How can YOU help homeless students
Unfortunately, a growing number of Rock County students are homeless. Fortunately, the Homeless Education Action Team is trying to help. Leaders have plans, but those come with daunting price tags.
HEAT hopes to open a transitional group home for eight to 12 students, ages 16 to 21. They estimate the cost at $1 million to start and run it for three years. HEAT also is working with Lutheran Social Services to provide temporary emergency shelter through licensed foster “safe homes.”
In last Sunday’s Gazette, columnist Anna Marie Lux talked to several of these teens. She also listed details of a benefit concert this Saturday night at the Marine Corps League on Beloit’s north side. And she listed 10 ways you can help, as detailed by HEAT.
We’ll share our perspective on HEAT’s efforts in our editorial Friday. What are those ways you can help? And what are the details of the benefit concert?
We do not post Lux’s columns online, but in case you missed them, I’m listing the details of the concert and 10 ways you can help below.
BENEFIT CONCERT A benefit concert to raise money to establish a shelter for homeless teens in Rock County will be Saturday, Jan. 29, at the Marine Corps League, 3807 S. Riverside Drive, Beloit. Five bands will play from 4 p.m. until midnight. Local bands include Dynamite Society with Zach Johns, Lex & Co., The Jamie Campbell Band, DEA with Renee Wood, and Kind of a Big Deal. Beloit residents Bob Parker and Jim and Linn Krafjack are organizing the event called “It’s Not Fine 16:49.” The documentary “16:49” highlights the plight of three homeless teens in Beloit and is raising awareness about homeless students. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. In Janesville, tickets are available at Fuddruckers, 3136 Humes Road; 27 West Appraisal & Estate SVC, 215 W. Court St.; and The Educational Services Center, 527 S. Franklin St.
TEN WAYS TO HELP HOMELESS KIDS 1. Give teens a place to call home. Make the transitional living program a reality. Consider hosting a fundraiser, talking to your business, community group or place of worship about the capital campaign to raise funds for the transitional living program. Checks can be made out to Project 16:49 and mailed to ECHO, 65 S. High St., Janesville, WI 53538. Donations are tax-deductible. Donations also can be made online at project1649.org 2. Become a safe home for teens. E-mail Emily Tofte, Lutheran Social Services, at Emily.Tofte@lsswis.org for more information. 3. Pledge $16.49 a month to support safe homes for teens. Visit wix.com/reburgos/ 164900 to offer a pledge. Be sure to include the line “donation to cost center 1740” in comments to ensure your contribution will go to the safe homes program. 4. Become a mentor: In the Janesville area, call Gayle Hotchkiss for Connections mentoring at (608) 743-5831. In the Beloit area, call Robin Stuht for the Beloit Memorial High School Lunch and Learn program at (608) 361-3179. In Beloit or Janesville elementary schools, call the Lunch Buddies coordinator at (608) 362-8223. 5. Donate bus tokens, gas cards or retail gift cards to your local homeless education program. These gifts can provide transportation to school and basic needs for homeless children and teens. Call Stuht in Beloit at (608) 361-3179 or Ann Forbeck in Janesville at (608) 751-7779. 6. Volunteer at local shelters. Local shelters count on the support of volunteers. In the Janesville area, call the Volunteer Network at (608) 757-3058. In the Beloit area, call the Voluntary Action Center at (608) 365-1278. 7. Join the Homeless Education Action Team. E-mail aforbeck@janesville.k12.wi.us to be added to the e-mail list. 8. Donate to your local school district to help meet the basic and academic needs for homeless students. In Janesville, or for contact information in other communities, call Forbeck at (608) 751-7779. In Beloit, call Stuht at (608) 361-3179. 9. Help spread the word. Call Forbeck or Stuht and invite them to speak to your community group, place of worship or business. 10. Challenge stereotypes about the homeless. Forty percent of homeless people are children. Source: Homeless Education Action Team
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter
Feb 9, 2011 at 5:43 p.m.
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Use donations to directly fund housing for these young kids,but service should be free we provide to them. If we as a community don't help them they either bring problems to our community or they can receive support grow to be amazing adults who will turn around an help in this community !!! volunteering can be the difference. I know that's what I want to do!
Jan 28, 2011 at 11:58 a.m.
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Shelterman- I hope you do not think that writing a resume would be a job skill you could help anyone with. If your post was a resume it would hit the round file before the second sentence.
Jan 28, 2011 at 6:22 a.m.
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Okay, so there may be some kids that "choose" to run away and be homeless. Yet, many of these kids are "throw aways" because the parents aren't able to support themselves and their kids for whatever reason.
Aren't our kids, the future generations, worth a few cents a day? Heck, they'll (hopefully) be supporting us when we're older and not able to help ourselves.
Jan 28, 2011 at 6:22 a.m.
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nonprofiter you're right. It is very expensive trying to deal responsibly with the issues of homeless children without active parents but it needs to be done. As you so clearly show us a burden shared is not much of a burden.
Jan 28, 2011 at 6:20 a.m.
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Students that are in their 20s include, but are not limited to, those with disabilities.
Jan 27, 2011 at 8:02 p.m.
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if you let me do it my way iwould not need your money not only could i feed shelter and cloth them icould give them jobs skills in relationship building character and personality you can educate them i could care for three times as meny children back off your compliance and regaltion your zones ordenaces and codes let the poor take care of the poor we will always do a better job anyway by the time the money trickles down nothings left but scraps
Jan 27, 2011 at 7:24 p.m.
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In response to the recurrent comments about cost, consider this: A facility serving minors around the clock must be staffed around the clock by paid professionals - minimal staffing would be almost $400,000 over 3 years. Add a manager/supervisor/director and someone to do maintenance. Add a caseworker to try to help the kids move into a permanent situation, learn how to keep a household, and be a responsible adult.
Of course staff is going to be much of the cost. Who do you think is going to help these thrown-away children get on their feet? Putting a roof over their head is just the start of some very intensive work - work that doesn't magically happen.
Add the liability insurance, and the costs of compliance with regulations, and other basic costs of operating a building round-the-clock, and you'll get to that 3-year total pretty quickly.
No matter how hard up some of us are, this community as a whole can come up with the money it will take to get the job done. If I'm doing my math right, 15 cents a day, per resident of Janesville, would cover the cost to operate this facility.
Two cents a day per child. Are you telling me that these thrown-away children aren't worth your spare change?
Jan 27, 2011 at 4:36 p.m.
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11) Hire the homeless. There's a guy at work we hired that was living at a shelter. His new supervisor drove him around to find an apartment, and he's been with us ever since.
Jan 27, 2011 at 2:39 p.m.
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Marge123, I thought the same thing. And what students are in their 20's? When I saw the article I thought great where do I sign up, but something is just not right about this. How could it possibly cost that much and be directing the money towards the kids. Is there a director and staff that is going to eat up most of it?
Jan 27, 2011 at 2:03 p.m.
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This sounds great,but 1 million for 3 years for (a max of) 12 young people is more then 27 thousand per person per year. I know family's that are living with less then that. Perhaps I'm missing something? (I hope)
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