AT&T supports homeless students in Contra Costa County through a new WPE Initiative

AT&T employees, friends & family recently participated in an online drive designed to be an easy way for corporate and community groups to directly support our varied 70+ recipient partner organizations throughout Contra Costa County with items they need.

The AT&T team who came together for the backpack drive benefitting the Mount Diablo School District

Because of the generosity and enthusiasm of AT&T, White Pony Express will be able to supply backpacks and almost 3,000 school supplies for more than 200 homeless students within the Mount Diablo School District who have started the school year without the fundamental tools to do their work.

AT&T employees created a team drive, that helped them exceed their goal 200 Backpacks filled with needed supplies, with a donation valued at $5400 for 9 classrooms of homeless students in the Mount Diablo Unified School District.

AT&T volunteers happily packing supplies into backpacks

This wonderful team of AT&T employees, friends and family gathered to learn more about the need and impact we're making, as well as assemble the backpack kits. They learned this staggering fact:

Homeless students are at high risk of failure in education as they transfer schools more often, are more likely to miss school, have lower standardized test scores, and are 87% more likely to drop out of school than their peers.

An AT&T volunteer writing a note of encouragement. These notes handwritten by the volunteers themselves went into each carefully packed backpack

The Mt. Diablo Unified School District is committed to making sure that all students arrive at school ready and able to learn. MDUSD established the Homeless Outreach Program for Education (HOPE) to provide educational and related services for homeless students in preschool – 12th grade. HOPE helps to provide meals for students, transportation to school if needed, and referrals to resources in the community.

White Pony Express hopes to benefit even more schools and poor, homeless and marginally housed students in East Contra Costa County where we’ve recently launched 4 new school food pantries.

Want to join our Online Drive initiative? Through our partnership with the Sydney Paige Foundation, you can purchase these items online.

Learn more about how you can help here: https://www.whiteponyexpress.org/donate-toys-books-clothes-shoes or reach Volunteer@whiteponyexpress.org for more information.

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