Small Actions, Big Impact: ORCA Students Learn the Power of Community Support
Oregon Charter Academy (ORCA) has been a leader in the online education community for 20 years. During that time, we’ve experienced seasons of growth and change. One of our priorities has been building a tangible culture of support, collaboration, and community among our families. We believe this is an essential component of helping our students become successful adults.
However, creating a sense of belonging within a virtual environment requires a lot of thoughtful effort. Fortunately, our dedicated staff gladly took on the challenge with a focus on creating opportunities for students and staff to serve their communities and each other.
Today, ORCA's community initiatives demonstrate how online education can foster real-world connections between students, staff, and their communities.
ORCA Community Support Initiatives
ORCA is in a unique position because our students live across Oregon. Consequently, the needs of our students in urban and suburban areas often differ greatly from those of our rural students. That's why we've developed several initiatives to identify and meet diverse student and family needs when they arise.
ORCA Cares and the Clothing Closet
One of our core support initiatives is ORCA Cares, which began organically with teachers who wanted to do more to help our school community. ORCA Cares operates our Clothing Closet program, which collects family-to-family donations within our school.
When ORCA Cares identifies an internal family need, they can often fill it immediately with resources from our clothing closet. Sometimes, ORCA Cares solicits internal donations of specific items (like winter coats) to meet an identified need. ORCA Cares maintains a presence at major school events, like our Open House and Spring Celebration, so families know this resource is available.
ORCA's Community Resource Team
ORCA Cares works closely with our Community Resource Team, a two-year-old initiative powered by two staff members — a former school counselor and a high school advisor. The Community Resource Team is the primary coordinator of support services for ORCA families struggling to meet their basic needs.
Families can refer themselves to the Community Resource Team or be referred by ORCA staff members. The team maintains a comprehensive county-by-county resource database to connect families with local resources to help with housing issues, food insecurity, utility assistance, and more.
Seasonal Support Programs
In addition to providing support for immediate needs, our Community Resource Team coordinates our annual holiday gift drive which connects ORCA staff with families in need. Each year, the team picks ORCA families to sponsor. These families provide a wish list, typically two or three items for each child and two or three items for the household.
The team then distributes the list anonymously to ORCA staff members, along with the children's ages and a bit about each family's story. Sometimes, a department will sponsor an entire family. Other times, individual staff members select items on the wish list they'd like to purchase. By the end of the gift drive, our staff has teamed up to provide families in our community with a ray of hope during the holidays.
Student-Led Community Engagement
The ORCA staff isn't the only group eager to help out. Our students have also created several programs to support their classmates and local community members.
National Honor Society Initiatives
National Honor Society (NHS) members at ORCA demonstrate their commitment to community service individually and as a group. Students must complete community service hours just to be admitted to the NHS. Once they gain membership, they also commit to another 100 hours of service during their membership. Last Year, NHS members organized a food drive during the Spring Celebration event at the Linn County Fairgrounds, with donations distributed to food banks across Oregon. They also volunteer at their local libraries, participate in ORCA’s Peer Tutoring program, and help children with disabilities learn water safety.
Student Government Activities
ORCA's student government also leads efforts to support fellow students and community members. With the help of faculty, the student government operates Zoom-based peer tutoring sessions for ORCA middle and high school students throughout the week. This year, they're also running a toy and food drive for the Wilsonville Toy for Tots and another local organization.
Lastly, student government members are holding an ORCA community book swap in conjunction with our regional event days. During these events, school community members can bring books to leave and take others home, creating an organic free library for students.
Building a Strong, More Connected Community
ORCA has fostered a culture of mutual support and engagement through community-oriented initiatives that go beyond simply meeting needs. These programs offer students and staff insight into the challenges their classmates face. This awareness breaks down isolation and builds understanding across our diverse student body.
When students donate to the Clothing Closet or participate in a food drive, they also witness their contributions making tangible differences in their peers' lives. These experiences empower them to realize their potential to create change, showing that even small actions can have a meaningful impact.
Through these initiatives, ORCA demonstrates that community connections can flourish in an online learning environment. Students discover that regardless of physical distance, they have the power to create positive change in their communities.
Join Us for a Virtual Information Session
We hope these experiences stay with our students long after they leave ORCA and help them become active, responsible, and empathetic adults.
If you'd like to learn more about joining ORCA's unique online community, join one of our virtual information sessions to connect with ORCA staff and preview our learning platform.