WCU helping homeless students during 5-week winter break

During its five-week winter break when most students leave campus, WCU will continue its tradition of helping those students who are homeless by providing, at no cost, rooms in the residence halls, meals, and the friendship of university staff.

Throughout the winter break, 28 students who do not have residences will be able to stay in warm rooms thanks to the Office of Residence Life and Housing Services; take a winter-session bus shuttle provided by the Facilities Division; and count on the lasting friendship of Head Football Coach Bill Zwaan, Associate Director of Housing and Dining Administration Susan Visoskas, those in the Division of Student Affairs, Aramark Dining Services, and many, many others.

Thanks to a universitywide holiday drive currently being launched by Coach Zwaan with the help of staff in the Division of Student Affairs, gifts for the students will be collected on Monday, Dec. 17, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. at Coach Zwaan’s office, located at 850 South New Street, West Chester, as well as Sykes Student Union (Room 209), located at 110 West Rosedale Avenue, West Chester.

Several years ago, Coach Zwaan, his siblings, and Tori Nuccio, who acts as the Single Point of Contact for homeless and foster youth at WCU, decided to forego their gift-giving to be Santa to students at WCU who are homeless. WCU has been providing service to students on campus who are homeless since 2014. The university named its longterm efforts the Promise Program thanks to organizer Tori Nuccio.

The Promise Program is a campus support program for homeless and foster youth, and provides monthly group dinners, access to free housing over breaks, programming, and much more.

WCU also provides a Resource Pantry for WCU students in need, which provides fresh food from the University’s South Campus and Tanglewood Gardens, as well toiletries, winter and career attire, and school supplies. Recently, the Resource Pantry organized its second annual Operation S.N.O.W. (Student Needs Over Winter) project where food and personal-care items, which were collected last month by 12 student organizations and several WCU offices, were packed for Promise Program students.

The packs have been delivered to campus residence halls and kitchens where Promise Program students will be staying during the 2018-2019 winter break. The Resource Pantry will remain open throughout the university’s winter break, with the exception of being closed Dec. 24 through Jan. 1. The Resource Pantry (www.wcupa.edu/pantry) resides within the Office of Service Learning & Volunteer Programs, and is supported by the Office of Financial Aid, Division of Student Affairs, and very generous donors through the WCU Foundation.

In addition, since the summer of 2016, University Student Housing (USH), which is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation, offers housing scholarships for students who would be forced to return to shelters at the completion of the spring semester. As a result, summer housing is offered to students who are categorized as “unaccompanied homeless and foster youth.”