full-sized toiletry packages for them and their families. Around the winter holiday season, we also fulfill students’ wishlists as well as providing grocery store gift cards for their families. We support winter clothes, coats, and blankets, as well as access to technology for learning both in-classroom and in a virtual environment.
Our experiences program, which we launched a few years ago, focuses on providing opportunities for students outside of the school walls, such as access to field trips and extracurricular activities to help them grow and learn. Opportunities we’ve provided have included yoga classes, NBA basketball games, wall climbing and summer camps!
We also offer a music scholarship throughout the year. Students who are awarded the scholarship receive private music lessons through our program for a period of 3 months.
For our city’s homeless, we distribute care packages, clothes, food and other necessities. We have provided hundreds of toiletry packages and homecooked meals to our city’s homeless. We reach out to people on our streets, and help them with their everyday life as best we can. We seek to make a difference in someone else’s life, even if it’s only for a day.
Me & You is a volunteer-based organization, neither its founders nor its board members receive any compensation. All proceeds raised go toward our mission.
OUR STORY
We were single on Valentine's Day. That's pretty much the story. We didn't have any plans, and instead of partaking in a girls night out or sitting on the couch in our PJ's, we decided to go out and give some love to people who really needed it.
At first, we were just going to put everything together ourselves. A meal, a care package, however much we could afford. But then we decided, why not throw it out there and see who was interested in helping us? No fundraisers, just a Facebook post. We were overwhelmed with the support that people we knew showed. That first drive we made two hundred sandwiches and one hundred care packages. We collected just short of $1,000 for the endeavor, and we went out onto the streets on that cold February day in 2015 to give some love to others who may need it.
All these years later, and we have grown into this mighty little organization partnering with schools in DC, Maryland and Virginia. Our parents immigrated to America in the 80's- some as refugees hoping for a better life. They came from war-torn countries and made it to a land where they neither understood the culture nor knew the language. They worked hard and made amazing lives for themselves and their children. But growing up, as children of immigrants, there were a lot of things, a lot of knowledge about growing up in America that we had to figure out ourselves. In many ways, that has made some of us feel behind. Simple things like the etiquette of eating out at an American restaurant were things we did not partake in until later in life. There were so many things that we had to learn and figure out ourselves, and as such, we grew up feeling behind those that had parents who grew up here and lived and understood the culture and how to get ahead.
So we started this organization not only to help kids from underprivileged communities get the support they need, but also to expose them to experiences they may not otherwise get the opportunity to. Our mission is to make a difference in the lives of kids and families in need and those without a home on our streets, in our communities and around our cities. We strive to make a direct impact on someone’s life, even if it’s only for a day.
In the District, there were 8,944 people experiencing homelessness in 2023, an 18 percent increase from 2022, according to a report by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Homeless Services Planning and Coordinating Committee.
“We don’t all got it the same,” a former inmate once said to me. We may have grown up in the same city, but our circumstances may not necessarily have been the same, so we strive to look out for one another.
OUR ACTIVITIES
KIDS
A WELL-ROUNDED LIFE
THOSE WITHOUT A HOME
We work to advocate for students in the D.C. metro region. We partner with schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia to provide students with the necessary items and services for a well-rounded life. We currently partner with seven schools, and are in the process of expanding. Most of our students come from low-income families, some are homeless and live in temporary housing. We work with teachers and administrative staff at the schools to determine need, and from there we provide support. We’ve provided school supplies, backpacks, clothes, school uniforms, as well as toiletries for their families to take home.
Our focused initiative is to provide opportunities for a well-rounded life. We're working to provide students with access to arts, sports and other events that will expand their realm of knowledge. For many of the families we support, taking their kids to these events are beyond their financial means, or they simply don't have the time. Since our 2018 inaugural year, we've taken students to Washington Wizards games, EarthTreks and provided Trauma-Informed Yoga classes.
We work to advocate for the homeless and people in our communities who are in need by providing the necessary items and services. We distribute care packages, clothes, food and other necessities to the homeless and families who fall under the low-income bracket. We seek to make a difference in someone else’s life, even if it's only for a day.
CONTACT ME & YOU
