SUCCESSES:

• The Weaving Hope Program successfully recruited 186 potential participants
• Weaving Hope served 98 parents or 140% of the targeted 70 parents to be served.
• A total of 66 parents enrolled and participated in the food insecurity workshops
• 29 Weaving Hope Parents Program participants have successfully completed a minimum of 8 (8) monthly Food insecurity workshops

CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES:

Challenges

1. Due to COVID-19, many family members lost their jobs or were required to work less hours, which has led to financial instability. These financial pressures and barriers made it difficult for parents to prioritize and connect to the workshops, thus creating a lower number of parents that completed the total of 8 sessions, though 66 parents participated in the classes. The Langley park Zip Code for example had the highest number of Covid19 cases in Prince George’s County, creating additional burden for families.  While 66 parents were participating in the workshops consistently, due to the COVID-19 challenges mentioned above, not all parents were able to complete all 8 workshops.
2. Furthermore, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff moved programming to the virtual platform. Many parents and family members did not have access to digital devices or the internet. In addition, many families lost work and income due to the pandemic, many families were unable to secure stable housing, and often multiple families were sharing housing units and apartments. This created a challenge with regards to virtual learning as often families were sharing devices, had limited Wi-Fi, or did not have the room for a quiet space to connect to learning in the household.          

  Strategies to overcome these challenges:

1. To overcome this challenge on January 6, 2021, to support parents’ technology needs, LAYC partnered with Telemundo and Comcast to distribute laptops to 17 parents and families who live in the zip codes 20783 and 20737.

Out of the total 98 parents served in the Weaving Hope Program, 66 parents participated In the 8 (8) monthly Food Insecurity workshops.  Out of the 66 program participants of 8 (8) monthly Food Insecurity workshops parents, a total of 29 completed the 8 (8) monthly Food Insecurity workshops. As a result, the total 30% of the 29/98 parents completion is inaccurate, as it should be 44% of the sum of 29/66 program participants.