Giving (Now) Tuesday 2020

As a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization in Perry County, Alabama, CHOICE has been working with local leaders and community volunteers to support the needs of the families and individual seniors within our community. Our direct focus has been distributing food to families and seniors, providing personal protection equipment to essential workers, networking to bring COVID-19 testing to Uniontown and equipping students with access to literacy and technical resources.

In the last weeks, we have organized the following efforts to ensure that the community has access a blend of charitable and educational resources to meet their immediate needs.

1. Bagged Lunches: From March 18 to March 27, 2020, we provided free bagged lunches to over 800 community youth.
   
   
2. Food Box Distribution. Beginning April, we partnered with agencies of the Montgomery and Selma Food Bank to distribute food boxes that contains at least 3 complete meals, condiments and snacks on biweekly bases. On average, we are serving almost 600 households monthly.
   
   
3. Virtual A.C.C.E.S.S. Beginning March 17, we resumed our afterschool program using ZOOM. The participant receives a weekly packet that focus on academics, career, consumer, exploration and social support.  
   
   
4. Community Internet. Due to the lack of stable internet service and the local school requirement for the students to complete assignments and communicate with their teachers electronically, we opened our internet access to the public via drive in method. While Perry County Schools is offering instructional packets for students without internet access, many parents want to ensure their child’s learning experience doesn’t change too drastically due to the results of COVID-19. We have also contributed a monetary donation to Perry County School so that they can successfully add cradle points to school buses.
   
   
5. COVID19 Testing. In partnership with local medical providers and community volunteers, approximately 145 COVID19 tests has been administered. C.H.O.I.C.E. covered the co-pay of a handful of essential workers who did not have insurance.  
   
   
6. Need Based Scholarship. CHOICE offers annual scholarships to students in Perry, Hale and Marengo County. We have added an additional scholarship for students of furloughed parent(s).
   
   
7. Reading Adventure Center. We have stocked our drive up library (mailbox) with books for all aged group and included treasure certificates such as free lunches from local restaurants and stores.
   
   
8. TeleHelp. Led by our youth leadership council, locals between 9^th and 12^th grade, students are able to get educational assistance from their peers to ensure they excel academically.