LAUSD homeless students receive donations to stay in school

Some good news for homeless students in the LAUSD!  Approx. 25,000 items were donated by Comerica Bank customers and employees.

This article was taken from the website of Southern California Public Radio: http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/09/29/lausd-homeless/?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4cd392ce5a7e33c9,0

Sept. 29, 2010 | Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC

There are more than 13,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District classified as “homeless.” Their families have lost nearly everything. Today a bank gave a donation to a district program that works to help those students continue their education.

L.A. Unified’s program is tasked with helping homeless students stay in school. It includes case worker visits to families in Skid Row hotels and outreach to parents to let them know that clothing and bus vouchers and free school supplies are available. Tammy Wood does this outreach at 400 district campuses.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines accepts donated school supplies and cash for the school district's homeless students from a Comerica Bank branch and it's customers.

“So many cases touch our hearts. I think the ones that touch us the most are when these little kids come to the office because they’ve either just moved here from out of state or they’ve actually lived in the area but maybe doubled up or tripled up, sometimes in families homes.

“They’ll come into the office and we’re going to give them a backpack with school supplies and the little kid is so excited they start crying, ‘Mommy, this is my backpack.’” Wood said.

She and school district officials were in a Comerica Bank branch in L.A.’s Koreatown to accept donations to help students. The roughly 25,000 items include new backpacks, pencils, pens and soap; all given by bank customers and employees.

Comerica Bank Executive Vice President Betty Rengifo Uribe immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia when she was twelve years old. She says she can relate to the plight of L.A. Unified’s homeless students.

“When we came here it was my mother, just my mother, three brothers and I and we had very little money. So we went to the churches and the church would give us the school supplies and the food and so forth,” she said.

The donations will soften the hardships of poverty, says L.A. Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines, though it’s not enough to meet the need.

“But it is symbolic and it never lets us forget that we have to care about others regardless of how bad the times are,” Cortines said.

The school district employs about ten people in its Homeless Education Program to reach homeless students from San Pedro to the San Fernando Valley. Officials say they’re seeing more formerly middle class families using the services.

The Giving Spirit in the L.A. Times

L.A.’s homeless get backpack ‘survival kits’

The Giving Spirit, a nonprofit, distributes 1,000 knapsacks of food and essentials Saturday, with a special effort to reach homeless women and children.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

June 6, 2010

Cynthia Berry, 19, is pregnant and homeless.

Due in roughly four months, Berry survives by selling incense on the Venice boardwalk.

When she heard someone was giving away backpacks full of food and other supplies at the Westminster dog park on Saturday, she was among the first to show up.

The sturdy black backpacks, which volunteers from the Giving Spirit like to call “survival kits,” contain about three dozen items essential to surviving the streets in Los Angeles County, including a baseball cap, socks, soap, sunglasses, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush, sunscreen, lotion, a first aid kit, deodorant and bottled water.

About 225 volunteers packed and distributed 350 backpacks on foot in Venice, downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, North Hollywood and Culver City on Saturday. They delivered about 650 additional backpacks to seven local homeless outreach groups.

Volunteers made a special effort to reach women and children, distributing about 15 diaper bags full of feminine napkins, sippy cups, diapers, diaper-rash cream, baby wipes, baby sun block, children’s vitamins, formula and bottles. In Venice, they partnered with Stand Up For Kids, a Los Angeles nonprofit that serves homeless youth.

At the dog park, Berry claimed a backpack and a free bag lunch and sat down to eat in the shade. She said life on the streets can be hard for a woman, especially one struggling with morning sickness. But she is happy about becoming a mother. She knows she is having a girl and has already picked out a name: Jessi Lynn. Things have been better since she and her husband recently got an old RV to sleep in, she said, although police often rouse them from local parking lots.

Her young friends, who also claimed backpacks, said they have tried to find work, but even minimum-wage employers are looking for workers with more experience. Miguel Pineda, 22, was laid off from his job managing a Starbucks about nine months ago and has been homeless — or “traveling,” as he says — ever since.

“There’s no work out there for a younger person,” said Donovan Hage, 19.

The Giving Spirit is a nondenominational, all-volunteer, Los Angeles-based nonprofit. Since Brentwood entrepreneur Tom Bagamane founded the group in 1999, he said, 5,000 volunteers have distributed about 11,000 bags to Los Angeles County’s homeless.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com // Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

7th Grader Brings Art, Hope

Here’s a great story about a seventh grader named Tae Tae Davis reaching out to the homeless and, through art, is inspiring them to be creative.

Tae Tae Davis, Seventh-Grade Student, Brings Art Projects To Local Homeless Kids

Posted: 05-27-10 12:40 PM  www.huffingtonpost.com

Last year, Florida student Taylor “Tae Tae” Davis made it her mission to secure donated art supplies to keep art classes going at her middle school. Now, she has expanded her reach — starting a nonprofit organization to provide art programs to local homeless youth.

Through her nonprofit, The Traveling Canvas, Tae Tae raises funds to do art projects with the homeless children and teens living at the Community Partnership for Homeless Center.

On May 15, the Palmetto Bay News reports Tae Tae spent her afternoon painting and making jewelry with a group of homeless youth. Tae Tae also presented each participant with gifts of journals and hand-painted pillowcases.

Tae Tae’ mother explains,

“She wants each one of them to know that they are very special. She also wants them to have an opportunity of self expression through art. When Tae Tae paints, she escapes from everything around her.”

Tae Tae hopes to continue her art projects at the homeless shelter each month and is washing cars in her neighborhood to raise funds to help her meet her goal. She is also working with Florida art supply companies to find sponsors for her school’s magnet art program for the upcoming school year.