The Register - Harrison, Ohio launches neighborhood bridges
Neighborhood Bridges helping to meet student’s needs
December 16, 2024
NewsHarrison resident Melanie Moore is the volunteer area director of Neighborhood Bridges working with Southwest Local School District to address needs of students. Submitted Photo by Melanie Moore
HARRISON – The Southwest schools have partnered with a non-profit to help meet the needs of its students.
Neighborhood Bridges, led by CEO Rick Bannister, launched in the Southwest Local School District in October, its 55th Gateway for Kindness program. The gateway serves 31 other school districts in Ohio.
The needs of some of the schools’ students are many. According to the district’s director of pupil services Kiersten Rogers, 40% percent of the students live in poverty.
Sometimes the students need the basics of food, shelter, clothing and transportation.
The gateway program has teams of counselors, teachers, social workers and administrators working with Neighborhood Bridges to meet the needs for at-risk and underprivileged students.
“We also work with mental health agencies, churches and other service organizations to advocate for those in need,” Bannister said.
In the short time the program has been helping, it has received positive comments from community members who have contributed.
School staff have identified 79 students from all five of the district’s schools to help. In addition, nine students’ needs have been met. In one instance, community members have donated money for caps and gowns to students who could not afford them.
According to a press release, advocates for the students post the student’s needs on a secure website that maintains the students’ anonymity. Neighborhood Bridges shares those needs with subscribers and followers through daily emails and social media posts engaging community members to fulfill them.
Typical needs include food, clothing, shoes, coats, eye exams, school supplies, school fees, furniture, household items and monetary donations for household expenses.
“In preparing for this launch, the efforts of local school and community leaders demonstrate that kindness has momentum,” Bannister said. “Our partnership will directly impact students and families in need in the spirit of neighbors helping neighbors.”
The program’s goal is to ensure every district student has the basic resources they need to attend school.
The following community members are participating on a steering committee: Rogers; Samantha Cox, family support specialist for the school district; Harrison Mayor Ryan Grubbs; Harrison City Council members Patty VanCleve and Jean Wilson, who also represents Benson Post 199 of the American Legion; Mark Phillips of Christ’s Loving Hands; John Calabrese of Lifespring Community Church; Roseanne Moore of Church on Fire; Jereca Humphries of Whitewater Life Center; Sue Borgemenke of Borg’s Pet Fencing; Rae Eyer of Healthy ZZZ’s Sit and Sleep; and Lisa Pfaffl, dispatcher for Harrison Police.
Neighborhood Bridges volunteer Area Director Melanie Moore, a Harrison resident, conducts the group’s steering committee meetings. She saw the program in the Fairfield, Ohio, school district. She contacted Bannister to start it here.
She chose Harrison because it is a tight-knit community. “People would come to fulfill a need,” she said.
Bannister created and launched Neighborhood Bridges on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2017 to serve the most at-risk students of Westerville, Ohio, city schools.
“Over the past seven years, Neighborhood Bridges has expanded its service area to cover more than 100,000 square miles and 57 school district communities. Our communities have driven over $9 million in donations that has directly impacted more than 445,000 students,” according to information provided by Bannister.
Community members and businesses can follow the needs of the students by subscribing at https://neighborhoodbridges.org/community/harrison-oh, or following on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/neighborhoodbridgesHarrison/.
