Backpacks for Overbrook Youth
Donation protected
The Overbrook Community Association’s (OCA) Safety Committee and Prezdential Basketball are launching a campaign to provide 300 Overbrook youth in need with free backpacks, filled with school supplies, a reusable mask and a brand-new tee shirt, just in time for back-to-school. These backpacks will help our youth start the school-year with pride and a sense of community belonging. With evidence that economically and socially diverse neighbourhoods like ours have been most affected by COVID-19 and its fall out, it is more important than ever to help each other and bridge social isolation. Backpacks for Overbrook Youth is the first of several small fundraisers by the OCA'S Safety Committee that will support volunteer-run neighbourhood-building initiatives in our community.
As Manock Lual, Chair of OCA’s Safety Committee and founder and CEO of Prezdential Basketball says, "Ensuring [the youth in our community] have the resources they need to succeed and be healthy is at the heart of the crime prevention model of the Safety Committee.” Expressions of caring by the community will help build trust and safe spaces in Overbrook, a neighbourhood where 43% of children aged 0 to 17 were living in low income households in 2015 (Statistics Canada).
Can you help with a donation or by spreading the word?
Your financial donation will be used to purchase items that we have been unable to source through RRCRC or retailers. No amount is too small. Any excess funds will be used to support other OCA-Prezdential Basketball activities for Overbrook youth. Donations of school supplies are also welcome – please reach out at [email redacted]
The backpacks will be assembled by OCA and the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (RRCRC) and presented to the recipients at a socially-distant event or dropped off at their doors.
Who are we:
Prezdential Basketball is a social enterprise that is dedicated to supporting disadvantaged youths in Ottawa.
The Overbrook Community Association (OCA) is a volunteer-led organisation which aims to bring together residents of Overbrook and Castle Heights to engage and represent them in “Co-creating a vibrant, caring community in which our environment and everyone in it matters” (OCA Vision). Led by residents, OCA’s Safety Committee takes an asset-based approach to enable and support residents and partners to work together for a safe and welcoming neighbourhood."
As Manock Lual, Chair of OCA’s Safety Committee and founder and CEO of Prezdential Basketball says, "Ensuring [the youth in our community] have the resources they need to succeed and be healthy is at the heart of the crime prevention model of the Safety Committee.” Expressions of caring by the community will help build trust and safe spaces in Overbrook, a neighbourhood where 43% of children aged 0 to 17 were living in low income households in 2015 (Statistics Canada).
Can you help with a donation or by spreading the word?
Your financial donation will be used to purchase items that we have been unable to source through RRCRC or retailers. No amount is too small. Any excess funds will be used to support other OCA-Prezdential Basketball activities for Overbrook youth. Donations of school supplies are also welcome – please reach out at [email redacted]
The backpacks will be assembled by OCA and the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (RRCRC) and presented to the recipients at a socially-distant event or dropped off at their doors.
Who are we:
Prezdential Basketball is a social enterprise that is dedicated to supporting disadvantaged youths in Ottawa.
The Overbrook Community Association (OCA) is a volunteer-led organisation which aims to bring together residents of Overbrook and Castle Heights to engage and represent them in “Co-creating a vibrant, caring community in which our environment and everyone in it matters” (OCA Vision). Led by residents, OCA’s Safety Committee takes an asset-based approach to enable and support residents and partners to work together for a safe and welcoming neighbourhood."
Organizer
Overbrook Community Association
Organizer
Ottawa, ON