Who we are:
Itscool2care supports creative compassionate youth who are looking for a way to make a difference today. Kids of all ages collaborate with adult volunteers and local businesses to facilitate their service projects. Problem solving and management skills are cultivated as the youth lead the project and event planning. Driven by their vision and desire to improve their environments, itscool2care kids inspire and connect their community in a variety of ways. To date itscool2care has supported the Houston Arboretum, Toys for Tots, End Hunger, Houston Area Women's Center, Trees for Houston, and has an ongoing collaboration with Friends for Life Animal Shelter and Sanctuary. We meet and provide workshops at Friends for Life Compassion in Action Center in their new facility on 19th street in the Houston Heights.
What we do:
Mission: Provide connections for area youth seeking community action.
Action: Facilitate 9 week sessions that focus on one non-profit organization that kids are passionate about. We start with a kick-off presentation and brainstorming meeting. Once kids learn about the non-profit’s mission, operations, and community needs, they form smaller groups interested in either awareness or fundraising projects. Kids team up with teen and adult mentors for project management, art, and marketing support. Adult and teen supporters meet with the groups on a regular basis until they are ready to present their awareness project or sell their goods and services to the public at the itscool2care booth at Discovery Green’s Market. Starting in August teams will schedule 2 to 4 hour shifts on the third Sunday of the month (noon-4p). After they have completed their project and presented it at the market, they create a summary sheet to describe the process and provide insight about benefits and lessons learned to be shared with other kids via the itscool2care website. The same structure is used to support Scout troops and other youth groups that wish to work for organizations. For these groups, we facilitate the initial meeting and provide the market booth space, the group’s leaders facilitate the intermediate workshops and meetings.
How to support: donate supplies, sponsor youth projects, market the projects, be a mentor, introduce us to a non-profit organization, visit the Discovery Green Market booth.
Our Supporters:
We’ve been able to achieve so much thanks to the Heights area businesses Hello Lucky, Young at Art, Blueline Bike Lab, Antidote, and Sew Crafty. They’ve collected donations and let us use their spaces over the last year for various events and meetings. We’ve also had business sponsors for our Tree Sale and Dogapoolooza events, The Morgan Group, Pink’s Pizza, Sugarbaby’s, Scoop LePoop, The Dog Walker, Blue Dog coffee, Cammie’s Handmade Soaps, and KCS Printing. All other events have been funded by individual supporters and sales of the Power of Love Hendrix t-shirt and “Love is greater than money” t-shirt sales. Our individual supporters have made a lot happen with their donations;
Mike Morgan, Marlene Shepherd, Lainie Harris, Salise Shuttlesworth, Maria Nelson, Debra Garcia, Anne Wittman, Apple Comunale, and Nicole Lux. Thanks for all you do!