Seeing so many of their classmates unable to grasp educational opportunities due to economic disparities, a group of high schoolers from Burbank decided to lead the cause to change. U.N.I. Future Together was established as a “youths for youths” initiative and prides itself on inspiring kids to practice altruism towards each other and get involved in the community.
Each year, they aim for several small initiatives and main large ones. The small ones include organizing booths at food drives, cleaning up the city, tutoring, and even starting a community garden in a project called “Burbank Bloomers.”
Last year, one big initiative was their booth at the Los Angeles Aids Walk, where they were the largest portion of the volunteer force and ran all the booths and water stations. The walk itself, having been done since 1985, has raised over $92 million to fight against HIV and AIDS.
Another huge project they did last year was home food delivery. They partnered with the World Harvest Food Bank and brought their volunteers door to door to deliver items like foodstuffs, baby formula, and sanitizing products.
This year, they are still volunteering through those small projects, but they have their eyes set on one major initiative: providing low-income students with access to computers. Ryan Kim, one of the members of the program, stated that so many of his peers spent late nights at the library finishing up homework because they couldn’t access an at home computer.
This problem isn’t just unique to high schoolers but is exacerbated in the lives of college students as well. According to CalMatters, more than 100,000 low-income California college students lack internet access and computers. These things are a necessity in the digital age, especially for the advancement of education.
Thus, the group has taken it upon themselves to gather donations-items such as consoles, keyboards, mouses, computers-and hold drives to give them away to students in need. They recently set up a booth at a food drive hosted by the World Harvest Food Bank, in which they gave away 12 computer systems, holding a $11,115 value altogether.
A father at the drive named Martin talked to the group about his struggles in education due to having undiagnosed ADD for most of his life, leading him to not be able to finish college. He got treatment in his 40s, which led to him being able to go back to college at 52.
He’s currently studying linguistics and ASL at Cal State University of Long Beach and hopes to become an ASL teacher. Martin, like many others in the state, was using his phone to submit his assignments, but that day, he left home with a new PC.
The organization is planning to do a much bigger annual drive at Boyle Heights, where around 600+ people typically attend. They also have been in contact with a nearby public school to fix their computer lab.
They are able to allocate these resources to those in need because of donations and sponsors they receive from local businesses and chambers of commerce, but also because of that from those in the community who want and are able to support.
U.N.I. Future Together has done a lot for Burbank, and its members are excited for the year they have ahead of them. For more information on the organization, people can visit their website at unifuturetogether.org.
