The Yellow School Bus Project: Helping Homeless Students Get Ready for School

In this time of widespread reductions in welfare and social service assistance, communities need to find creative ways to help their neediest members. Ms. Vissing describes a model collaborative effort in Durham, New Hampshire, that preserves the dignity of homeless students.

By Yvonne Vissing

AS THE END of summer approaches and the first days of school draw near, most young people look forward to going shopping for new clothes and supplies. They arrive at school in their new shoes and clothes, carting backpacks stuffed with new binders, pens, pencils, crayons, and shiny protractors. Unfortunately, this is rarely the experience of homeless students. Homeless parents struggling to make ends meet can't afford the pens, loose-leaf paper, and other supplies their children need for school, let alone new polar-fleece sweaters or capri pants. Most homeless students must make do with hand-me-downs, secondhand clothes, and last year's jeans and tops. And, while parents may believe that the schools provide the supplies that their children will need, the kids know better -- if you don't have your own supplies, you either have to borrow them or do without.

Even though homeless students may look forward to the start of the school year as a time of new beginnings and an opportunity for a fresh start, just walking through the door on the first day can be intimidating. Homeless students may fear that, without nice new clothes or well-stocked backpacks, they will not be accepted by their peers or, worse, will be targets of ridicule. More important, homeless students are almost certain to be at a disadvantage when it comes to doing the required schoolwork. It's a challenge for many homeless children to do their homework without access to home libraries or Internet-accessible computers, but some have difficulty even doing in-class work because they don't have the necessary supplies.

As a result of federal welfare reform, state budget woes, and the recent economic downturn, welfare and social service assistance has been reduced at the same time as the number of homeless and needy children has grown. There has also been a decrease in charitable contributions to the needy in many communities, as some donors have shifted their contributions to assist victims of terrorism, and others simply have less money to give. In addition, many people concentrate their giving at the holidays, contributing food at Thanksgiving or coats and toys at Christmas. And, while these gifts provide blessed relief to parents of children in need, people generally forget that one of the most important days of a child's year is that first day of school.

THE YELLOW SCHOOL BUS PROJECT

The Yellow School Bus Project (YSBP) was created to provide homeless children with the supplies and clothes they need to succeed in school and feel good about themselves. When given these gifts, the children receive the explicit message that they are smart and worthwhile. They also receive the implicit message that there are people in the community who are invested in their success and who will help them.

Based on our experiences in developing the YSBP, we recommend that others seeking to replicate the program in their communities develop organizational support, identify the need in the community, and create giving opportunities that connect donors to the children as much as possible.

1. Develop organizational support. Undertaking a public service endeavor that may become an integral part of a community's service infrastructure -- with families, schools, and shelters counting on it -- requires ongoing organizational support. The Yellow School Bus Project works best when multiple organizations -- religious, civic, fraternal, business, and nonprofit -- share sponsorship. In Durham, New Hampshire, the decision to create the YSBP as a joint endeavor grew out of communication between the director of the nonprofit Baboosic Center for Child and Community Development and the mission boards of local religious organizations that were looking for a community service project.

The Baboosic Center works directly with the at-need community and so is aware of what Durham's homeless children need for school. The center gives the churches a list of items needed, and the mission boards use it to solicit donations from the congregations. If the churches are unable to meet all of the needs of the homeless children, the Baboosic Center picks up the slack. Clearly, such a joint effort can produce more comprehensive coverage of the back-to-school needs of our community's homeless children. In addition, when a program is sponsored by multiple organizations, there is some natural redundancy built in. If one of the partner agencies needs to withdraw, the other partners remain to sustain the program.

2. Identify the children to be served. The success of a Yellow School Bus Project depends on its ability to identify the children in need in the community. In general, there are two groups of homeless school-age children -- those who are easily identifiable and those who aren't.

The most obvious place to find homeless children is at local shelters. We contacted the directors, social workers, and volunteer coordinators at the three shelters in the Durham area to see if they could refer any children who needed assistance getting ready for school.

However, even though shelters serve many children, most homeless youths will be found living doubled up with other families, in cars, or in other nontraditional situations. These children or their parents may go to extremes to avoid being identified as "homeless," which can result in negative stereotypes, labels, or ridicule. Some parents may even fear losing custody of their children if others erroneously equate homelessness with neglect or abuse. Because homelessness is usually the result of a variety of economic troubles that occur over an extended period of time, it may be useful to view these children as "housing displaced" or "those who are living on the margin."

