The Georgetown Project expands, relocates The Nest
Throughout the 2012–13 school year, 351 students in Georgetown ISD—including about 75–100 in the district's high schools—were identified as homeless or living in transition, said Leslie Janca, The Georgetown Project executive director.
In November 2011, following about five years of studying the issue of homelessness in GISD, The Georgetown Project opened The Nest, a drop-in day center for homeless teens in GISD.
"Our end goal has always been to fill that gap for local shelters for homeless youth, and that's really why we got into this in the first place," Janca said. "It had been an identified community need for years that we had no local shelter for our youth that were homeless or living in transition."
On Oct. 1 the project expanded and opened its first host home in partnership with STARRY, an affiliate of Children at Heart Ministries based in Round Rock that provides foster care services and the emergency shelter in Round Rock.
In 2012, 63 high school students took advantage of The Nest drop-in center's services, including access to showers, laundry, counselors and dinner, Janca said. The center also offers a place to get homework help and hang out after school.
"The drop-in center was a way for us to learn about the population and the unique needs of serving the homeless youth," Janca said. "It has always been about the high school kids who didn't have that daily support in their lives that were out there living in transition."
The Nest has since moved into the first floor of the former Richarte High School at 2201 Old Airport Road and is expected to open Oct. 17, she said.
The GISD board of trustees approved the lease agreement with The Georgetown Project for the use of the former school building at the board's Sept. 16 meeting.
"Obviously we had some cosmetic updates—paint, carpet, things like that—that now that the leases are signed we are going to be doing over the next month or so," Janca said.
Georgetown's first host home
The Georgetown Project's host home is the first of its kind in Georgetown to serve as a temporary shelter for Georgetown youth who are living in transition, homeless or runaways up to age 17.
According to the agreement, The Georgetown Project is providing the physical infrastructure, including the home and grounds, and STARRY is providing training for the host home parents, licensing and the placement of children in the shelter, STARRY Executive Director Richard Singleton said.
The overnight shelter can host 10–12 students depending on their ages and genders and is staffed by a family licensed through STARRY's foster care program, he said.
Students are placed voluntarily in the host home and go through STARRY's Shelter Alternatives and Family Empowerment, or SAFE, program screening process, which works with homeless and runaway youth, SAFE Program Supervisor Toniya Parker said.
The organization comes up with a safety plan, and if agreed to by both the parents and the child, the student may be placed in the shelter for up to 21 days if there is space available.
"Our goal is always family reunification," Parker said, adding that the organization works to identify the conflict or issue keeping the child out of the home and find a solution.
Students may receive services through the SAFE program for up to a year, she said. There is also the option for an additional 21-day stay if the living situation is still deemed unsafe.
"I think we need to remove that stigma and understand that their needs are very vast and intricate," Parker said. "Our program is a way to connect kids with [other organizations] in Georgetown for support. Sometimes that is really what the family needs. And we try to be that connection."
A broader issue
"The homeless issue and the whole orbit around homelessness is probably a much broader and more challenging issue than people probably recognize," Singleton said. "We think about homelessness and we think about somebody with tattered clothes standing on the side of the road and all of that, but the vast majority of our kids are not coming out of situations like that."
According to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001, homeless youth and children lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence, said Zelinda Richards, GISD family specialist/homeless liaison.
Richards said some are sleeping on a friend's couch or are living with multiple families because of economic hardships.
"We deal with mainly the hidden homeless," Richards said. "[Homelessness] exists in every community. It hits every social and economic background and race across the board."
While the school uses the legislation's definition to identify students, Parker said, STARRY has a broader definition, including children who cannot be at home for any reason.
Singleton said there may be other opportunities in Georgetown for more host homes with the project, other area organizations or individual home owners in the community as long as they can be licensed by the STARRY program.
"STARRY has been serving Georgetown families for [more than] 20 years with our counseling program and various other activities," he said. "Georgetown has been nothing but supportive, and the collaborations have been wonderful over the years. It's just been a really exciting opportunity for us to connect and to collaborate."
Each organization—GISD, The Georgetown Project and STARRY—works with other organizations to serve the needs of the children and help identify community partners who are able to provide other services, Singleton said.
"We've come such a long way in a short time as a community with these services. We couldn't have done it without the support we've had," Janca said. "The community has really wrapped their arms around these kiddos."
