Park Center High School Works to Help Homeless Students
Park Center High School staff members are setting out to help students who are homeless.
Emily Juaire, the homeless liaison for Park Center High School, said they started something called “Groceries on Wheels” where staff members deliver groceries to students.
“There’s a lot of students that experience homelessness, and there’s all these awesome resources out there, however, transportation is a barrier. So, we’re trying to take those barriers away,” Juaire explained.
Juaire also reached out to the community about donations. She said the community responded in a big way.
“There was an outpouring of people telling me they wanted to help,” said Juaire. “Most of my days has been figuring out who wants to help and how they want to help.”
While students experiencing homelessness are not getting their basic needs, they’re also struggling to connect to classrooms due to limited technology or internet access.
“Some of the things we’ve been working on is making sure they can get connected with resources like Minneapolis provides free internet, Comcast is offering free internet too. For some students, as a school helping them get hot spots through us. So, making sure they can still feel good about school during all this turmoil,” Juaire said.
Juaire explained that homelessness includes families that are bouncing around, doubling with another family, and living in a shelter, hotel or in a car.
Resources
- Hennepin County Shelter
National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
National Center for Homeless Education
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Park Center Senior High School
