A snapshot of our current programs

At Millwood Impact, we address unmet essential needs for the health and well-being of kids and families in the Millwood and West Valley neighborhoods. We accomplish this goal through a variety of programs that address a variety of needs. We are so grateful for all the community support and we are eager to grow! In this post and the next post, I hope to communicate how we can make an even greater impact in this community.

STAR Club: 

At the moment , we have 15 volunteers and all of those volunteers serve at STAR club. We see STAR club as a great example of the level of involvement we want to have in this community. Counselors, teachers and administrators from Orchard Center selected 18, 3rd - 5th grade students to attend STAR club. At the moment we have art, sewing, STEAM kits, and cooking stations, but as we grow to have more students at STAR club, we will add new stations, such as gardening wood working, music or community service and yoga. We are in communication with teachers, if a student needs extra academic support and we have volunteers available, to offer academic tutoring.

Meal distribution and food security: 

Every other Thursday we deliver from scratch made meals to community members that need them. These are designed to be temporary support for families that are going through difficult times and the hope is that through this, we could become more aware of their life circumstances and find other ways to support them. We also partnered with West Valley High School, Millwood Community Presbyterian Church and other churches to do a snack drive to provide food for students at Ness, Seth Woodard, Pasadena and Orchard Center Elementary Schools. Additionally, we regularly fill the little free pantry outside of the Millwood Community Center and bring fresh produce for those in need.

Partnership with the school:

We are in constant communication with the counselors and administrators at several schools in the West Valley School District. Those administrators let us know if there are any unmet needs for families in the schools. In the past, we have helped families get access to practical needs such as helping one family get a microwave, we helped another family get a new hot water heater and we have helped numerous other families with referrals to partner agencies. Really, if there is a practical need that we learn about, we do our best to meet that need or refer the family to another agency.

In our next post, we are going to explain our plans for expansion in the fall, what specific needs we need to fill and how you might factor into that plan!