Greetings from the Margaret Donnelly O’Connor Education and Wellness Center located in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

We are an after-school program that serves children, primarily ages 5-18, from low-income families living in Ethel R. Lawrence Homes, an affordable housing development.  It is one of the supportive services offered by Fair Share Housing Development. Our mission is simple.  We believe hope for tomorrow’s global leaders starts with empowering them today. Our mission is to implement an out-of-school time program, guided by the positive youth development framework and trauma-informed principles. We are committed to providing a safe, affirming environment and opportunities for youth to unleash their power by, taking ownership of their academic success, fearlessly imagining, discovering their passions, advocating for themselves and others, and practicing critical 21st-century competencies

 We provide a safe place for the children of our community to go after school for healthy snacks, help with their homework, tutoring, and extra academic enrichment to maximize their chances of success--both in and out of the classroom. Outside of regular homework help, we care for our students’ mental health, provide engaging social activities, college prep classes for standardized tests, and a Summer Camp for students in 1st-6th grade. The goal of the camp is to stem summer learning loss and introduce students to amazing new experiences at no cost to our families.

Of course, as a non-profit organization, our budget is extremely limited. We survive mainly on the kindness of donors like you. We humbly request that you consider partnering with us to help our kids get to Six Flags.. A field trip of this magnitude would honestly be a dream come true for us.  Our kids have been through a lot, and they deserve it!  We’d like nothing more than to treat them to a day a relaxation and discovery.  A day where they could all just be kids.

A grant or donation to cover/defray the cost of admission would be so helpful.  Thank you in advance for your consideration.