Can a city become safer in the span of a single generation? REACH Edmonton, a Council for Safer Communities works tirelessly to prove that such bold goals can be achieved. They are a backbone agency tasked with providing funding resources and operating infrastructure for community-based programs and initiatives across Edmonton, which aim to prevent crime and make their communities safer. A vision of a safe Edmonton fostered by REACH is attained through specific aims to:
- Heighten the efficiency of current social programs and funding streams to better integrate programs.
- Find and fill any service gaps in the current system.
- Engage citizens in developing solutions.
At the start of the pandemic REACH generously offered ERA their surplus equipment for re-homing in ERA’s new Lending Laptops program. As the lasting effects of the Covid19 crisis became increasingly apparent in our daily lives, so emerged additional demands as we adjusted our routines to the ‘’new normal’’.
With more resources gradually moving online as social distancing protocols, personal technology became a necessity to stay included in mainstay functions of normal life, especially with so many students switching to online school.
REACH recognized the growing need for digital access as well as the technological inequality within the communities they serve and let us know about ten newcomer and refugee families they work with which are in need of laptops to use at home.
ERA made two devices available for distribution, leaving 8 devices that we aim to have ready by Christmas. This is what Kelly Holland, Community Engagement Manager, and a person instrumental in this collaboration had to say:
‘’I just wanted to relay to you how happy the two families that received the laptops you donated are. Ali reported to the whole REACH Team this morning at our regular Monday meeting the kind act from you all at ERA and the gratitude from the families that received the laptops. We have an urgent need for additional 8 laptops for this community. I am hoping and praying that we are able to get them before Christmas.’’
A number of initiatives and programs are implemented by REACH in collaboration with organizations ranging from youth and afterschool programs, 24/7 Crisis Diversion, to indigenous and multicultural community engagement. To learn about the full scope of their work, visit their website here .
If you have an older laptop that could help us in refurbishing and redeploying the remaining 8 laptops with Edmontonian families in need, fill out the form here, or contact us by phone on one of the following numbers: Toll Free 1 877-9-EWASTE (392783) or 780 455 2088
