Day 229: Kendra Robins
“… sometimes as we get into filling bags, sometimes it can feel a little rote … but to remember that really when we fill them, a child holds them that night. … if it was your child, if it were my child, that I would be so grateful if somebody remembered that child … I think could be inspired by never losing that … sense of purpose and that magic.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so very much, Kendra, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Kendra Robins: Yes. I’m Kendra Robins, and I’m the Founder and Executive Director of Project Night Night.
Toni: Well, before we go into the first question, can you give us a little bit of background on what that it is, exactly?
Kendra: Absolutely. Project Night Night is an organization that’s dedicated to helping homeless children have sweeter dreams, and we do that through our distribution of Night Night packages. And each Night Night package is a new canvas tote bag that includes a security blanket, a book, and a stuffed animal for children who are homeless or otherwise underserved. We distribute about 35,000 a year to virtually every state at this point and operate with about 10,000 volunteers who help us get the materials out and into the hands of the children.
Toni: Fantastic. Well, Kendra, this I think is going to be a very easy Project and the questions for you to answer, so let’s go to the first one. When you think about inspiration, Kendra, who do you inspire, and how does that happen?
Kendra: Well, you know, it’s a tricky question because I certainly didn’t set out to inspire anyone except for myself, but I think that as Project Night Night develops from a very small grassroots organization in my living room to kind of a national organization at this point with a very wide reach, I think that what ended up happening is that I was able to inspire women in particular, but folks really who are pressed for time to realize that with very little effort, you can give back.
You don’t have to necessarily attend training sessions; you don’t necessarily have to give us 20 hours a week. You can give us … you can fill 10 tote bags, and that might take you an hour, and donate them to a local shelter; that really any amount of time that you have to offer to Project Night Night is valuable.
So our whole organization is built on the idea that not everyone really has big blocks of time. Certainly when they’re raising young children and/or working or, you know, otherwise occupied, but that they shouldn’t be dissuaded. So hopefully I’ve inspired a few people to come forward and to help in whatever manner they can with whatever time they have available.
Toni: So your inspiration actually for what you’re doing goes to inspiring others to take part in this, no matter how many hours that they can provide, correct?
Kendra: Absolutely. We really cannot run without volunteer support. As I said, we have a very wide reach, but we really only have a staff of three people, and we actually aren’t even together. I’m in San Francisco, and my coworker, Jessica, is in Ohio, and our other coworker is in Michigan, but the way we really distribute almost all of our bags is throughout a network of volunteers, and as I mentioned, it’s, you know, usually around 10,000 a year.
We have a lot of people’s help, but they all help in small bits. So some people will help us with a few tote bags, and some people will help us with hundreds. If all those people disappeared, Project Night Night would effectively disappear as well, so we really do operate on the idea that, you know, any amount of time and any amount of caring and giving is helpful to us.
Toni: Now, how do you believe what you’re doing, whether it’s those that you’re serving, those that are helping, or just in general, how do you believe this is helping others to explore their potential?
Kendra: Well, it kind of links together in that certainly when I was working at my first career, I didn’t feel that I had the … well, maybe the training or the time to really do volunteer work and to help the community, and I think that’s a similar sentiment that other folks share. And what I think when you get to do Project Night Night and to help us, is that you really can explore your potential to figure out … you know, “I can do a lot with a little time. I can get my family involved. I can help my children explore their potential and realize that giving to the community and being philanthropic helps the soul and helps them be better people.”
So, you know, just learning that a little bit to others is helpful and permits growth, both internal and external growth, that really you can explore your potential that way, and if you like it and you want to do more. We can always have folks scale up and really help us in a much more major way. So in that way, I think the potential can be reached to whatever degree you have to give.
Toni: So really it’s a progressive volunteerism, isn’t it?
Kendra: Yeah … you know, we almost … well, I would say 75% of our volunteers repeat, and so in that sense, I think they realize that they have more potential, that they have more to give, that they can do more with what they have, and they want to continue to help. And so that may not have been how they came into the organization; they may have come in to help us with a volunteer, they may have come in simply with a monetary donation, or perhaps overheard about us through a birthday party or a different way that we’re involved in the community. And maybe they reached their potential a different way by taking baby steps in and then realizing what they could do.
Toni: What inspires you? What do you need to be inspired?
Kendra: Well, also a good question. You know, I think honestly what I need is a sense of purpose. I think it’s very important for me at least to know that somebody appreciates what we’re doing, and Project Night Night has been very lucky in that way. When we started the first year, I gave out about 1,000 Night Night packages, and all of them I did on my living room floor.
But the response to the Night Night packages from the shelters was quite tremendous, and we grew about 560% the next year, and our growth has been very steady like that. We gave out 1,000, then 8,000, then 15,000, then 25,000, then 35,000 … so it’s … I take that to mean that there was a gap that we were filling, and that what we are creating there is a need for, and that the shelters are very responsive. And the children, the notes and the pictures and feedback that we received is quite positive.
