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Rotary Club of Surprise is requesting district funding in the amount of $3,000 to provide services and support to a homeless teens in the Dysart School District with the purpose of making certain that they have a stable environment that allows them to stay in school.
In the 2013 AZ Homelessness Annual Report, the Department of Education Homeless Education Office reported 31,097 children were homeless throughout the state. In the 34 West Valley high schools served by Homeless Youth Connection, over 500 youth have been identified as homeless. HYC's goal is to establish a total of ten host homes to assist the youth who are unaccompanied, and/or couch surfing. Currently, there are no housing programs for homeless youth in the West Valley.
To address housing needs, HYC has implemented a Host Family program. Host homes are a low-cost, community-engaging strategy to address the immediate need without incurring the high costs of operating an emergency shelter or transitional housing program (estimated at $25,000 annually per youth). The host family provides shelter, food and sometimes transportation for youth, while the organization delivers case management services. The funds from this grant will go directly to providing services while our sponsored teens are with the host family.
According to the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, the host family model is the most effective method in addressing housing for homeless youth. There is almost a 100 percent success rate for youth participating in this type of program to graduate from high school. HYC has partnerships between school organizations, service organizations and the ecumenical community within the school district to establish the host homes and provide a support network to assist with transportation, tutoring, meals and other needs.
Rotary Club of Surprise will augment the financial assistance with volunteers to help mentor, tutor, transport and provide an accessible network of support to assist both host families and the teens to assure success.
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