-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Charles
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 10:40 PM
To: 'The Sandbox Discussion List'
Subject: [Sndbox] This is how private charity can make a difference....While I'm not sure that the school is the right place to be doing it, I applaud the community coming together to show that private charity *can* do the job without gvt. help.Schools help to dress, feed kids they teach
Health care, legal aid also provided
November 11, 2003
BY CHASTITY PRATT
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Felicia McCray's daughter came home last year from Carstens Elementary School on Detroit's east side with a new burgundy coat.
Kayja, now 9, also showed her mother her new hat, gloves, shoes, uniform, hair accessories and a voucher to Payless ShoeSource to get another pair of shoes.
RELATED CONTENT Where to find help McCray, a stay-at-home mother of two, doesn't remember filling out any forms asking for help. But she gladly took the freebies. "It's not like we're a charity case," she said. "But if you're willing to help me, I'm willing to be helped."
With the state unemployment rate more than double what it was three years ago, the village is now helping to raise the children.
Detroit schools -- and many suburban schools -- are offering families more help this year in meeting children's basic needs.
In Macomb County, employees at Warren Consolidated Schools had a dress-down day Monday; they made a donation in exchange for dressing casually for work. The money will provide vouchers for coats, scarves and mittens for needy students.
The district also provides many other services. "We do everything from coordinating food pantries, clothing and school supplies, and coats, hats and mittens," said district spokesman Bob Freehan.
In Oakland County, a program sponsored by T&C Federal Credit Union provides all Pontiac district schools with everything from backpacks to pencils. And school fund-raisers help principals help families who could use a hand with food, clothing and supplies, said Joscelyn Andrews, spokeswoman for Pontiac schools.
In Waterford, Rhonda Lessel, community relations specialist, said some parent-teacher groups even raise funds to help pay field trip fees for needy students.
Services in Detroit public schools range from dentistry to household goods to clothing.
"The problem is children are not coming to school ready to learn," said Abby Phelps, Communities In Schools program director at Carstens. "I've never written so many referrals for emergency assistance. I'm really exhausted because the need is so great."
Communities In Schools, a national nonprofit group, spent $11 million on after-school and emergency assistance programs in 66 Detroit public schools last school year. This year, the organization has budgeted $12 million.
Phelps points to the jobless rate as a possible reason the school is helping more families. In September, 379,000 Michiganders were unemployed -- up from 171,000 in September 2000.
"Parents feel so defeated by the socioeconomic situation," Phelps said.
But if a child needs help, their parents probably can get it at Carstens, where 78 percent of students are classified as economically disadvantaged under the free and reduced lunch program.
With donations from community and business partners, the school offers a slew of emergency assistance. Last year, for instance, the school sent each of the 500-plus students home with a Thanksgiving turkey.
Parents in dire need of food can get a voucher to Gleaners Community Food Bank to tide them over for a week or so. Need eyeglasses? The CIS has a partnership with Pearle Vision for free eye exams and glasses.
In a warehouse on the east side, CIS has tons of items donated by Bed, Bath & Beyond, the Disney Store and the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources, a nonprofit that collects donated merchandise from businesses and distributes it to schools. The warehouse is crammed with boxes of toilet seats, Snow White costumes, slippers, stationery, feather beds, blenders, curtains, soap and every imaginable household good.
The types of available free assistance varies, with most of the help funneled through elementary and middle schools.
Student Assistance Services Inc.,or SASI, a group formed by retired Detroit schools administrators, spends about $50,000 a year on clothing, eyeglasses and hearing aid repairs, using funding from a United Way grant.
Teachers and attendance agents, commonly known as truant officers, identify students who need help.
Through SASI, parents have received vouchers of up to $50 per child to stores such as Kmart, said Sylvia Hollifield, director of the Office of Student Assistance and Intervention Programs.
Parents must fill out applications for SASI assistance, which are screened to ensure the neediest families get the vouchers, said George Eason, an attendance agent and SASI board member.
The most dire situations get priority, such as a family whose home is destroyed by fire or belongings ruined from being put out on the street because of an eviction, Eason said. About 20 percent of the 10 to 20 homes he visits per day may need or want SASI help.
On a recent Friday, Eason drove to several homes on Detroit's west side looking for students who have missed weeks, and in some cases months, of school. After knocking on doors at several dilapidated homes, he stopped at one with marijuana paraphernalia on the lawn outside and tattered furniture inside.
The 14-year-old McMichael Middle student at the home had missed most of this school year. The mother said the girl often wakes up in the morning and says she can't go to school because she can't find her uniform.
Eason did not mention SASI assistance to the mother. He suspected the problem was not clothing, but parental guidance.
"These kids come out of some serious situations," he said.
School officials also look out for parents who try to cheat and get SASI applications from multiple schools their children attend, or those who come back every year for help, Eason said.
At Crary Elementary on Detroit's west side, extra blue and white uniforms hang on a rack in the parent resource room. There are job postings and parenting handbooks that include everything from recipes to homework advice and financial planning.
Paula Johnson, the CIS program director, said part of the reason schools have to step in to help is some parents don't know how to properly raise children.
"Parents don't have the tools. We have to go back to the basics," said Johnson. "It may not be the school's responsibility, but the truth of the matter is it becomes society's responsibility when our children don't have the things they need."
At Carstens, the aim is to create a full-service community school, Phelps said.
Once a week, parents line up to get free help with such problems as landlord-tenant disputes and utility shutoffs from a legal aid attorney who visits the school.
"We don't want people to lose their children because they can't provide some things," Phelps said. "We're a community. We're taking care of this together."
Contact CHASTITY PRATT at313-223-4537 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Staff writers Marsha Low, Teresa Mask and Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki contributed to this report.
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