‘Champions and advocates’: Volunteer employees help homeless kids get a fresh start at school

Johnson & Johnson MedTech employees stepped away from their usual duties on Thursday, Aug. 8, to sort shampoo and toothpaste and decorate care packages. As volunteers for Project Hope Alliance, the employees assembled hygiene kits for children in need heading back to school.

“Getting this help from Johnson & Johnson MedTech allows for us to do our next part, � said Jennifer Friend, chief executive officer at Project Hope Alliance.

Volunteers listen to project instructions next a hundred bottles of hair product during the Johnson & Johnson MedTech annual Week of Caring.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Each year since 2021, Irvine-based Johnson & Johnson MedTech employees participate in a Week of Caring.

“We started ‘week of caring’ as a way for all of our Johnson & Johnson MedTech employees to go out and make a difference in the local community,� said Kimberly Graves, senior manager of global employee engagement at Johnson & Johnson MedTech. “We do events through the year where employees go out, but this is the one thing that everybody looks forward to, and it really makes a difference for our neighbors and those that are in our own backyard.�

This year through a partnership with Project Hope Alliance, the employees helped the organization assemble 350 hygiene kits, which will go out to some of the nearly 400 students experiencing homelessness in Orange County.

Founded in 1989 by a schoolteacher who wanted to create a way to reach local homeless children, Project Hope Alliance has grown into a county-run school that helps unhoused children transition into the mainstream educational system.

“Our work is focused on disrupting the generational cycle of homelessness,� said Friend. “The way that we do that is to support kids kindergarten to age 24 through our education system to ensure that they have the educational foundation and social, emotional and mental health that will allow for them to not experience homelessness as an adult.�

Friend said support from a company like Johnson & Johnson MedTech can really help the small organization increase their reach.

“When we get a corporate commitment from a company like Johnson & Johnson MedTech, it raises our level of visibility through out our county,� said Friend. “And we need more champions and advocates for our kids because they have been invisible for far too long.�

Volunteers fill hygiene kit boxes at the company headquarters in Irvine.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

When kids are preparing to head back to school, they don’t just need school supplies like notebooks and backpacks. Friend notes that while such supplies are important, some students might also need something as basic as a new toothbrush.

“One of the things that our students need is just the ability to show up having brushed their teeth, put on deodorant and washed their face and fixed their hair so that they can show up as their best selves,� said Friend.

Not having access to toiletries and hygiene products can be a barrier of participation for some students.

“When we look at research around why students experiencing homelessness are not showing up in the classroom, often times it is surround by things like ‘my clothes aren’t clean’ or ‘I am afraid I smell,’� said Friend.

Besides the full-sized toiletry items, J&J MedTech employees also wrote personal notes of encouragement to include in each box marked with a J&J MedTech sticker.

“These kits that are being put together with intentionality and love by Johnson & Johnson MedTech are going to help our kids show up prepared for the first day of school and feel good about themselves,� said Friend.

Volunteers draw cartoons on hygiene kit boxes during the Johnson & Johnson MedTech annual Week of Caring.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The Johnson & Johnson MedTech team spent the week of Aug. 5 out in the community volunteering at some of the area’s most impactful nonprofit organizations. Besides working with Project Hope Alliance, some employees volunteered to make STEAM education kits with Dreams for Schools, some donated blood to the Red Cross, and some packed Hope kits for the National Breast Cancer Foundation to ship to patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Some even spent three days at Second Harvest Food Bank, at both the distribution center and the organization’s farm.

“Tomorrow is our last day, we have beach cleanup down in Newport Beach,� said Graves.

As the group closed out the week, loading their finished hygiene kits onto a cart to be delivered to Project Hope Alliance for distribution, Graves said she would like to see the annual Week of Caring event spread outside Irvine’s borders.

“We want to continue to grow as much as we can here,� said Graves. “But the goal for us would be for this to grow beyond Irvine. We would love to have everybody do some of the Week of Caring at all of our major global sites. We are a global company, and we touch patients around the world, which also means we have a responsibility to the communities around the world.