COVID-19 Impact on Adopt A Class
Adopt A Class connects businesses and civic groups, as mentors, with students in schools with high percentages of poverty. Serving students Pre-K through 8th grade, our program exposes students to a breadth of experiences and careers, while sparking a culture of teamwork among our mentors. COVID-19 has had a tremendous impact on our program- with school closures & organizations implementing work-from-home protocols- mentoring visits for the month of March have ceased. This impact means over 6,000 students did not experience mentoring visits or educational field trips for the month of March. In addition, over 2,600 volunteers from 252 adopting organizations were not able to enter into the classroom to mentor students on college & career, STEM, and life skills. Typically, volunteers bring over $100 in resources per mentoring visit into the classroom (in school supplies, basic health & nutrition items, activities, and field trips)- collectively, this is a significant loss for our community for one month alone. If school does not resume for the month of April & May, over 6,000 students will miss out on more than 500 hours of mentorship & over $50,000 of resources that would have otherwise entered the classroom. In the meantime, Adopt A Class is calling on our volunteers to serve our community in other ways. We continue to share volunteer & donation opportunities on our website, providing updated information on new giving opportunities as we learn about them.