Jessie Gaither\u2019s expectations weren\u2019t very high when she connected with the Homeless Children\u2019s Education Fund last summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a chaotic summer last year,\u201d said Jessie, now 16 and a rising junior at Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy. \u201cI thought this would be another program where you\u2019re in there but they won\u2019t help you.\u201d<\/p>\n
To her surprise, she couldn\u2019t have been more wrong.<\/p>\n
The Homeless Children\u2019s Education Fund on Thursday awarded a total of $110,500 to 45 students who have, or are experiencing, homelessness and are graduating high school and enrolling in or continuing post-secondary education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped me out so much \u2014 with clothes, transportation, opportunities, college tours \u2014 and I even met some really amazing friends,\u201d Gaither said. \u201cThey even gave me a chance to really express myself, and they gave me a chance to really see what I can actually push myself to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students received a $2,500 cash award and a new Chromebook.<\/p>\n
AJ Jefferson, the Homeless Children\u2019s Education Fund\u2019s president and CEO, said the money can be used for anything the student needs to assist with completing their education.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost students, when they transition into postsecondary education, have adult supporters. Our students may not,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cOn top of that, they may not have the resources that are needed in order to successfully move to postsecondary education.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the 2023-24 school year, more than 3,600 children in Allegheny County experienced homelessness, the foundation reports. Nationally, one in 30 children ages 13 to 17 experience homelessness over the course of a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe walk alongside our students through the good, the bad, the ups and the downs over the years,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cWe know every student in this room. We have been working with them for years to get them to this place, and we are excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a child has an unplanned move, their education can regress by about six months, Jefferson said. Curriculum gaps between schools, and students\u2019 stress and adjustment, can contribute to the regression.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time a child has to move immediately, it interrupts their continuity in school,\u201d she said. \u201cOur students are moving two to three times per school year, so that could be almost 18 months of regression in school. Our instructors mobilize to wherever students are, and we help them fill that gap. We\u2019re a bridge for that family to get that child back into school consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jefferson\u2019s organization also offers social workers to provide emergency resources to children and their families. Many don\u2019t understand what homelessness is, Jefferson said. She defined homelessness as a person without a fixed, regular or adequate nighttime residence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t necessarily look at a child and decide that they\u2019re homeless,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to dig a little bit deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Xavier Littlejohn, 22, spent some of his early years in the child welfare system. He got connected with the Homeless Children\u2019s Education Fund in 2022, during his senior year at Obama Academy in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.<\/p>\n
Littlejohn had the grades, but college seemed unattainable: A study by The Field Center for Children\u2019s Policy, Practice and Research found that more than 80% of 17- and 18-year-olds in the Pennsylvania foster system say they want to attend college but only about 3% do.<\/p>\n
This year, Littlejohn obtained his bachelor\u2019s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Littlejohn was awarded the Joseph Lagana Perseverance Award, a $500 prize for successfully graduating from a postsecondary education or career training program. Lagana, a longtime educator in the region, founded the Homeless Children\u2019s Education Fund in 1999.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest skills I\u2019ve learned was advocacy and public speaking,\u201d Littlejohn said. \u201cI was never really a public speaker before, and that\u2019s something I often struggled with. But as I did public speaking engagements for them, I learned to come out of my shell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littlejohn said he has done advocacy work for the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our goal to get a majority of our students to where he is,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cHe chose the four-year university route, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we need all of them to go to university or college. It means we want them to continue their learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littlejohn now works for Allegheny County\u2019s Office of Children, Youth and Families. This fall, he plans to attend the Community College of Allegheny County and earn a certificate in supervision and leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan on using that to progress my way up the ladder so I can make more change,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to eventually get to a director role because I want to change the outlook for foster kids going through the system. Whether you\u2019re 16, 10, 8, I want to change their life trajectory and make a positive impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Gaither, the Westinghouse student, said her time with the Homeless Children\u2019s Education Fund helped her with writing and confidence.<\/p>\n
She is considering pursuing a career in acting, law or real estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I get out of school,\u201d she said, \u201cI want to make enough money, and I want to donate to this program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessie Gaither\u2019s expectations weren\u2019t very high when she connected with the Homeless Children\u2019s Education Fund last summer. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-256196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}