Thank you, Lions! Our community is generous and caring. Together we donated 395 pairs of socks to Bethune Transitional Center. So awesome. Thank you!
We delivered the last batch this past Monday. Nancy Izumi greeted us (masked & socially distanced) and was so thankful. Socks will go to LBUSD students and their families who are living with homelessness. Bethune provides assessments, resources, referrals, and support to these students who attend LBUSD schools.
We also had a good talk about Bethune and the state of our LBUSD students who are housing-insecure. Last year there were 6,000 students who were considered "homeless." That term describes children living on the streets, in shelters, group homes, cars, rented rooms, "doubled up" (when a family loses housing and moves into an already-full home), and more. We can only imagine that number has gone up this year due to COVID-19 and the economic hardship so many families are experiencing, in vastly different degrees. However referrals of students to Bethune are way down compared to last year, which tells us we are losing track of students. There certainly are not less children who are homeless. Schools aren’t connecting with the most vulnerable students. Because we are virtual, schools simply don't have stable contact with them due to several reasons, a major one being inequitable access to reliable internet service and technology.
Nancy and Maribel run Bethune. Two women for a program that serves over 6,000 students. We asked the best ways we can support and she said for us parents to learn about just how many of our community’s children face housing insecurity. The more we learn the better we can care.
Longfellow is planning on doing ongoing drives. Bethune needs and gratefully accepts toiletries and socks year-round. We would like to do another drive in the Spring. Stay tuned!
