Starting in fall 2018, Texas Network of Youth Services, Texas Homeless Network, and Texas Homeless Education Office began working in partnership with all regions of Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey (outside of Harris County) to support schools and community-based organizations in meeting the needs of homeless youth and families displaced by the storm.
Free support included:
- Training and technical assistance for school personnel and community service providers
- Grants to help community-based organizations increase their capacity to better meet the need
We are excited to have built and strengthened our relationships with school and community stakeholders in these areas. See below for some of the project’s accomplishments:
Trainings and Technical Assistance
Throughout the course of the year-long project, Safety Nets for Students and Families offered a series of in-person training events in locations along the Gulf Coast designed to help build skills and strengthen collaboration among those working to support homeless students and families. Trainings were also offered that shared overviews of principles important to this work, such as youth legal rights, crisis intervention, and trauma-informed care using Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI).
TNOYS has also hosted several virtual webinars on building community collaboration and other topics relevant to the Safety Nets project goals. Recordings of the following webinars are available now and more will be added soon:
- November 2018 Webinar Recording: Working with Schools to Support Homeless Students – Click here to access the recording online anytime.
- December 2018 Webinar Recording: Understanding the Legal Rights of Youth (with a focus on homeless youth) – Click here to access the recording online anytime.
- April 2019 Webinar Recording: Building Community Collaborations to Support Youth. Click here to access the recording online anytime
Grants Awarded to Schools and Community Organizations
TNOYS awarded 12 large capacity-building grants to organizations in hard-hit communities as well as 12 mini-grants to help school districts meet direct needs of affected students and families.
Capacity-building grants were awarded as follows:
- Communities in Schools of Southeast Texas – $50,000 to serve Jefferson County by providing direct, intensive case management to homeless students with complex needs in Beaumont, Port Arthur, Nederland and Ehrhart ISDs.
- BCFS Health and Human Services – $50,000 to serve Refugio, Goliad, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio, Aransas, and Bee Counties with a mobile case manager, emergency supplies, outreach, and counseling services for homeless youth and families.
- Connections Individual and Family Services – $50,000 to serve Refugio, San Patricio, Aransas, and Bee Counties with outreach, counseling, case management, crisis intervention, emergency shelter, and supplies for unaccompanied homeless youth as well as homeless families.
- United Way of Brazoria County – $50,000 to serve Brazoria County by enhancing their Coordinated Entry Project by adding a contract case manager focusing upon students identified as homeless through coordination with the homeless liaisons in all seven school districts in Brazoria County. These are Alvin, Angleton, Brazosport, Columbia-Brazoria, Damon, Danbury, Pearland, Sweeny ISDs. Coordinated entry is a one-stop shop for resources for those in crisis.
- Fort Bend Family Promise – $50,000 to connect Ft. Bend County students and families identified by partnering school districts as homeless or at risk of becoming homeless to financial resources to pay for deposits, first month’s rent, or in some cases rental fees for families in jeopardy of eviction due to late rent payments. School districts that may benefit include:Brazos, Fort Bend, Katy, Lamar Consolidated, Needville, and Stafford ISDs.
- Clothed by Faith – $50,000 to operate Clothed by Faith clothing closets in several Fort Bend ISD schools. The CBF clothing closets will provide one week’s worth of clothing, new socks, new underwear to each member of a Fort Bend County family identified as homeless or in need.
- Heartstrings Youth Village – $50,000 to serve Fort Bend County through vouchers for Host Home Support stipends for host families providing safe shelter to unaccompanied and homeless youth offsetting increased costs, and offering case management services to youth struggling with insecure living situations.
- Mid-Coast Family Services – $50,000 to serve Calhoun, Dewitt, Goliad, Gonzales, Jackson, Lavaca and Victoria Counties by providing financial assistance to persons who would be otherwise un-housed and have been negatively impacted or displaced by Hurricane Harvey.
- Communities in Schools of the Coastal Bend – $25,000 to serve Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio, and Aransas Counties with funds going to students and families to provide support in stabilization of housing by providing rent assistance, utilities payment assistance, as well as the purchasing of needed items such as used furniture, appliances, and household products.
- Family Ties Family Resource Services – $50,000 to serve Waller County by providing transitional housing to unaccompanied youth and young adults experiencing homelessness at Family Ties’ Muller House.
- Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response, Inc.– $25,000 to serve Aransas, Bastrop, Brazoria, Calhoun, Kleberg, Lee, Matagorda, Nueces, San Patricio and Victoria Counties by providing direct services to families referred by local school homeless liaisons who are displaced or in substandard housing after Hurricane Harvey. Funds will be used for unmet needs such as home repair and reconstruction.
- Youth and Family Counseling Services – $50,000 to serve Brazoria, Matagorda and Wharton Counties by funding Housing Counselor staff position to assist unaccompanied youth, homeless youth and their families to locate affordable housing and provide individualized case management with the goal of maintaining stable housing.
Click here to read a blog post describing the work of one of our grantees, Heartstrings Youth Village.
The following mini grants have also been awarded to support students identified as homeless as a result of Harvey and their families:
- Hitchcock ISD (Galveston County) – $5,000 to provide clothing and shoes,
- Brush Country Special Education Co-op (multiple counties)- $5,000 to provide assistance with administrative fees, small home and vehicle repairs and mental health services,
- Victoria ISD (Victoria County) – $5,000 to provide food, transportation, utilities, healthcare and housing,
- Santa Fe ISD (Galveston County) – $2,500 to provide food, clothing, transportation, utilities, furniture, healthcare and assistance with administrative fees.
- Port Arthur ISD (Jefferson County)— $5,000 to provide food, clothing, transportation and school supplies
- Beaumont ISD (Jefferson County) – $5,000 to provide food, clothing, furniture/household goods, school supplies, and healthcare.
- Communities in Schools of Southeast Texas (Jefferson County) – $2,500 to provide a washer and dryer, storage carts, clothing racks, clothing, towels, toiletries, shoes school supplies, gas cards, and bus tokens to Charlton-Pollard Elementary School within the Beaumont ISD.
- Galveston ISD (Galveston County) – $5,000 to provide funds for transportation services to assist displaced families living off the island because of limited housing in Galveston.
- Corpus Christi ISD (Nueces County)— $5,000 for food to help feed an estimated 400 students in need
- McKinney Memorial United Methodist Church in partnership with La Marque High School of Texas City ISD (Galveston County)— $5,000 for food, school supplies, clothing, personal hygiene items and other basic needs
- Fort Bend ISD (Fort Bend County)—$5,000 for food, fuel, household items, and senior student expenses. Funds will support a “Place of Peace” project for hurricane survivors.
- Texas City ISD (Galveston County)— $5,000 for food, clothing, hygiene items, utilities, furniture, medical needs, housing and rental assistance, motel/hotel costs and transportation assistance.
Click here to read a blog post about how several of these mini-grants have made a difference.
This project was generously funded by a grant from the Rebuild Texas Fund.
Safety Nets for Student Families is a joint project of: 