That honestly keeps me going. That gives me that inspiration that I need, because as anybody who has a job knows, it’s not always fun and it’s not always rewarding, but those are the things that inspire me to keep going and to say “You know what? This is worth it. Somebody cares. Somebody wants this product that we’re making.” And all the time and effort that goes into it and the attention to detail that we try and put into each bag, that’s what inspires me; the happy faces of the kids and knowing that we are making them feel less anxious and less scared when they reach the shelter.
Toni: How did you come to this? How did you realize that this was going to be a passion that you were going to fulfill?
Kendra: Well, in a roundabout way, like most people, I think. I was a corporate attorney prior to founding Project Night Night, and I loved it. I thought it was great. Part of my job there was to form nonprofit organizations for other people, and I think the more you see this, the more you realize that other people are kind of exploring their potential and trying to live out their dreams a little bit. I thought “Well, maybe I need to try this.” And then, the tricky part was of course coming up with the idea that I was passionate about.
At the time … I now have two children, but at the time I had one child … and an exceptionally important part of his day was actually our nighttime routine, and to him at the time as an 18-month-old, his blanket really meant “home” to him. It didn’t really matter where we were or where we put him to bed, but if the blanket was missing, the whole routine was thrown off.
I began to think about the victims of domestic violence, and they tend to be women who need to leave quickly and escape an abusive situation, so they … you know, they’re lucky to escape with their children let alone belongings or car or other items. And I thought, what if your child really relied on a blanket or a book or a stuffed animal to get to sleep, and you arrive at this shelter and you haven’t been able to bring it, and the shelter is noisy and it’s crowded and it’s unfamiliar? Your goal is to get your child to sleep, but you know, maybe the person next to you is snoring or any other sort of impediment to your nighttime routine. If your child doesn’t sleep well, it really makes the next day difficult.
So I thought, well, maybe it’s as simple as giving them some of these items. Giving the children who enter the shelter system a physical memento that says “We thought about you; we think you’re special. Here are some items to help you go to sleep and to deal with your situation.”
But to be honest, I assumed that this organization existed already, so I did some research and looked into it, and I really couldn’t find anything that did what we did. There were variations of the program in the sense that there are organizations that give pajamas out. And at the time we started, Project Linus gave their blankets out, but they only gave them to children in hospital situations. So there really was a need out there for us, and that’s kind of how it began.
I took the things to excess that most parents have from our children’s shelves, and I placed it in the bags and gave them out to the shelters. And then at this point, you know, it’s grown. We are very lucky to have lots of in-kind donations, blankets and books and stuffed animals sent to us from folks, or dropped off at our drop-off locations, or given to us from corporations, and you know, we were able to scale it up to do something larger. But to be honest, I didn’t expect it to be so big. I hoped to serve the children in my community, and really everything that’s gone past that has been just amazing for us. We are very, very pleased.
Toni: Congratulations. It sounds like it’s something that is just so needed. The final question of the Project is, what are you doing to continue to explore that potential within yourself in order to either grow this organization or move into another? What are you doing?
Kendra: Well, you know, I think in this kind of situation when you’re dealing with children who are underserved or homeless, that almost every day you get re-inspired in some way or another. Our goal is to grow the organization to such an extent that the quality of our product continues to go up. In other words, the items that are in the Night Night packages, you know, a child opens them up and really is impressed by them. They’ve got so many used items that, you know, we really want it to be a “wow” and to say “This is the blanket I want to keep forever.”
And so, I’m trying to be inspired by the community, and I’m always inspired by the generosity of the community to kind of continue to expand our reach, more and more shelters, to get more product donated, and to remember that there are people behind what we do. There are children behind what we do.
You know, sometimes as we get into filling bags, sometimes it can feel a little rote … but to remember that really when we fill them, a child holds them that night. I mean, it’s a very direct service and to remember that if it was your child, if it were my child, that I would be so grateful if somebody remembered that child, and kind of, I think could be inspired by never losing that … I guess that sense of purpose and that magic.
So we are trying to scale. Our goal is always to reach more and more children and that’s what gives us … there are a million homeless children in the United States, so when I say that we do 35,000, it’s an impressive number, but it’s the tip of the iceberg. So we are inspired by all the rest of them who are still out there looking for Night Night packages.
Toni: So really, exploring your potential is to keep this front and center – one, remembering who the customer is at the end of all of this, you know, that you’re trying to serve, who that client is – and also keeping it in the forefront of people who are looking for a way to give back to the community to make a difference and reaching out to them so you have a further reach in volunteerism, I would imagine, as well.
Kendra: Absolutely, yes. So we kind of don’t want to stop until every child is served. It’s a goal, of course. It’s slightly unrealistic to get a million, but, you know, everybody has to have a goal, and that’s ours.
Toni: And what an amazing goal that is. We can’t thank you enough for showing up to the Project today, and we will spotlight your organization on the Project page. As people know, other nonprofits are there as well, and also a link on how to find you and the work that you’re doing if people have a sense of wanting to or needing to volunteer for your organization. So thank you so very much.
Kendra: Thank you, Toni. I really appreciate the opportunity to tell the story.
Toni: Oh, you’re quite welcome. Thank you, Kendra. It’s been a pleasure meeting you.
Kendra: It’s been a pleasure.
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For more information about Kendra Robins: www.ProjectNightNight.org, www.projectnightnight.org/PrintableResources.html
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