Community Impact Projects are one of the six tenants at the Wyakin Foundation. Every Wyakin Warrior selects a Community Impact Project to complete during their time in the program. The Community Impact Project is an essential piece of the program that can be done individually or within a group. The purpose is to help build project management skills and find the heart to serve again.
This summer has been busy for Wyakin Warriors since two community impact projects took place and positively impacted the Treasure Valley for kindergarten-aged children and Veterans rebuilding their lives.
Early in the summer, one of our Warriors partnered with the Boise HUD-VASH Program (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing). HUD-VASH is a program that provides rental assistance to homeless Veterans and their families, case management, and clinical services through the Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). To be eligible, you must be VAMC healthcare eligible and homeless, agree to the case management services, and only then may you be considered to be eligible to obtain and sustain independent housing in the community. Typically, veterans receiving case management services receive supportive services, treatment recommendations, and assistance needed to maintain housing in our communities successfully. These are vital for our veterans recovering from substance use disorder, have serious mental illness, or have physical disabilities. Learn more and apply for the HUD-VASH Program.
The Wyakin Warrior partnered with Amazon to collect household items that we don’t necessarily think twice about, from your basic cleaning supplies, hygiene products, and other miscellaneous items to be donated to Boise HUD-VASH. Because of the outpour of support, donations were also made to other service organizations in Boise and Nampa communities. These items were distributed to the Women’s and Children’s Alliance, Ukrainian Welcome Center, and SHIP Housing.
The most recent community impact project was collecting school supplies for the Nampa School District. This was the first year a group of Wyakin Warriors collected supplies for the Nampa School District in partnership with their Family and Community Resource Center based out of Snake River Elementary School. The Nampa School District has five separate resource centers that any of the schools in the district can utilize. These resource centers are based on five support pillars: Sustainable Access to Support, Family and Community Support, and Wellbeing and Development. Learn more about the Nampa School District’s Family and Community Resource Centers.
A group of four Warriors collected school supplies, attended community events to spread awareness, and donated the collected supplies to the Nampa School District Family and Community Resource Center. They partnered with Horizon Credit Union, Walgreens, Antlers Boutique, and the Nampa Chamber of Commerce. Horizon has been a partner of this Community Impact Project for the past two years! We’d like to send a special thank you to their continued support.
The items collected for the Nampa School District will and are significantly impacting the students in need. Although school supplies may seem small to others, a family may have to choose between getting their child the supplies needed for the school year or food for their families. Elia with the Family and Community Resource Center at Snake River Elementary School said that the supplies donated “would go a long way” with the students in the school district.
Would you or your company be interested in supporting future Community Impact Projects that Wyakin Warriors are doing? For sponsorship opportunities, contact Cory Rodriguez at cory.rodriguez@wyakin.org, and to learn how you can be a partner, contact Alice Pyle at alice.pyle@wyakin.org.