1. Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges
Dee Stalnecker, LSW, BCBA
Derry Township School District

2. Objectives
Participants will explore their own ideas about poverty as well as stereotypes associated with poverty
Participants will be given a brief overview of the Hidden Rules of Economic Class (Payne, 2008)
Participants will identify barriers that prevent children in poverty access their education
Participants will leave with practical ideas they can implement in their school or community that break down those barriers and build bridges.

3. Task for this session Pick something for which you are passionate:
Hunger
School Supplies
Beds
Choose ONE idea, build upon it, make it happen!

4. What does poverty look like to you?

5. What poverty can also look like

6. HIDDEN RULES OF POVERTY

8. What are some barriers? Home Communication Food Shelter Clothing Beds
School supplies
Academic help
Mentors
Access to/funds for extra curricular activities
Others?

9. But sometimes the man just needs a fish because he’s starving!!!
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time.
Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie
But sometimes the man just needs a fish because he’s starving!!!

10. Is everything online?
Not all families have internet
Many do not have a computer at home and use their cell phone as their internet
- Difficult to complete forms on line
- Difficult to open various web pages online; including teacher’s web pages for homework.

11. Communication Bridge Internet Essentials - internetessentials.com
Have a computer in the lobby of each of your schools that parents can come and use to access school websites
Ask teachers to also make forms and other such information available on paper.
Does your community public library have computers for free use?
Refurbished computers – tech department and students refurbish outdated computers. Strip them down, rebuild and are given to families in need.

12. FOOD

13. Food banks
Weekend Food Packs
School Based food pantries
Personal Care items
Tapping into restaurants for day old items (Panera, Bagel Rack, etc)
Use Meansdatabase.com app for restaurants that have unused items within a certain radius

14. SHELTER

15. SHELTER

16. Agency Help
Do you know what agencies help with transitional or temporary housing?
Are there hotels-motels that have rooms for folks who are homeless?
Churches, Family Promise, Safe Families for Children, HELP office, YWCA

17. Love INC and Communities That Care
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Find a Love INC or CTC in your area
Love INC hub of the ministerium and mobilize ideas, projects, needs, etc
Transportation, Faith and Finance Classes, Personal Care closet, Transitional Housing, etc.
CTC encourages community mobilization to fill gaps in services for student success

18. Clothing
Coats for kids: free admission to a game if you bring a new or used coat, coat drives for staff and/or students
PTO funds
Churches
Store chains – Boscov’s helps with coat drives
Gives you big discounts
Shop or hold your coat drive in January and early February
Hold a big distribution of clothing
Work with the clothing banks
Gym uniforms

19. BEDS

20. Beds
Lack of sleep can affect children’s school performance in two major ways:
First, when children are in class, they can have trouble paying attention because of their difficulty focusing. They can miss important verbal lessons due to inattention or they may be unable to complete tasks in the classroom.
Second, children form their memories best during sleep. Children who sleep well at night will remember the previous day’s lessons better than children who are sleep deprived.
Studies have shown that sleep deprived children have more difficulty focusing and staying on task. They may also have more impulsive or defiant behavior. (Rosen, 2013)

21. Beds Staff donates beds Stores bringing in new stock
Blow up mattresses
Bed in a bag
Community member with a storage unit
Buildings and grounds staff helping

22. School Supplies Stuff a bus CAIU Ministries PTO
Kids may not need the supplies at school but will need supplies at home to complete projects or homework (rainbow words, posters, etc)

23. Academic Help After school tutoring Lunch time volunteers
Teachers, volunteers
Need transportation home
Lunch time volunteers
Online homework help – teacher, HS student, student teacher holds an online homework session.

24. Books on Board Communities That Care
Book mobile goes to the communities for parents to borrow books to read to their preschoolers.
Story time
Summer reading program for children of all ages

25. Mentors
HS students mentoring younger students and get class credit (when buildings are close in distance)
Reading help, teacher assistant, big brother/sister type activities
Writing letters, face timing, building that bridge of community across the district
Social skills, puppets
Big Brother/Big Sister in schools
Ophelia Groups

26. Extra Curricular Activities
NEED transportation!!!
Parent volunteers for a “Share a Ride”
Boosters
Late Busses
Scholarships for fees
Free music instrument rentals

27. Rally the Community Cocoa Care Crew
Beds
Homes
Legal help
Jobs/job fairs
Having of families that want help with things
Voluntary access so these families can be made aware of programs

28. RALLY THE SCHOOL Casual for a Cause Expand fund raisers PTO
Use dress down money for something WITHIN the school
Snacks for afterschool tutoring
Fund for individual needs – Helping Hands
Pay for play
Expand fund raisers
Add a dollar for t-shirts for a cause
PTO
You matter t-shirts $2 to cocoa packs

29. Connect the dots Cocoa Packs Donate a book program on food items
Library gets books
Library forgives fines for food
Food for Cocoa Packs

30. Teach a man to Fish PSU Nutrition coalition Vegetables for summer
Tomato plants provided to families
Families learn how to grow tomato plant
Vegetables for summer

31. Youth Impact Project Northern York School District
Serves Adams, Cumberland, Perry and York Counties
Back pack, school supplies
Sneakers
Hair cut
Family Pic
groceries
I’d love to have Vaccines, cleaning supplies, physicals, dental needs

33. Resources
Payne, R. (2008) A Framework of Understanding Poverty. Highlands: aha Process, Inc.
Rosen, Joseph. "Why Sleep Deprivation Can Affect Your Child's Performance in School | Scrubbing In." Scrubbing In. Baylor, Scott and White Health, 25 Sept Web. 11 Oct < affect-your-childs-performance-in-school/>.