Lending a hand to homeless students in Gordon County
After being evicted from his home two years ago, one Gordon County student tried to keep word of his circumstances private. He wasn’t sure what others would think about the news or how they might react to it. He did not want to be treated differently, and so, he kept up appearances. He did not confide in anyone for weeks until, finally, he spoke with a lunchroom worker at school. The very next day, he was given the help he had been too nervous to ask for.
Molly Townsend, school social worker and homeless liaison for Gordon County Schools at the time, worked with him to make sure he had a safe place to live and could continue his education as he had previously. The student was later accepted into the University of Georgia with all tuition and expenses covered. It was a dream that he said he could not have achieved on his own, and he credited Townsend and other school counselors, social workers, volunteers and community organizations with helping him make it happen.
Calhoun City Schools Homeless Case
Manager Nicole Errickson, who previously worked as a school social worker for Gordon County Schools, said that student’s reality is not uncommon locally. Nearly 400 students in Calhoun and Gordon County schools are homeless this year, she said.
As defined by the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which ensures the educational rights and protections for children and youth experiencing homelessness, homeless students are those without “a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.” That means that a student is homeless whether they are temporarily sleeping on a friend’s couch or with the rest of their family in a motel room rented daily.
“In our community right now the biggest struggle I see is affordable housing,” Errickson said. “I think it’s something like 92 percent of families we’ve identified as homeless are living with other people or living in hotels. We have a lot of people paying weekly to live in hotels at this point. That isn’t what people traditionally think of as homeless, but those are the students we are focusing on. Our top priority is helping them have a stable home life so that they are safe and able to finish their education.”
Sometimes helping these students stay in school means finding a more permanent home for them to live in. Sometimes it means helping older students find jobs. Other times it means helping them navigate the college application process or directing students to services to provide more economic and housing opportunities.
Currently, Errickson said both Calhoun City and Gordon County schools are working together to create a coalition targeting the issue of homelessness in the community. It is still in the earliest planning stages but she said she believes it will make a huge difference in the lives of students as well as those whose job it is to care for their wellbeing.
“We’re in such an early part of the process right now that we don’t know what we are going to call it, but we are really focusing our energies on getting that coalition up and running,” Errickson said. “It will make it a little easier for people working in both city and county schools to communicate and share resources. It’s basically us pooling all of our energy and our ideas into one place so that we can help each other reach more kids.”
The members of the coalition will be chosen carefully, she said, though she isn’t sure yet what the criteria for selection will be. Later, she believes it will be open for all community members to join as they see fit.
For now, Errickson said one of the best ways for community members to help students is through the app Purposity. The app launched in 2018 through a partnership with Purposity itself, an online platform that connects those in need with those that can help. Needs that families and students in the community have are sent out to those who have downloaded the app so that they can potentially lend a hand.
“We also have a community resource group through Remind that is for any family, homeless or not, that might have a need,” Errickson said. “If they are signed up to that group, they will get notifications about things like food or clothing giveaways.”
To sign up for Purposity for Calhoun and Gordon County, visit purposity.com/lists/ gordon-county. To learn more about the Remind resource group, contact schools directly.