Importance of Community: Tutor Teach & Bissell Centre

Why Community Matters More Than Ever

Community has always been about more than where you call home. It’s about the relationships we build, the people who show up for one another, and what becomes possible when we work together. Community fills our primary human need for creating a sense of belonging while offering both emotional and practical support during challenging times.

Statistics Canada identifies a strong sense of belonging to a local community as a key sign of social connectedness, which can play a role in an individual’s overall health and quality of life (2025).

During periods of rising costs and increased financial pressure, that support becomes more important than ever. Strong communities allow individuals to share resources and support one another ultimately reducing some of the isolation and stress that can come with these challenges.

When families are facing financial hardship, difficult decisions often have to be made about which needs come first. While essentials like housing, groceries, and transportation take priority, expenses like new school supplies, clothing, and extracurricular activities can become an additional burden.

These challenges don’t exist separately from young people. When students have the tools and support they need, they are better positioned to walk into their classrooms feeling prepared, confident, and ready to participate.

This is where community support can make a difference.

The Power of Community Relationships

No single individual, business, nonprofit, or organization can address every challenge facing a community alone. Nor should they have to. Different members of a community bring different strengths to the table, and when those strengths are brought together, individual contributions can become collective impact.

This is what makes community relationships so valuable. They create networks of support that allow organizations and individuals to reach beyond what they could accomplish independently.

“The work that we do at Bissell, we can only do in partnership with other agencies and other organizations. What we do is meet certain needs. What your organization does is meet a need that we aren’t able to address ourselves. And so when we partner, we are covering a broader spectrum”

– Jonathan Mackereth, Development Officer, Bissell Centre (2026)

When a business offers its space, a volunteer gives a few hours, and a family donates what they can may seem like relatively small actions on their own, the community is brought together to tackle a broader spectrum of needs that cannot be addressed alone.

Community in Action: Give 4 Grades

One example of what this kind of community collaboration can accomplish is Give 4 Grades.

In 2024, Tutor Teach created Give 4 Grades, an annual backpack and school supply drive built around a simple goal: help local students begin the school year with the tools they need to feel prepared and confident.

Each year, families, businesses, and community members are invited to donate new and gently used school supplies and backpacks. Volunteers help collect, sort, count, and pack the donations, while local organizations and businesses provide additional ways for the community to participate.

Through a partnership with the Bissell Centre, the collected supplies can then make their way into the Edmonton community and support local individuals and families.

“Give 4 Grades came to life through a conversation about how we could support students in our immediate community at Tutor Teach. We discovered that many organizations that previously focused on giving back to students were unable to keep up with the growing demand, leaving families empty-handed or hopeless in their educational journeys. When we connected with Edmonton’s Bissell Centre, the partnership made sense. We were able to put backpacks and school supplies in the hands of families in need, while supporting an organization whose purpose and values match those of Tutor Teach.”

– Tutor Teach Founders

Give 4 Grades isn't the work of one organization. Its impact depends on the relationships surrounding it. The impact stems from those who donate a single bag of supplies to the volunteers, businesses, and community partners who help turn those individual contributions into collective impact.

And after three years, the results show what those relationships can make possible.

More Than 10,000 School Supplies

In its first year, Give 4 Grades collected more than 400 school supplies and 22 backpacks. In 2025, the initiative grew to 1,158 supplies and 28 backpacks.

Then came 2026.

Through contributions from families, businesses, volunteers, and community partners, the third annual Give 4 Grades collected 10,537 individual school supplies and 58 backpacks for Bissell Centre.

What began with 400 donated supplies in 2024 grew into more than 10,000 individual items just two years later, not because of one organization, but because an entire community chose to participate.

The supplies are the tangible result, but the relationships behind them tell a much bigger story.

Every notebook, pencil, binder, and backpack represents someone deciding to contribute what they could. Every volunteer hour represents someone deciding their time was worth giving. Every partnership represents organizations recognizing that working together could accomplish more than working separately.

"Community support lets us know that we're not doing what we do alone. There's a great need all across the region, and one little organization is never going to be able to tackle this by ourselves. If we're doing that as a community, we're unstoppable."

– Jonathan Mackereth, Development Officer, Bissell Centre

Building the Community the Next Generation Will Inherit

The challenges families are continuously facing aren’t going to miraculously disappear. The rising of costs and financial pressures will continue to create difficult decisions, which ultimately makes the relationships within our communities increasingly important.

Initiatives like Give 4 Grades show that meaningful change doesn't have to begin with one organization having all the resources or one person making a significant contribution. It can begin with people recognizing what strengths they have to offer and choosing to contribute.

The impact also extends beyond the immediate need being addressed. When young people see local businesses offering support, organizations working together, families giving what they can, and volunteers dedicating their time to helping others, they see what being part of a community can look like.

Give 4 Grades may be measured in backpacks and school supplies, but its growth tells a much larger story. It shows what becomes possible when relationships are built, resources are shared, and individuals and organizations come together around a common purpose.

Strong communities aren't built by one organization, initiative, or donation. They're built over time through people continually choosing to show up for one another and making a lasting impact.

And perhaps one of the most meaningful things we can give the next generation is an example of what becomes possible when we choose to work together.