1. Supporting Homeless Students & Families Internship: A School District/University Partnership Alyssa Bogdanowicz, Sarah Forte, and Bill Stover

2. Introductions Bill Stover District Liaison Director of Family Community Partnerships Alyssa Bogdanowicz Sarah Forte Masters interns, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

3. Objectives ● Introduce the Windham community ● Introduce the Windham Collaborative Assistance Project ● Explain the University/District collaboration ● Discuss past collaboration achievements ● Discuss current goals and work

4. Windham, Connecticut ● Shares the town with Eastern Connecticut State University ● 20 minutes from Storrs, UConn ● Richly diverse ● Connecticut’s second poorest community

5. 2013 Windham School Demographics ● 3,124 students in grades k-12 ● 60% of student population is Latino/Latina ● 35% of students come from homes where English is not the primary language

6. ● 79% of students eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch ● As of June 2014, 160+ students were identified as homeless. (This is 5% of the student population.) o 22 students in high school, 34 in middle school, 84 in elementary school ● As of Thursday, October 23, 2014, over 60 students have been identified as homeless. Windham School Demographics

7. What is WCAP? Windham Collaborative Assistance Project “The Windham Collaborative Assistance Project is designed to promote student success, support families, inform educators, and enhance opportunities for homeless students in the Windham community.”

8. ● Committed to serving Windham’s homeless children & youth ● Designed to remove the barriers for homeless children ● Goal: to ensure that ALL homeless children and youth are enrolled in schools & working to maintain their educational advancement, housing stability, and life skills o If appropriate, connect them with career guidance and employment What does WCAP do?

9. ● In 2010, an honors student at the University of Connecticut wanted to research attitudes about homelessness. ● In the spring of 2011, a conversation began between UConn’s internship program and the district homeless liaison office. ● In the fall of 2011, a collaboration between UConn’s Master’s program and the Windham Public School district resulted in 3 interns being assigned to the district homeless liaison office. How did the university partnership get started?

10. Integrated Bachelors/Masters program ●Acceptance into program in junior year, full time student teaching in senior year, internship Masters year ●Master’s internship is 18 hours/week ●Focus of Masters year - developing teacher leadership skills ●15-18 graduate credits/semester alongside internship ●Inquiry project The University of Connecticut’s teacher prep program

11. What do the Interns do? ●Get to know the community and the resources it has to offer for people living in a homeless situation o WAIM (Windham Area Interfaith Ministry) o Soup Kitchen o Shelters

12. ●Work directly with individuals in Windham’s Office of Homeless Family Support to develop & coordinate effective intervention strategies for homeless students o Divide the students among interns’ caseloads ●Work with school staff to identify homeless students who qualify for support o Faculty meetings o Meeting family liaisons, administration, staff What do the interns do?

13. ●Work in close collaboration with teachers to identify needs and determine how to best support students ●Work with a caseload of identified students on a regular, scheduled basis o one-on-one or small group o in the classroom or pullout o monitor attendance and progress reports o develop awareness in community about homeless issues What do the interns do?

14. ●Established roles and responsibilities of interns ●Collaborated with family liaisons to connect with school and community personnel ●Developed informational materials about homelessness in both English and Spanish ●Learned about community culture and developed relationships with students o Focused particularly at the secondary level ●Researched welcoming strategies for new families in the district, particularly for those with limited English proficiency Year 1 Interns

15. ●Developed procedures and schedules for working with students in classrooms o Focused at the elementary level ●Set up the protocol to meet with faculty and administrators at the start of the school year ●Collaborated with community organizations to meet students’ needs ●Investigated the role of parent involvement (both internal and external) in literacy development in grades K-3 Year 2 interns

16. ●Investigated awareness of issues of homelessness and community resources ●Worked with students at elementary and secondary level ●Created a survey for teachers, staff, and parents Year 3 interns

17. ●73% of staff and 89% of family/community members underestimated the real number of homeless students in the community. ●School professionals and members of the community named transportation and school uniforms as the most important resources ●Among school professionals and community members, 54% were aware of all resources available to families and youth. Year 3 Survey Results

18. ●Continue to provide support in classrooms at elementary and secondary levels ●Create Local School Teams at each school: homeless family outreach person, family liaison, UConn intern, and school teacher and/or social worker ●Ensure that homelessness resources and issues are included on the school website Our goals for this year

19. ●Investigate student awareness of homelessness ●Design & implement a service learning curriculum focused on homelessness o Work directly with middle school students o Leave curriculum for future implementation o Raise student awareness of homelessness Inquiry Project

20. Questions?

21. How could a collaboration like this work in your own school district? Think-Pair-Share