Mighty Writers After-School Program Altering Mission In Order To Help Philadelphia Families Impacted By Pandemic
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Philadelphia after-school program is finding new ways to offer its services during the pandemic. The Mighty Writers are also giving young minds an important outlet to express themselves during this challenging time.
While we all have been getting creative to thrive during this time for our livelihoods and our families, many nonprofits have been doing the same by broadening their mission beyond their original intention.
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The Might Writers is a great example. It's a Philadelphia after-school program that offers free reading and writing classes to over 3,500 African American and Latina children in the inner-city of Philadelphia and surrounding areas.
They've not only taken their writing classes online and on foot through writing packets and handouts, but as founder Tim Whitaker explains, they've been trying to take the burden of hunger and daily essentials off the plates of families as well.
"The big transition we made, we saw the parents working in the service industry, they were laid off immediately," Whitaker said. "So we began giving out lunches at a couple of locations for the kids. That grew into lunch and groceries, then grew into lunch, groceries and diapers. So now it's becoming a big operation."
Whitaker also says this disruption has altered the way kids have been writing, they're more enthusiastic and self-motivated.
"It typically comes in poetry. Poetry is really where they're expressing themselves, they're talking about the noise around them and you can tell it's revealing some of the stress that their feeling by putting it down on paper," Whitaker said.
It's a stressful time for everyone so it's good to be reminded that writing is a free form of relief. Even alone, we're all in this together.
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