Donate a knitting kit to share the comfort of knitting
Will you help us provide more knitting kits to help more students find comfort and community through knitting? Each student in our program is given a quality knitting kit which includes yarn, needles, and our 28-page Resource Guide with patterns. A gift of $25 can provide a full project kit to a student along with our expert instruction. Won’t you consider donating a “kit a month” by setting up a monthly $25 donation?
Your friend or family member will be moved by your charity gift that puts a knitting kit in the hands of someone facing challenges. Your gift will have a meaningful impact on someone facing stress in our community. Each gift of charity can be recognized with a certificate as you see here, which can include your personal message, delivered via email.
One example of the work we do includes helping more students and teachers find the comfort of knitting.
For more than seven years, Project Knitwell has taught knitting to hundreds of students facing a variety of special education challenges in the metro Washington DC area. In 2015, we began working at Mount Vernon School and then expanded to Cedar Lane School and the John L. Gildner Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents (RICA).
When Project Knitwell works in a special education school for students with emotional disabilities, autism, specific learning disabilities, and other health impairments, we are providing more than knitting instruction. We are teaching a simple, yet powerful lifelong wellness tool. You can help us provide kits for students and teachers to learn.
In addition to students, Project Knitwell also works with Bowling Green State University in Ohio to help teachers in rural schools learn to knit in their school communities. Teachers are facing unprecedented levels of stress and burnout. Our grant partnership is leveraging programming that helps build relationships and reduce stress as a way of supporting school safety. Professor Kristina LaVenia reports:
“The teachers and staff learning to knit improved their personal mental health while building stronger connections and relationships between school community members. Helping school personnel focus on finding time to recharge with their knitting is a wonderful self-care practice. This is a wonderful opportunity to help high school students in a rural district, who often lack transportation, meet their community service graduation requirements. Students can knit for charity as one way to earn their diplomas. We look forward to expanding this work under the current grant and also exploring other opportunities for research projects moving forward.”
We hope that all students and teachers find outlets for wellness, comfort, and community as they face new challenges during the school year.
Our mission at Project Knitwell is to help people facing challenges by providing knitting instruction and shared community opportunities that promote wellness and resilience. Our volunteer instructors witness daily how the process of learning to knit can be a way to cope with stress.
Established in 2010, Project Knitwell is a recognized leader in therapeutic knitting. We have participated in research on the benefits of knitting for oncology nurses, and have been featured in The Washington Post, U.S. News, Vogue Knitting Magazine, and other publications.