The Front Steps Project: How Communities Found Connection During the COVID-19 Crisis

People magazine's top reason for Hope in America.

Curated from a grassroots social movement, The Front Steps Project is an inspiring, uplifting portrait series capturing how people coped with living in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Front Steps Project™ demonstrates that even in the most challenging of circumstances, kindness, love, courage, and hope exist to build, bind, and connect communities around the globe.

Created on March 18, 2020, The Front Steps Project™ began when friends Kristen Collins and Cara Soulia sought out to unite their neighbors through photographs of life in quarantine. In addition to incorporating work from other local photographers, the women traveled to neighborhoods around Needham, Massachusetts to photograph residents in front of their homes in exchange for donations to their local food pantry.

Within days, #TheFrontStepsProject became a grassroots social mission, connecting thousands of people across the globe and raising over $3,250,000 for vital non-profit organizations and local businesses including food pantries, frontline workers, homeless and animal shelters, hospitals and so much more. Through their noble efforts, hundreds of thousands of images and stories of love, sacrifice, compassion, kindness, perseverance, and – ultimately hope – flooded social media.

Featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and more, The Front Steps Project brings communities together virtually, despite being – and maybe feeling – isolated.

The Front Steps Project contains over 400 photographs and dozens of stories of families during the COVID-19 pandemic. This heartwarming keepsake commemorates a massive effort of courage, unity, and goodwill.

As a tribute to the good work of The Front Steps Project, a portion of book sales will be donated to The United Way to help people impacted by the pandemic.

Kristen Collins is a self-described "coffee-moment idea" machine, nonstop chatterbox, and professional volunteer. She has spent over 25 years in communications, always uncovering compelling stories, people, products, and missions, then finding ways to bring them attention through media coverage, marketing programs, community engagement, and more.

Kristen is the cofounder of The Front Steps Project, a global social movement that has raised $3.25 million dollars by photographing families in isolation during COVID-19 in exchange for donations to non-profit organizations and local businesses. She lives in Needham, Massachusetts with her husband and two children.

Cara Soulia is a newborn and family photographer based outside Boston, Massachusetts. Her journey to photographer was a winding one, through years in the finance industry, starting a photography business as a side hustle, and finally making the leap to follow her heart and launch a full-time career as a professional photographer. For the last decade, she has been capturing life's most beautiful and important moments for families with babies and young children. Cara's images are most well known for being colorful, emotional, and unique in composition.

Cara is the cofounder of The Front Steps Project, a global social movement that has raised $3.25 million dollars by photographing families in isolation during COVID-19 on their front steps in exchange for donations to local organizations and nonprofits. Cara lives in Needham, Massachusetts with her husband and three children and is currently living the newborn days all over again with a brand-new rescue puppy.