When Dr. Chantelle Lewis, principal of Larkmoor Elementary School, and her staff gathered applications for eligible students just three weeks before spring break, they had about 80 students with applications to receive shoes, clothes and school supplies.
Larkmoor served as a pilot for the Lorain City School District and Shoes and Clothes for Kids (SC4K) partnership. On April 19, SC4K and the Cleveland Browns came to Larkmoor, set up through the Classroom Guarantee Program, where they provided those 80 students ranging from Pre-K to fifth grade with shoes, clothes and school supplies. They also provided staff with school supplies. Students walked through the gym to pick out their items, choosing between assorted styles and colors of jeans, sweatshirts, shoes and a stuffed backpack.
"With one little girl we went through (a number of pair of shoes) that she wanted to try on," Lorain City Schools social worker Laura Gooch-Brown said. "But for her it made her feel confident that yes, these are shoes that I get to take home. I picked them out. I chose them."
Shoes and Clothes for Kids (SC4K) is the only non-profit organization in Greater Cleveland providing new school-appropriate shoes, clothes and school supplies to students and teachers at no cost throughout the year through a network of schools and community organizations.
Their mission is to break barriers to school attendance by providing new shoes, clothes and school supplies to students in need.
In 2023, SC4K served 28,019 students with a total value of items distributed at a value of $3.5 million. They provided 145,902 clothing items, 9,399 shoes/shopping passes, 34,643 pairs of socks and underwear and 4,257 hygiene kits to students in 2023.
"We changed our mission primarily because of our partnership with the Browns. Our mission before focused on providing shoes and clothes to kids, without connecting to the why behind our work. We always had anecdotal information to share that it makes [students] feel good, gives them confidence, things like that. But we didn't have any concrete data," Executive Director of Shoes and Clothes for Kids Monica Lloyd said. "Our mission now supports schools' attendance programs, and now because we're partnering with school districts, we have concrete data that shows that providing new items to students in need is helping support their ability to get to school, especially when it's combined with other services."
Along with updating their mission, SC4K merged with Alan Silverman's Uniforms for Kids and became the local affiliate for Kids in Need Resource Foundation to expand their reach in abating school absences.
One of the initiatives SC4K has developed to improve attendance is the Classroom Guarantee Program. As part of the program, SC4K provides students with new shoes or shopping passes to purchase shoes, school-appropriate clothing, including socks and underwear, coats, multiple times throughout the year. They also provide educators with school supplies for their students and teaching resources. In addition, these items can be requested any time between distributions. School districts that partner with SC4K provide data for these students to measure the impact the program is having on their attendance.
As part of their work in the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network, the Cleveland Browns Foundation recently connected SC4K with Lorain City Schools in 2023 to begin their partnership as a part of the Classroom Guarantee Program. The Stay in the Game! Attendance Network provides school districts in Ohio with resources to identify barriers to attendance and tools to help their students overcome them. Partnering with organizations like SC4K allows school districts to receive the additional help they need to help students overcome barriers to attendance and get to school every day.
SC4K held their last distribution of the school year at Larkmoor Elementary School in the Lorain City Schools district where they set up a pop-up shop in the gym for the students to come by class to receive clothes, socks, underwear, shoes, hygiene kits and stuffed backpacks.
"All of the students were so excited because Chomps was there and because of all the support from Shoes and Clothes for Kids. They felt embraced," assistant principal Christa Smith added. "I really appreciate the outreach that the Browns have supported in their work with Lorain City Schools, not only through Shoes and Clothes for Kids, but in terms of the attendance program. We've had a lot of Browns' support and we've been working with them in different capacities through different engagements, the playbook and the attendance. So, we've been really embracing it."
The Cleveland Browns Foundation and Shoes and Clothes for Kids have had a longstanding partnership for more than 20 years. Notably, in 2017, they launched their first official program between the two organizations called the Browns Special Teams Package, in support of the "Get 2 School, You Can Make It!" attendance campaign. The new program was intended to increase the amount of clothing and school supplies that SC4K provided to 2,000 referred students to remove lack of clothing as a barrier to attendance. Those clothing items included three school uniforms, one casual outfit, one pack of socks, one pack of underwear, one Payless Shoe gift card, one pack of school supplies, one winter coat, a winter hat and pair of gloves.
"The Foundation is proud of our longstanding partnership with Shoes and Clothes for Kids," Vice President of the Cleveland Browns Foundation Renee Harvey said. "We are supporting the same students and have an aligned mission to keep students in school and lower chronic absenteeism in our community, so we are excited to continue our work together helping students in Northeast Ohio."
SC4K has also been a partner on the Browns game day 50/50 raffle since 2018. Lloyd said that SC4K leads game day administration work on the backend of the raffle including recruiting and training volunteers. Lloyd said their inclusion in the raffle creates exposure for Shoes and Clothes for Kids to the local community and provides additional funds for their work.
Alongside their success in 2023, SC4K moved its entire operations to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank's new Community Resource Center, with the goal to add access to wraparound services to those they serve through other organizations also located in the new building.
"Whether working with the Browns on something like the Browns Special Teams Package or on a distribution at Larkmoor, it's great. They help facilitate those kinds of strategic conversations and make the introductions. Because of our association with the Browns, we have more visibility," Lloyd said. "We have benefited so much from the partnership, indirectly and directly."
