Horton’s Kids Rises to Meet Pandemic Challenge

Sarah Valerio

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unique challenges to charitable organizations and those they serve. For the families living in the Stanton Oaks and Wellington Park areas of Washington, DC, the two Section 8 housing communities served by Horton’s Kids, the impact of COVID-19 has been severe.

Horton’s Kids is an organization that helps children in Washington, DC, by providing academic support and social-emotional development opportunities and by helping meet children’s health and basic needs. Caroline Malone, Development and Volunteer Coordinator with Horton’s Kids, elaborates on just how difficult the pandemic has been for these communities: “The vast majority of households earn less than $10,000 a year. These communities are also food deserts. It takes 30 to 40 minutes to get to the closest grocery store using public transportation. Due to these circumstances, all children enrolled in Horton’s Kids programs are eligible for free and reduced lunch at school. Therefore, when schools closed in March, our participants lost access to their most reliable source of meals. As a result of this, Horton’s Kids saw requests for food double and provided 18,388 meals in 2020.”

For parents, the financial burden has been significant. Many of them saw their jobs vanish when service and hourly jobs shut down in March 2020. They did not have savings to fall back on while applying for unemployment benefits or waiting for a stimulus payment to arrive – if they qualified. According to Malone, “For the parents who have been fortunate to continue to work, their jobs put them on the front lines of the pandemic. This makes social distancing a challenge.”

In May 2020, Horton’s Kids created a Family Resilience Fund to provide personalized support to assist with the evolving needs of families as they continue to be impacted by the pandemic.

The JLW Horton’s Kids Committee that works with Horton’s Kids has gone virtual to continue to meet the needs of the kids they serve. Throughout the pandemic, the committee has met virtually with students to provide literacy and reading support and continues to build relationships with the students to offer informal mentoring opportunities. The committee has also continued to support Horton’s Kids through winter clothing drives and virtual holiday parties for Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.

“While we’ve all had to adapt to a virtual environment, JLW has stayed committed to providing both vital resources and mentoring opportunities to the families that Horton’s Kids serves,” says Malone. However, she adds that it has been “a challenge for families to get their children set up with adequate technology to manage online learning.”

Horton’s Kids provided tablets, computers, headphones, and WiFi-hotspots to each participant enrolled in its programs. At the beginning of the fall 2020 school year, Horton’s Kids’ academic staff offered training for parents on how to navigate the variety of distance learning platforms.

In October, Horton’s Kids launched a virtual learning academy, which offers daily tutoring, homework help, youth development, and literacy interventions for up to 200 participants in grades K-12.

Case management at Horton’s Kids has gone virtual as well. Staff members do weekly online check-ins with the families.

But all of the JLW Horton’s Kids Committee’s work hasn’t just been in the form of online assistance. When the Horton’s Kids families faced a pandemic-driven increased need for basic supplies and engaging activities for their kids, the committee responded by packing supply kits, meal kits, movie night kits, and other activity kits to distribute.

Though the pandemic hit hard, volunteers and organizations like Horton’s Kids and the JLW Horton’s Kids Committee fought back even harder and managed to find innovative ways to help the families they serve.

WHILE WE’VE ALL HAD TO ADAPT TO A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT, JLW HAS STAYED COMMITTED TO PROVIDING BOTH VITAL RESOURCES AND MENTORING OPPORTUNITIES TO THE FAMILIES THAT HORTON’S KIDS SERVES.