Housing Up ended its summer programming in style with 3 service days that included students from Howard and American University. On Friday, August 16^th, Howard University sent a group of volunteers that included members of the on-campus organization “Ladies of the Quad Social Club” aka LOQSC. LOQSC is one of the largest on-campus organizations at Howard University and member participates in weekly service throughout DC.

Howard volunteers participated in a morning info session on the issue of homelessness in DC and afterward walked down to our affordable housing site, Fort View Apartments, for an afternoon of grilled food and games with the building’s youth residents. The day concluded with an epic “boys vs. girls” tug of war match which ended in a lopsided victory for the ladies!

The fun at Fort View didn’t end there, the following week American University sent two groups of volunteers as part of their campus-wide “Explore DC” program. Explore DC gives incoming freshman a chance to learn about and serve with a nonprofit organization in the local DC area. On Wednesday, August 21^st, the first group of Explore DC students got a crash course in homelessness and how Housing Up is working to solve the challenges that revolve around family homelessness.

On Thursday the 22^nd, DC Explore volunteers returned to help the kids at Fort View end their summer in style by hosting the building’s annual “Back to School Bash”. The day included busting out the grill again and plenty of activities. We’d like to give a special thanks to both universities for sending incredible volunteer groups! It was definitely a highlight of the summer for every child at Fort View.

We’d like to thanks the students of Howard and American for their time, as well as the staff at Optoro for their support with our backpack drive. For anyone interested in volunteering either as a group or as an individual, please reach out to our Manager of Volunteer Coordinators, Dillon Ficca at [email protected].