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Charlotte 2021 Back to School
Due to COVID-19, masks are required at CMS and adults are encouraged to get vaccinated. There’s also a push among educators ad parents to catch up students who lost academic progress during the pandemic.
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A school-age boy living in a group home without his parents could use some new jeans. A teen mom, set to graduate in 2023, needs a cooler for her breast milk so when she’s in class she can pump, providing food for her newborn child.
A homeless family needs money for school uniforms.
From clothes to bars of soap to air mattresses — the pandemic has exacerbated the needs of thousands of students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and the district is working to get more of those needs met.
CMS is establishing a point of contact for all 180 of its schools to broaden support of Purposity, a not-for-profit app that connects the physical needs of students with community members who want to help.
“If students are worried about not having enough clothes or adequate shoes to wear to school or if they had to sleep on the floor the night before and are tired, it will be difficult for them to effectively engage in learning,” said Michele King, CMS’ director of student wellness and academic support.
“This tool allows neighbors to help out fellow neighbors through low cost donations that can make a huge difference in how children feel about themselves.”
To contribute, download from your phone or tablet’s app store Purposity. Search for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools under organizations, and you can browse current needs and select the type or dollar amount of a need you can meet for a child. All listings are for monetary donations, not directly giving supplies or items. Many of the needs in the app this week for CMS ranged from $20 to $50.
CMS has been using Purposity for three years. It initially launched with social workers at 10 schools submitting needs to the app. School officials vet the information from students or guardians before listing the request for donations.
King said more than 1,800 needs have been met since that first year, for a total of about $45,000. Now, officials will build on the more than 70 employees trained to utilize Purposity “so our expectation is that this will grow significantly due to the generous nature of the Charlotte community,” King said.
“I work to erase the impact of various barriers students encounter from their community,” said Candice Brown, a school social worker at Cochrane Collegiate Academy in East Charlotte.
“Once I encounter a need, I work with the student and family to overcome that need. The Purposity App has provided me with the opportunity to meet the needs of more families by soliciting the support of the community in a streamlined and confidential way.”
Taking care of the ‘whole child’
For this school year, which began Aug. 25, about 36%, or 51,000 of CMS students come from homes where money is extremely tight — a designation the district refers to as low socioeconomic status (SES).
But the range of low SES students at any given school can go from as low as less than 1% all the way to 99% of the student population.
“So the need for basic items for some students can be quite high,” King said. “Some families struggle with housing challenges or experience a crisis like a house fire and need basic household goods like dishes or an air mattress to sleep on.”
Nationally, Purposity serves more than 1,200 school districts and nonprofits organizations. More than 60% of Purposity’s support goes to economically-disadvantaged students and families, with another 20% supporting students impacted by homelessness or living in foster care.
“We have definitely seen dramatic growth over the pandemic as Purposity has proven to be a unique way for people to directly help their neighbors in need,” said Blake Canterbury, the 37-year-old founder and CEO of Purposity. “People wanted to continue to help and have turned to the app to help fill needs. COVID essentially has proven our model.”
Canterbury said his app and those who use it are helping take care of the “whole child.”
“Research shows that if you have two kids sitting in the classroom side by side, and one is worried about food and shoes, he/she is not going to perform as well in school,” he said. “It is proven that if they are not getting their basic needs met, they are not going to get the same education as the kid sitting right beside them. So, Purposity is leveling the economic playing field for underprivileged students.”
Courtney Hawkins, a McKinney-Vento social worker, said the app has made her job easier.
“For example, in the past if a student or a family needed shoes, a social worker may have a shoe drive, or you may have a local church that will host a drive and you can get upward of 50 pairs of shoes only to find out that the size you needed isn’t in the donation,” Hawkins said.
“Purposity eliminates that problem. The app has also allowed the community to give back to our students in need at their own pace and within their own budget.”
Although donors won’t know the family or student they helped, Hawkins said, “They know their kindness went to someone in need and is not just collecting dust somewhere waiting to be given out.”
