22,000 homeless children in Orange County – my day at one school
As I’ve said before, I don’t enjoy fundraising in the sense that I don’t like asking people for money. Maybe that comes from my own pride because I don’t like asking people for much of anything…independent to a fault. However, the way I have come to view my job of fundraising is simply taking the time to tell the stories of people who have needs and then sharing that with the public. Those that want to participate in meeting needs usually feel really good about getting involved. So really, I play match-maker and story-teller and that’s a role I don’t mind playing at all.
Today I had the opportunity to do a school site visit with one of the schools on our program, Project Hope. Did you know that a school in Orange County existed solely to serve homeless children? Did you know that there were over 22,000 children considered to be homeless in the county? Before I came to work for GCHope I honestly had no idea.
My time at the school consisted of meeting with the school counselor Lori. Lori gave me a tour of the school, helped explain to me some of the issues the school faces and how the We’ve Got Your Back program helps, and brought me to meet some of the kids. You can watch a short video with Lori on this blog or in our GCHope TV station.
My conversation with Lori educated me even more on what the homeless situation is in Orange County and what some of the challenges are. 100% of the children in Project Hope are considered homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act. Additionally only 40% of these kids are living in motels, the rest are in parks, shelters, or cars. Can you imagine being a child and living in such a situation?
The We’ve Got Your Back program has been feeding these children for over a year now. The school provides breakfast and lunch during the school week, but over the weekends these children and their families have not had food. Lori had some great things to share about how this program has helped not only the children, but the school.
I was told that since implementation of the program that attendance has risen at the school. Parents who find themselves homeless have many challenges to get and keep their children in school. Ensuring that this population is educated can be difficult. Now that the school can offer to all of their students this weekend food program, enrollment has risen as has parent involvement. Lori explained that in the past it has been difficult to be involved with many of the parents – but now that they are receiving food over the weekends they are coming in to the school more and being more involved in the education of their children.
She also told me that the children have grown in their self-esteem and pride. In a way, they feel like they are helping to care for their family since they are the ones that receive and bring “home” the backpack. I’m sure the burden on these children can feel like the weight of the world – the We’ve Got Your Back program helps them to feel like they are helping.
Lori and I also talked about what homelessness means. Under the McKinney-Vento Act, over-crowding in apartments is considered to be homeless. I wanted to really understand this so I can explain it to our constituents. This does not mean that “my place is too small for my family therefore I am homeless.” This means on average that there are 3 families of 5-6 people per family living in a two bedroom apartment. So we are talking 15-18 people in a two bedroom apartment. Or a family that is living in a garage with no water and no bathroom. So while many of the homeless have shelter, they really do not have homes. And the children in these scenarios are sleeping on the floor and have difficulty concentrating and doing their homework because there is no real workspace to do it in. This is homeless.
Lastly Lori told me that the parents come to her and tell her that this program is literally saving their life. They don’t know what they would do without it. Some may be working very low wage jobs…and most do not have jobs with the high level of unemployment. Parents who had no where to turn and weren’t sure how they could care for their kids now have one less burden to bear.
What did the kids have to say? They told me that now they can have snacks when they leave school. One girl told me that apple sauce and spinach are her favorite foods. Another told me that if they have enough food they like to share it with the “homeless”. That was enough to put a giant smile on my face. Children’s dignity being preserved and them sharing their food with the homeless people they encounter. I cannot imagine a better thing to have happen through the program.
If you would like to be more involved in the We’ve Got Your Back program please call our office. We’re trying to move from serving 300 kids per week to 1,000. It’s a drop in the bucket to the needs of 22,000 – but to those children and their families it means the world. We can only do this though if YOU get involved. That means we need you to host a food drive to collect food for the program. It means we need funding of $240 a year per child to cover transportation and administration. We need you to collect more backpacks. We need you to volunteer packing the backpacks and doing some administrative needs for the program. We know that the 14 staff at GCHope can’t do what needs to be done…and we don’t want to do it all. We want YOUR help.
So this is a charge to YOU. Get your church, your service club, and your workplace involved. Because together we CAN care for the homeless children in our community!
