Anna’s Place Kids Need You! #GiveNOLA

Donate online from May 5 – June 2 2020

Continuity, emotional support, enrichment – that’s Anna’s Place NOLA.  Boys and girls, age 5-18, need the opportunity for academic enhancement, arts exposure, workforce readiness, social and life skills. Delivered by caring staff and served with a healthy meal, Anna’s Place is unique in providing transportation to and from our programs to make regular participation easy.

And we are making a difference.  Anna’s Place assessment results show an average 30% improvement in reading skills, and up to 75% improvement in STEM subjects.

With 95% of the families in our program living at or below the poverty level, our students suffer academically and emotionally more than young people should. Coming from disadvantaged homes, their families cannot afford to pay for out-of-school time programs like ours. Your generosity makes it possible for the children who need it most to get the support they deserve from Anna’s Place.

Our 2020 #GiveNOLA goal is $20,000.  We hope you will take advantage of this year’s extended donation time period — May 5th and June 2nd — to make your online donation at #GiveNOLA.

GiveNOLA, an initiative of the Greater New Orleans Foundation to support local causes. All donations are tax deductible.

Give Our Kids the Gift of a Great Summer

This year’s summer camp is more important than ever before. We will make sure our kids have a great summer — whether camp is face-to-face or virtual.  We’re extending camp – Artscape 2020 — to five weeks this summer to help our campers keep up academically and to provide a safe place to talk about their experiences and concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. This year there will be an increased academic focus without sacrificing the fun aspects of camp like music, dance and visual art.

Fifty young people, age 5-18, will attend our camp again this year. Most attend our out-of-school time program during the school year. All are from very low income families and most live in poverty. The cost per camper of $300 per week is provided by scholarships from generous donors.

Planned dates of camp are June 8th – 26th (3 weeks) and July 6th – 17th (2 weeks). Registration will be opening soon. Anyone wishing to volunteer should contact Brianna at (504) 947-2121 or annaplace@stannanola.org.

COVID-19 Response

The viral outbreak that has changed our lives may have closed the physical doors to our youth programs but the needs of our children did not disappear – and in most cases they increased. We were determined to be there for our young people.  On April 1^st we went live with a remote program to support their needs – and to give us a chance to check on their emotional wellbeing as well. Laptops and iPads were loaned to our children for both their school work and for our program. Using video technology, we began reading sessions, homework help, business club classes and music lessons 4-5 days a week.

We continue to provide food to our students and have extended it to their families through monthly non-perishable food. Twice a week we supply our families with sandwiches and hot meals through collaboration with New Orleans Councilmember Kristin Palmer, Silk Road Restaurant and Ron’s Gumbo Shop.

As the city reopens we will return to face-to-face programming, always keeping the safety and health of our entire community in mind.