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.
Over the past seven years, we’ve 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 fulfill students’ wishlists and also provide 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 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!
For our city’s homeless, we distribute care packages, clothes, food and other necessities. We have provided more than 900 toiletry packages and over 1,100 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.
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.
We researched where homeless people in D.C. reside. And we went out onto the streets on that cold February day in 2015.
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 11,128 homeless individuals in 2017, 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.
