Over 1,600 students at Cleveland Metropolitan School District are considered “homeless” by the school district, often living in emergency shelters, transitional housing, or doubled-up with other families.
The district has a program called Project ACT that tries to help them with resources so they can focus on their education. That includes things like bookbags, clothes and food, said Project ACT Director Marcia Zashin.
There are also 13 life-skills coaches through Project ACT who work with the students, especially at the elementary level, to help them catch up to their peers.
“We work with the classroom teachers because we know that homeless kids are two to three years behind their peers in academics,” Zashin said. “So one of the things that we concentrate on with our elementary kids is making sure that everybody can read… and also do basic math.”
This time of year is especially tough for families experiencing homelessness, Zashin said, with parents calling in and stating they don’t have anything to give their children for Christmas. The life-skills coaches provided gifts for students this year, and some departments at the district also “adopted” families in order to provide them with presents. Meanwhile, for about 30 “unaccompanied” students – who don’t currently have family to stay with – the Cleveland Browns stepped up and provided them with gifts and a chance to watch them practice at their practice stadium in mid-December.
Zashin said Project ACT works with a variety of other nonprofits and social services agencies throughout Cleveland to try to address other needs the students, and their families, have. The students also participate each month in The Reading Company, a literacy program at Playhouse Square in the Idea Center.
She said the life-skills coaches have seen students’ academics and motivation improve after working with them, including graduation rates.
“It's just that when they know that there's somebody who really cares about them and supports them, they really want to do better and they want to show you that they can do it,” she said.
Project ACT – which costs about $1 million annually - receives about $400,000 from the state of Ohio through a grant each year. But the program also received a significant boost from federal pandemic relief money, money which is not permanent.
After that money runs out in June of 2024, the district will likely be losing six of its 13 life-skills coaches, Zashin said.
