When Santa Rosa-based Quattrocchi Kwok Architects (QKA) heard a local call to action to help economically disadvantaged schools in Sonoma County facilitate distance learning, they answered the call. Due to COVID-19 many of the underprivileged students in the area lacked the basic resources needed to continue their education online.

QKA has so far provided 60 Wifi hotspots to families without internet access, 350 reams of copy paper, and monetary contributions to the Roseland Public School's Family Relief Fund to help feed families in need. The firm specializes in education design and co-founder and Principal Mark Quattrocchi, FAIA, personally reached out to school across Sonoma County and Lake County to see how he could help. 

"Listening to their stories of material shortages is heart-wrenching, as we see up close the uneven playing field these disadvantaged schools experience — from no laptops, to laptops but no Wi-Fi, and to Wi-Fi “hotspots” but no cell coverage," Quattrocchi wrote in a statement. "These under-resourced schools are experiencing shortages even at the most basic levels, such as just one copier, no copy paper and — most heart wrenching — out-of-work parents with few groceries plus, for the undocumented, no access to unemployment or stimulus checks."

Some of the schools assisted include:

• Two Rock School
• Roseland University Prep
• Roseland Creek Elementary School
• Roseland Elementary School
• Sheppard Elementary School
• Lack County Schools

QKA's relief work comes as design teams across the country, including firms, design-focused non-profits, and schools of architecture mobilize in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.