Article and photos by Urban Alliance staff.
With a heart for the staggering number of people in Hartford who are facing obstacles to secure the most basic needs of food, clothing and housing, Lydia McClain was inspired to help ease those barriers by creating care packages.
Backed by Thrivent Financial's Action Team Project support, she was able to bring a team together, and reached out to Urban Alliance to ensure her project would make an impact.
"I was connected to Urban Alliance via an online search for local volunteer opportunities," she explained. "I attended a volunteer orientation to learn more and discovered that Urban Alliance supports individual projects like the one we had in mind."
That support came in the form of helping Lydia connect to the resources, people, and places that would maximize her project's impact.
Thanks to donations from Thrivent, an online Everyday Hero campaign, family and friends, and World Vision (who provided insulated lunch bags to put the supplies in), Lydia and her crew were able to purchase enough hygiene products and snacks to assemble more than 90 care packages.
"Urban Alliance was incredibly supportive, organized, and connected us with all the right people to make our project a success," said McClain.
After assembling their "bags of blessings," the group set out to distribute them with Church Army USA's Soup and Socks outreach that takes place every Saturday in Bushnell Park.
"We were blown away by the number of people we were able to serve," she shared.
Thank you Lydia and friends for making a difference in the lives of our neighbors in Hartford!
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