NEST: Community Learning Center From RVs in Loveland, Ohio

 Photographs and words by Joe Timmerman

NEST, which stands for Nutrition, Education, Safety, and Transformation, is a non-profit community learning center based out of mobile RVs in Loveland, Ohio, where founder, Evangeline DeVol, and other volunteers work closely with families in low-income neighborhoods.

DeVol likes to call the kids who come for help with their homework her “world changers.” She believes if volunteers take the time to come and make a connection with these kids and help to fill in holes of education, the kids have a real opportunity to reach their full potential and change the world, even in the smallest ways. As NEST relies on building close relationships with families and the kids it helps, caution surrounding the coronavirus pandemic has forced NEST to adjust while still trying to remain consistent.

MacArthur Park is one of four suburban apartment complexes in Loveland where NEST has built relationships with families over the last four years since the program began in the summer of 2016. Zebulon Park is a rural apartment complex in Batavia, Ohio, on the edge of Appalachia, where NEST just started visiting in the fall of 2020. This on-going project looks at the relationships between education, the families and kids living below the poverty level, and the volunteers who offer their time to help.