School of Hard Knocks: Houston Teen Tackles Homelessness Through Internship Program

HOUSTON, TX — School is back in session for many Houston area kids, and the looming question a majority of them ask their peers is almost always: “How was your summer?”

While most will share stories of family vacations to fun places, or visits with relatives outside the city, most won’t have a story quite like Crystal Gamboa’s.

Crystal, who graduated from YES! Prep in Houston in June, received the education of lifetime working with homeless families with SEARCH Homeless Services.

“In my high school, we’d learned a lot about climate change and other issues, but I’d never really learned about the homeless issue,” she said. “I just wanted to learn more about something I’d never knew about...that no one ever talks about. “

Crystal was selected to receive a student leader internship with SEARCH through Bank of America.

The program pairs 225 junior and senior high school students with community organizations nationwide.

As part of her internship with SEARCH Homeless Services, Crystal worked with homeless families to identify child care needs, and look for ways to overcome barriers.

During her eight-week long internship, Crystal gathered information through agency surveys, from agencies that work with SEARCH, to determine how many families were out there that needed access to quality child care while these families are working or looking for work, how many children these families had, and the obstacles homeless families had to getting their children into child care.

The information gathering took a month, she said.

“Some of the barriers were transportation, but the cost of childcare is really expensive too for these parents,” Crystal said. “A lot of them asked their friends or relatives to take care of their children.”

Other families who had children with special needs, required art therapy or speech therapy from daycare providers, something that many daycares don't provide.

Child behavior was another factor among homeless families who had children that really hadn't had any interaction with children outside their immediate families, becaue of the hardship of being without a stable home.

“Children of families who have struggled with homelessness and poverty, they haven’t necessarily had the stability in their lives, and the parenting that really gives them structure,” said Thao Costis, president and CEO of SEARCH Homeless Services.

The onsite daycare at SEARCH, known as the House of Tiny Treasures, is able to help with this but space is always limited

Founded in 1989, SEARCH Homeless Services is an interfaith nonprofit organization that helps those homeless families move from the street and homeless shelters, into stable housing and to find jobs to keep them off the street

“Our services start with engaging people on the street through mobile outreach,” Costis said.

Once the contact is established with the families to find the stability and safety they heed, particularly the children, who often are caught in the middle of their parents difficulties.

SEARCH works with a number of local homeless organizations, such as Star of Hope Missions in downtown and Northwest Assistance Ministries (NAM) in Spring to ensure the families have every resource available to help themselves.

Costis said these partnerships are helping to reduce homelessness in Houston and has become a “national model.”

Meanwhile, as part of the internship program, Crystal and other student leaders met with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill during the Student Leadership Summit.

“We discussed how to build a more diverse society and gain a better understanding of how cross-sector collaboration creates a community impact,” she said.

The week-long summit included activities that allowed student leaders to role-play, placing them in situations that homeless or low income families may encounter; discussions with congressional leaders on poverty, and participation in workshops to build successful financial habits.

“It was great meeting everyone and building connections,” Crystal said.

It was a summer that opened Crystal’s eyes to the subject of homelessness, and she is hoping that she can parlay that experience into something meaningful later on, when she completes her degree.

But that won’t be for a while.

Last week, Crystal started her post-high school career at the University of Houston.

“I learned so much from this internship,” she said. “There are so many aspects that opened my eyes to a greater issue, that I’d never heard about.”

Image: SEARCH Homeless Services

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