“Creating a brighter, healthier future for those in need!” This is what the Penny Pack aims to do for homeless youth in Toronto.
In February, Grade 7 student Mick was chosen to be part of Future Design School’s (FDS) Young Leaders team. FDS aims to empower students, leaders and educators with the skill-sets they need to be future-ready. FDS supports future-ready skill development through project based learning and deep inquiry.
As part of the FDS Young Leaders team, Mick was tasked to learn about, and create a solution to help alleviate a problem facing homeless youth in Toronto. After further research, Mick realized that these youth experienced a lack of access to hygiene care products. “I realized that many people didn’t really understand the importance of personal hygiene since it’s something we can access so easily. But, for the homeless, it is much harder,” she shares. From this she created the Penny Pack.
The Penny Pack is a hygiene care package that can be distributed to homeless youth in Toronto. Items in the Penny Pack include: toothbrush, toothpaste and floss, shampoo, hat and socks, wet wipes, deodorant, bandaids and lip balm. All of these items are in a light-weight, easy to carry, drawstring bag labelled with Mick’s Penny Pack logo.
To date, with the help of her classmates, family, friends and GoFundMe page, Mick has raised $4,065 for the initiative and assembled 400 Penny Packs to be distributed. With the help of FDS she delivered these bags to Seeds of Hope in Toronto. Congratulations Mick!
To keep up to date on this project with the FDS Young Leaders team follow her Instagram account at penny_pack.care