December 18, 2024
Provided Image/Adrienne Fletcher
Amelia Fletcher, 14, sets up a little library with books and toys on Saturdays in Kensington when she volunteers in with the harm reduction nonprofit The Everywhere Project. For several years, Fletcher has seen children waiting with adults for food, clothing and other supplies. She says she enjoys giving kids a 'smile.'
When Amelia Fletcher started volunteering several years ago with The Everywhere Project by helping to serve meals and provide clothing to Philadelphians in need, she immediately noticed the children standing alongside their parents and caregivers.
Tired of seeing the kids waiting around bored and sad, Fletcher, 14, of Abington, decided this fall to open a "little library" in the lot at Ruth and Clearfield streets in Kensington, where The Everywhere Project distributes food, clothing, and medical and harm reduction supplies every Saturday to 250 to 450 people who may be experiencing homelessness, have substance use disorders or are just trying to get by.
Each week, Fletcher spreads out ABC foam mats on the ground alongside colorful bins of books and toys. And then she reads and plays with the children.
"The kids need a little bit of happiness and joy and a place to be," said Fletcher, an eighth grader at Abington Middle School in Montgomery County. "And the parents sometimes just need a few minutes to know their kid is safe somewhere, so they can take a few minutes to themselves."
The Everywhere Project is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that started in 2021 with the mission of expanding the reach of harm reduction efforts by offering overdose reversal trainings and wound care, as well as naloxone, fentanyl testing strips, sterile syringes and safer-sex supplies. It also provides food and clothing.
The all-volunteer organization serves about 26,000 meals a month, offering them on Wednesday evenings at Love Park in Center City, on Saturdays in Kensington and every day through its mobile services. The Everywhere Project delivered one million pounds of food this year – all through donated products and volunteer effort, Operations Director Thomas Frey said.
Harm reduction traditionally has been defined as taking an evidence-based approach to engaging with people who use drugs – not by trying to force people into treatment but by giving them supplies, such as clean syringes and naloxone — to reduce the potential harms of contracting and spreading communicable diseases and of fatal drug overdoses. Frey views harm reduction through an even wider lens.
So when Fletcher's mom, Adrienne, emailed Frey this fall with Amelia's library idea and said, "I know that doesn't really fit into your mission,'" Frey said, "my answer back to her was, 'It 100% fits into our mission. Our mission is harm reduction. This is the simplest, purest, kindest form of harm reduction. You're taking a child in a stressful situation and you're giving them some harm reduction."
One girl who has been coming to the little library on Saturdays speaks Spanish, and Fletcher only speaks English. But they have been playing with bubbles together, Fletcher said. She ordered some children's books in Spanish to bring and also gave the girl a car to take home with her one day, Fletcher said.
"Amelia's face when the little girl brought the car back the second week was priceless," Adrienne Fletcher said.
Adrienne and her daughter have talked about many complex subjects that arise from their volunteering, particularly the drug use Amelia has witnessed, Adrienne said.
"We say that just because we're seeing it, and it's happening, doesn't mean that we condone it and that we want her to try (drugs)," Adrienne said. "But we also wanted (her) to understand that … we're going to help in any way that we can. We all just need a little extra help. We're not here to judge."
Amelia Fletcher, 14, says playing with children, who are accompanying adults waiting for food, clothing and harm reduction supplies in Kensington, gives her a 'sense of purpose.'
Amelia said playing with the children, and sharing books and toys with them gives her a "sense of purpose."
"I'm only 14, but I do hope that I can help them, just even giving them a smile for that day," she said.
Some of the children she interacts with live in shelters or other unstable housing situations, Frey said.
"I've seen some of these little kids in line for a year," he said. "Sometimes, the weather's bad. It's snow. It's rain. It's whatever. They're out there for an hour.
"So to see them sitting in a parking lot, on top of some cushy alphabet mats, reading and blowing bubbles and having a good time ... (it's) everything," Frey said. "If more kids her age got out and did what she's doing, I think it would make a big difference in this world."
Interested in volunteering for The Everywhere Project? Sign up on its website. Children's books, toys and art supplies can be donated to Fletcher's little library at The Everywhere Project's boxes at 1733 McKeen St. in Philadelphia or at 2814 Turner Ave. in Abington.