So how can organizations that wish to run programs like YSBP find these "invisible" children? One way is to contact the local schools to see if they can identify children who need help. We have found that there are several key school personnel who have an "inside track" on which students need help, including the school nurse, the school secretary, the school guidance counselor, the assistant principal, and the principal. The school nurse is often able to identify kids at risk because she knows when students are sick, tired, or absent. Also, because nurses are viewed as being helpful without being social workers, children who will not confide in a guidance counselor may talk to a school nurse. Secretaries can be helpful because they work with student files and know when students change addresses frequently or don't have phone numbers (a sign of possible economic woes). They may also have previously attempted to contact parents in an emergency. Guidance counselors, assistant principals, and principals often have sources of information that can help identify students who may need assistance.

While schools can be useful resources, homeless children and their families may, for myriad reasons, including pride, never let on that they are living on the margin or have fallen off the ladder of upward mobility. Therefore, a Yellow School Bus Project can and should be promoted through articles and advertisements in the local newspapers as well as fliers posted in welfare offices, libraries, and anywhere people in need might logically congregate.

3. Create giving links between the children and donors. In the Durham area, each shelter or school submitted a list of needed items such as "12 binders with papers, eight sets of markers, 10 backpacks, six boxes of crayons," and so on. Some identified the exact items needed by specific children while others provided more generic lists, such as "pencils, rulers, folders, index cards, hole punchers, lunch boxes," so that they would have a stockpile of school supplies to equip new arrivals for their next day at school.

With regard to clothing, some key informants provided detailed lists asking for "underpants, jeans, and sweatshirts for a size-10 boy," "size-3 tennis shoes and socks for a 4-year-old girl," or "size 32A bras." Being so specific allowed donors to feel more connected to an individual child. However, as clothing sizes may vary considerably by manufacturer, many shelters encouraged donations of gift certificates for local department stores, so families could shop for their children's needs. Gift certificates have the additional benefit of allowing children to pick out their own clothes, thus having a similar shopping experience to that of their classmates.

Once the needs of the children have been identified, the sponsoring organizations must ask their members for donations. While every organization must determine the best strategy for reaching its members, we have found that tangible requests, such as a personalized letter, and multiple reminders of the program during the month prior to the cutoff date increase the level of donations. Organizations can also run a newsletter item, make general announcements, and post an explanation of the program along with a list of needed items on a bulletin board in an area where members congregate.

Another effective way to generate donations is to create yellow tags shaped like school buses and print the needed items on them. The tags can specify items such as "1 pencil sharpener," "5 boxes of crayons," or "1 sweater for a size-14 girl." Putting different items on the tags allows people to give according to their ability, as it is imperative that donors feel good about their gifts. The tags can then be hung on a tree like autumn leaves or in any easily accessible location.

It is also a good idea to develop a coding system for the tags that identifies the name of the recipient child or agency to simplify the distribution of incoming donations. This kind of coding scheme is particularly important when working with multiple shelters, agencies, or schools.

The actual distribution of the items provides another opportunity to enlighten those who make donations to a Yellow School Bus Project. Many donors have never set foot inside a shelter. Most have never talked with someone who is homeless. Because of the negative stereotypes that are all too frequently associated with those in need, people who are economically secure may benefit from visiting those who aren't. These interactions allow the donors to see that homeless children look the same as other children, they share the same dreams, and they laugh and cry as they play and struggle. Gaining this understanding benefits those who give in ways that are just as important as the material and psychic benefits of those who receive. With preconceptions shattered, those who deliver school supplies and gifts often go on to become advocates for homeless children.

The Yellow School Bus Project can be an effective vehicle for assisting children in need as they enter school. Each community can adjust the program to meet the particular needs of its homeless children as well as those of the organizations that may wish to get involved. In addition to their utility, the gifts of pencils and jackets donated to a YSBP are symbols of expectations. As children walk through the doors of the school well clothed and well stocked with supplies, they carry with them the community's expectations that they are just as good as other children, that they have just as much potential, and that they will make important contributions.

For further information on how you can create a Yellow School Bus Project in your community, write to me at yvonne.vissing@salemstate.edu.

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