One House at a Time (OHAAT) Beds for Kids:
OHAAT’s mission is to help families, who are currently lacking resources, establish (or reestablish) a self-sufficient life by providing them with the necessities of a functional home environment. They focus on ending child bedlessness to improve overall health and wellbeing. Through the Beds for Kids program, they provide children and youth living in poverty with beds, bedding, and tools that encourage healthy bedtime habits, so they can get the quality and sufficient sleep they need to thrive.
The success of OHAAT’s Beds for Kids program depends on many partners: social service providers; manufacturers and retailers; community groups and individuals; volunteers; pediatric sleep experts; and health care providers. Many social service agencies in the Philadelphia area help low-income families obtain housing, but few can help families turn their housing into functional homes. As a result, children are forced to sleep on the floor, on sofas, or crowded into bed with several family members. OHAAT’s Beds for Kids program delivers beds, bedding, and tools that encourage healthy bedtime habits like books and toothbrushes, directly to the homes of children in need.
Every child in the program receives a new bed and a bedtime bag, which contains a set of sheets, a blanket, pillow, several age-appropriate books, a toothbrush, and a stuffed animal. OHAAT purchases beds and bedding in bulk from various manufacturers, and partner organizations donate bedding and bedtime items through collection drives. All of the items are sorted, packaged, and delivered by OHAAT’s sixteen-foot box truck and growing body of volunteers.
Volunteers from Jarrettown Church deliver beds and bedtime bags when the need arises. If you are interested in being part of this group of volunteers, contact the church office.
Other ways that you can support OHAAT are by:
- Donating money to purchase bed frames, box springs, mattresses, sheets, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, toothbrushes and books. Checks can be made payable to JUMC with OHAAT written on the memo line.
- Donating new or gently used twin sheet sets, twin blankets, books, and stuffed animals. (Items can be placed on the OHAAT shelf in Missions Hallway)
- Donating new or gently used twin size fleece blankets or No-Sew Fleece Blankets. (Items can be placed on the OHAAT shelf in Missions Hallway)
