Homeless Bag Project returning
Stepfanie Armstrong is on her way to making her passion project an official nonprofit, having initially started the Homeless Bag Project in her car in 2016.
After filling about 125 bags with bulky clothing items, toiletries and light snacks last year at the Butler Slippery Rock University Center for Community Engagement, Empowerment and Development (SUCCEED), Armstrong is teaming up with the Butler YWCA this year to try to surpass that goal.
“If we can get 150 or more bags filled I would be ecstatic,” said Armstrong, coordinator of the Homeless Bag Project. “I know it might be a bit of a reach, but aim high.”
The Homeless Bag Project collection drive will take place from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday, April 22, at the Butler YWCA, 120 W. Cunningham St., where Armstrong and other volunteers will collect and bag donated items.
Armstrong said SUCCEED administrators helped connect her with officials from the YWCA, seeing that it could be a better place to not only store donated items, but distribute them as well.
Additionally, Alice Delvecchio, director of SRU’s Institute for Nonprofit Leadership, said connecting people who have good ideas to people or groups that can support them is SUCCEED’s mission.
“We find someone who has a need, find someone who can fill that need, and then we just support from behind the scenes instead of being on the ground,” Del Vecchio said. “Our role is to help people who have good ideas make them alive and sustainable.”
According to Del Vecchio, SUCCEED is still supporting Armstrong and the Homeless Bag Project, but in a more behind-the-scenes role this year, since the YWCA stepped up as a place to store the items.
“SUCCEED put together the flyer,” Del Vecchio said. “Josette (Skobieranda Dau, SUCCEED administrator), has posted it on RockServe and is encouraging students to sign up to help.”
After the donation drive, Armstrong and the YWCA will each distribute the collected items to people in need. The YWCA already has storage space and a direct line to clients who may need items, so Armstrong plans to spread them throughout the community.
“I'd like to hit the community meals coming up, and hopefully work with churches that work with community meals,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong also said she plans to distribute items to veterans in need with help from the National Guard, which she has personal and professional connections with. She also said clothing-wise, the drive is seeking size large and up for shirts, and larger sizes of pants in order to fill the most community need.
Seeing that the program has already grown in the year since it partnered with SUCCEED, Armstrong said she hopes to see it help more people as she reaches for nonprofit status.
“We just continue to grow making more community connections and serve more people,” Armstrong said. “I'm hoping that by the summer we will be officially a nonprofit.”
For more information about the Homeless Bag Project, email ButlerHBP@gmail.com. Armstrong said people who cannot donate on the day of the drive can contact her at the Homeless Bag Project email, or contact the YWCA.
