Kids Caught Doing Good: Addressing Homelessness

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About 100 fourth- through 12th graders who are part of the Plymouth-Canton Community School District’s Student Leadership Council are learning that homelessness isn’t just a problem in inner cities.

It’s close to home, “a problem faced by families right here in our community,” Beth Savalox, the district’s director of development and an adviser to the Student Leadership Council, told The Plymouth Observer.

The Student Leadership Council received an $8,000 grant from the Giving Hope Women’s Giving Circle, a local group that awards grants to help struggling women and families in the Plymouth and Canton communities.

Working with St. Vincent de Paul Detroit’s Journey to Housing program, the students have set a lofty goal: to raise enough money to place one and possibly two local families in housing by the end of the year. To accomplish that, they’ll need to raise between $7,000 and $12,000 per family.

The students have been slapped hard in the face with the reality of homelessness in their back yard.

Samantha McGrath, a 17-year-old senior from Canton, said she was surprised to learn last year that a classmate she had known since middle school was homeless.

“Homelessness became a reality for me right at that moment. I was just stunned. I had known this girl throughout my school career; I went to middle school with her, now high school — she was just like everyone else. Except now, she and her family were homeless,” McGrath said.

And she’s not the only one.

According to a 2014 study by Journey to Housing, there are 78 homeless children in the Plymouth-Canton school district. Michigan ranked fifth nationally and first in the Midwest in the 2014 assessment of homelessness by the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Homelessness is harder to spot in the suburbs than in urban areas, said Lorraine Zaksek, a Plymouth Township resident and longtime St. Vincent de Paul member.

It’s often situational, resulting from sudden events such as joblessness due to injury or illness or the death of the primary wage earner, can throw a family into economic chaos that results in homelessness, Zaksek said.

Canton resident Loren Waddington, one of the founding members of the Giving Hope Women’s Circle, said the students formed an impressive plan to address the problem.

“It is a very unique project,” Waddington said, adding that it closely matches the goals of the Giving Hope group. “These young people are taking the initiative and starting something new to help others in need in our community is really amazing.”

Addressing the problem of suburban homelessness also gives them life skills, Waddington said.

“Philanthropy is a learned behavior,” she said. “When you see others giving it becomes part of your nature. One of our goals is to educate youth on the importance of volunteering and giving.”

» Image by Valerie Everett via Flickr / Creative Commons