22,000 homeless children in Orange County – my day at one school
As I’ve said before, I don’t enjoy fundraising in the sense that I don’t like asking people for money. Maybe that comes from my own pride because I don’t like asking people for much of anything…independent to a fault. However, the way I have come to view my job of fundraising is simply taking the time to tell the stories of people who have needs and then sharing that with the public. Those that want to participate in meeting needs usually feel really good about getting involved. So really, I play match-maker and story-teller and that’s a role I don’t mind playing at all.
Today I had the opportunity to do a school site visit with one of the schools on our program, Project Hope. Did you know that a school in Orange County existed solely to serve homeless children? Did you know that there were over 22,000 children considered to be homeless in the county? Before I came to work for GCHope I honestly had no idea.
My time at the school consisted of meeting with the school counselor Lori. Lori gave me a tour of the school, helped explain to me some of the issues the school faces and how the We’ve Got Your Back program helps, and brought me to meet some of the kids. You can watch a short video with Lori on this blog or in our GCHope TV station.
My conversation with Lori educated me even more on what the homeless situation is in Orange County and what some of the challenges are. 100% of the children in Project Hope are considered homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act. Additionally only 40% of these kids are living in motels, the rest are in parks, shelters, or cars. Can you imagine being a child and living in such a situation?
The We’ve Got Your Back program has been feeding these children for over a year now. The school provides breakfast and lunch during the school week, but over the weekends these children and their families have not had food. Lori had some great things to share about how this program has helped not only the children, but the school.
I was told that since implementation of the program that attendance has risen at the school. Parents who find themselves homeless have many challenges to get and keep their children in school. Ensuring that this population is educated can be difficult. Now that the school can offer to all of their students this weekend food program, enrollment has risen as has parent involvement. Lori explained that in the past it has been difficult to be involved with many of the parents – but now that they are receiving food over the weekends they are coming in to the school more and being more involved in the education of their children.
She also told me that the children have grown in their self-esteem and pride. In a way, they feel like they are helping to care for their family since they are the ones that receive and bring “home” the backpack. I’m sure the burden on these children can feel like the weight of the world – the We’ve Got Your Back program helps them to feel like they are helping.
Lori and I also talked about what homelessness means. Under the McKinney-Vento Act, over-crowding in apartments is considered to be homeless. I wanted to really understand this so I can explain it to our constituents. This does not mean that “my place is too small for my family therefore I am homeless.” This means on average that there are 3 families of 5-6 people per family living in a two bedroom apartment. So we are talking 15-18 people in a two bedroom apartment. Or a family that is living in a garage with no water and no bathroom. So while many of the homeless have shelter, they really do not have homes. And the children in these scenarios are sleeping on the floor and have difficulty concentrating and doing their homework because there is no real workspace to do it in. This is homeless.
Lastly Lori told me that the parents come to her and tell her that this program is literally saving their life. They don’t know what they would do without it. Some may be working very low wage jobs…and most do not have jobs with the high level of unemployment. Parents who had no where to turn and weren’t sure how they could care for their kids now have one less burden to bear.
What did the kids have to say? They told me that now they can have snacks when they leave school. One girl told me that apple sauce and spinach are her favorite foods. Another told me that if they have enough food they like to share it with the “homeless”. That was enough to put a giant smile on my face. Children’s dignity being preserved and them sharing their food with the homeless people they encounter. I cannot imagine a better thing to have happen through the program.
If you would like to be more involved in the We’ve Got Your Back program please call our office. We’re trying to move from serving 300 kids per week to 1,000. It’s a drop in the bucket to the needs of 22,000 – but to those children and their families it means the world. We can only do this though if YOU get involved. That means we need you to host a food drive to collect food for the program. It means we need funding of $240 a year per child to cover transportation and administration. We need you to collect more backpacks. We need you to volunteer packing the backpacks and doing some administrative needs for the program. We know that the 14 staff at GCHope can’t do what needs to be done…and we don’t want to do it all. We want YOUR help.
So this is a charge to YOU. Get your church, your service club, and your workplace involved. Because together we CAN care for the homeless children in our community!
