Living Well Foundation funds activity kits and special programming

When COVID-19 initially hit in March 2020, the staff at the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Louisiana were left scrambling to find ways to serve its members even when it couldn’t open the doors to its multiple Clubs across the I-20 corridor.

The Living Well Foundation helped to fill that void by providing funding for activity kits and special programming from a special grant by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation.

A total of 637 young people were unable to receive their daily Club experience. Quarantine led to critical issues facing our youth like learning loss, child abuse and neglect, mental health and emotional issues and hunger and food insecurity.

Through the Living Well funding, we were able to provide activity kits to reduce learning loss to 160 children and connected our teens to virtual programming.

The funds also helped staff to stay on the job to conduct wellness checks with our members to address mental health and other issues they faced from isolation.

“The funding came at a much-needed time in addressing this unforeseen COVID event and its impact on our youth,” said Eldonta Osborne, Chief Executive Officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Louisiana. “We cannot thank Living Well enough for helping us serve our kids when they needed us most.”