LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Based on the Clark County College District, greater than 13,000 college students are experiencing homelessness in Clark County.
“I predict it’s going to be very similar to last year, I don’t think the numbers are going to go down,” Meg Pike with CCSD mentioned.
The district has applications and companions with different organizations to offer them help.
Former pupil of Rancho Excessive College Jazzmine Adair shared with 8 Information Now her story about experiencing homelessness whereas in class.
“My first period, I was always late because I would change in the bathroom like every day,” Adair mentioned. “[I] experiencing homelessness, an abusive household, [and] moving around.”
Adair mentioned she hung out dwelling in shelters to even sleeping in a park along with her household.
“I categorize it as the best and worst time of my life,” she mentioned.
Timing is every little thing, and she or he mentioned it’s what makes her good at her job now.
Having walked the halls as a pupil at Rancho Excessive College, she now walks them working for the nonprofit that helped her discover a path ahead.
Communities in Faculties of Nevada helps underserved college students to remain in class.
It’s out there to college students at faculties like Rancho Excessive, the place school-based applications empower youngsters like Adair.
“They need somebody to tell them they can do it,” Adair mentioned.
Faculties usually associate with nonprofits to assist college students thrive.
Whereas Communities in Faculties is a helpful useful resource, it will possibly’t do it alone. It really works with CCSD’s Title 1 Homeless Outreach Program for Training, or HOPE, to take away boundaries for college students experiencing homelessness.
It additionally companions with an internet nonprofit known as Purposity.
That is an app the place neighborhood members can help college students with out leaving their properties by means of easy donations from a cellular phone. It is a year-round effort, particularly in the course of the holidays.
“I’ve also seen people request suitcases on that platform because people are moving around,” Meg Pike, CCSD’s Title 1 HOPE coordinator, mentioned.
She’s one out of 13 employees members in this system overlaying all the faculty district.
“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want to be homeless,'” Pike mentioned. “I think it’s easy for the general public, it’s not easy for this staff or anybody in this building, partly because we are mandated to know how many students.”
Her message: nobody ought to neglect that.
“I am positive that there are families out there that are experiencing that right now,” she shared.
Proper now, many applications and nonprofits throughout the valley are making it simpler for them. Most of all for present and former college students like Jazzmine, who now really feel seen.
“I love being here,” Jazzmine mentioned about working for Communities in Faculties at Rancho Excessive College.
Pike mentioned for the 2023-24 faculty 12 months, greater than 230 college students had been served by means of Purposity donations.
She additionally talked about that the varsity district is engaged on a documentary known as “Learning to Survive: A Lesson in Student Homelessness.” It addresses college students experiencing homelessness in Clark County. On the time this story was revealed, a set air date for the documentary was but to be decided. Based on its YouTube web page, it was speculated to be out by Spring of 2025.
