WISCONSIN: Giving hope to homeless kids
Group works with students who face uncertainty over where they will live
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal
By ALICE CHANG
achang@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 22, 2005
A 7-year-old girl in the Racine Unified School District has asked to be placed in foster care because she's too tired after taking care of her 18-month-old sibling.
Another child in third grade is the only one in the family who can count change for the bus.
And an older student has a mother who is so psychologically and emotionally dependent on him that she doesn't want her son to go to school because she doesn't know how she can get through the day without him.
These children are part of the rising number of documented homeless youths in Racine. In the past 2 1/2 years, that population has roughly doubled each year.
"At a young age, (these children) take on the roles of adults," said Elizabeth Erven, program coordinator for Education for Homeless Children and Youth. "They go to school, and it's difficult to be told, 'Sit down, be quiet and do work.' "
The district has identified 390 homeless students at the end of the first semester, compared with 455 students that were identified last year.
"It's startling to know there are so many children in need of services," Erven said.
Roughly 50 % of Erven's clients are African-American, about a quarter are Latino, 20 % are white, and the rest are American Indian and Asian-American.
Half of the students are in elementary school, and the rest are roughly evenly split between middle school and high school.
Erven attributed the rising numbers to the fact that people are realizing services for homeless students exist and also the fact that poor economic factors and personal issues, such as high unemployment, lack of job training and a high rate of teen pregnancy, continue to exist.
Homeless students face many struggles, including mental health, physical health and academic issues.
"The most fundamental trauma is rootlessness, not knowing when and if you're going to have a bed to sleep in, whether you're going to have food for the day," Erven said.
She added that many homeless children struggle with personal hygiene.
"How do you relate to children when you can't take a bath and brush your teeth before you to go school? Children would rather stay at home than go to school dirty," Erven said.
While solutions to the issue are complex, sometimes the students just need personal attention.
"They just need to be reassured that they're doing great," said Heidi Makris, 51, a tutor for more than a dozen homeless students.
Makris added that at the beginning of the school year, she was assigned a first-grade student whom a teacher thought would never read.
"(The child) wouldn't pick up a pencil," Makris said.
But when Makris visited her three times a week to run half-hour tutorial sessions, the girl learned to read within a month.
Education for Homeless Children and Youth provides many services, from helping students register to coordinating transportation.
The group receives about $60,000 in grant money from the federal government as part of the No Child Left Behind legislation. The amount covers everything from Erven's salary to school supplies.
For information on how to contribute to Education for Homeless Children and Youth, contact Elizabeth Erven at (262) 619-4620.
From the Feb. 23, 2005, editions of the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel