The Gala also celebrated Omega CDC’s most recent success in expanding services across 17 neighborhoods in northwest Dayton. This success comes thanks to the U.S. Department of Education grant for the ‘Hope Zone’ Promise Neighborhood. The Promise Neighborhood dollars, the first awarded in the State of Ohio, will enable Omega CDC to scale their cradle-to-career work to reach more children and families. Because the restrictions of the grant leave gaps in funding to ensure support for every Hope Zone child’s cradle-to-career Journey, the organization is also hoping to raise an additional $1.6 million.
The overall goal, says Vanessa Ward, president of Omega CDC, is to help reduce poverty that persists from one generation to the next. “Intergenerational poverty disproportionately impacts minorities and poor communities facing system-wide barriers that often trap them in poverty for multiple generations,” she explains. From collaborations with partners who join in the place-based work, Omega CDC is delivering literacy-focused educational programs, individualized student success planning navigation, and wrap-around services that touch expecting moms, infants, preschoolers, k-12 students, parents, and residents throughout the 17 ‘Hope Zone’ Promise Neighborhoods.
“The work of mitigating poverty and inspiring hope in the lives of children and families who have faced so many disappointments can be hard, slow and disconcerting, at times, but at the Gala the theme was ‘Hope Lives Here’ and the message spoken from the invocation to the keynote address, was ‘Don’t Quit!’,” says Ward. “We must not quit believing that the place-based work we are doing through the Hope Zone Promise Neighborhood initiative in northwest Dayton, will succeed and that children and families will achieve and thrive. I could not be more encouraged by the response of our partners, stakeholders and the nearly 500 attendees at the event.”
Another important Omega CDC project:
Each week during the school year, Omega CDC also offers a Scholars of H.O.P.E. after school program at Fairview Elementary and Edwin Joel Brown Middle Schools. “With a dedicated staff of certified teachers, part-time lead and support teachers, and volunteers, we partner with Dayton Cooks to provide a hot meal each day, and a strong academic and enrichment program,” says Ward. “Enhancements to the program, such as planned field trips, and mid-year replacement of worn uniforms, hats, scarves, gloves, coats, socks, and underwear, are not funded but are greatly needed by many of the children.”
Here’s a list of items that are needed at the Hope Center and the after-school program:
- Diapers and wipes
- Nonperishable food items for emergency food supplies
- $25 - $100 gift cards (Visa, MasterCard, stores, restaurants, gas)
- Monthly/weekly/single-use bus passes
- Snacks (non-peanut) for the afterschool program
- Donations for field trip transportation for afterschool programs
- New books for students
- New School Uniforms - all sizes
- New hats, scarves, gloves, coats, socks, and underwear
- Gift cards for teachers
- Breakfast for teachers or parents/caregivers
Donations can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday – Friday. You’re asked to call 937-723-8254 to drop off items at the Hope Center for Families,1816 Harvard Blvd., Dayton, OH 45406.
To support this Journey of Hope, please go to omega-cdc.org.
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Meredith Moss writes about Dayton-area nonprofit organizations and their specific needs. If your group has a wish list it would like to share with our readers, contact Meredith: meredith.moss@coxinc.com.
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