June 2009 HEAR US E-Blast

HEAR US E-Blast June 2009
view as a web page

(I'm stuck with this UGLY format--at least for this time around--for our monthly newsletter. If I get the hang of a program that I'm supposed to use, well, this newsletter might look different/better next month! Diane)

Summer--Here's Hoping... Most people welcome the end of the school year. This year, with budget crises abounding, job loss, cutbacks, and greater uncertainties face school and human service personnel just about everywhere. Families are falling into homelessness at an unprecedented rate. It may all seem bad, but it's not. Here's a story to make your day...and more from the HEAR US media collection.

Need something to celebrate in these bleak times? It's the 15th anniversary of "Charlie's Bill." If you're a McKinney-Vento liaison asking what is Charlie's Bill, well, buckaroo, here's a story for you...(excerpt from my book, Crossing the Line: Taking Steps to End Homelessness) The boy in our logo is Charlie...

Year-end Close-out SALE!! HEAR US has some overstock--and we're clearing our shelves! SAVE BIG! Stretch those grant dollars! Limit one FREE offer per order. Sale ends July 31 or as supplies last. FAX, EMAIL or SNAIL MAIL orders. Credit Cards Accepted. ORDER FORM

• MOFW '08 DVD --reg. $40, now $10 @ with $100+ order
  

FREE STUFF:

• Original My Own Four Walls DVD -- FREE with every order over $100! or
  
• REACH DVD--reg. $20, FREE with $200+ orders

Make MOFW work for you! The hardest working tool in your box should be My Own Four Walls. The documentaries and REACH training video (view free) on the MOFW 09 DVD can remover barriers and enlighten all kinds of audiences on McKinney-Vento homeless ed and just homelessness in general. Download (PDF) the Viewers' Guides. Besides the obvious--training educators--here's a plethora of other possible uses:

Youth groups, homeless experience events, police/fire/EMT trainings, community meetings, higher education classes, scout meetings, religious services or education classes, and more...

Sad, but we're not quitting! The May vote on the definition of homeless in the HEARTH Act didn't go well, to say the least. NAEHCY's tenacious Barbara Duffield and her intrepid team of advocates worked with a growing number of enlightened legislators, but it wasn't enough--this time.


So, to further educate lawmakers, HEAR US is planning the most ambitious cross-country tour ever, for now called the Learning Curve Express. We will need help from people across the country who believe kids without a place to call home should get the most help possible, even if they're living outside HUD's current inadequate definition of "homeless."

To keep doing what we're doing, and to do even more, we need your support. Buying our stuff helps a lot! Or join the growing number of HEAR US donors who chip in small amounts each month (or big amounts!). Please help!

More details in our next newsletter. See you soon!

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EVENTS Illinois friends--join me at the July 11th Community Restoration Economics forum in Elgin

New HEAR US Video Teaches Lesson Behind Bars

From behind bars, “Margo” learned an important lesson—her daughter did not need to change schools when she went to jail and the teenager moved in temporarily with her grandmother on the other side of town. After viewing the newly-released HEAR US video, “REACH—Connect Your Children to Education,” narrated by NBC-5 Chicago reporter LeeAnn Trotter, she now knows how to make the law work for her kids.

“I wish I had known this before she changed schools,” lamented Margo as she discussed her daughter’s case with HEAR US president Diane Nilan. Margo’s daughter would have been able to remain in her school under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act, something she and other parents now can learn from the new HEAR US video.

Having the REACH film available online gives parents or caretakers of children a chance to learn about a law that has been in effect nationally for 7 years. An accompanying brochure reiterates the information. It’s a law Nilan was instrumental in getting passed, first in her home state of Illinois back in 1994, and then on the federal level, championed by Congresswoman Judy Biggert (IL-13/R), in 2001. Nilan, in her well-traveled RV (home/office), is heading on her 4^th cross-country venture across the nation’s backroads filming interviews for her newest documentary and giving presentations.

In addition to free viewing online, HEAR US announced that the REACH DVD may be purchased by jails, prison ministries, social service agencies or anyone wanting more information about the homeless education law.

Cook County (IL) Sheriff Tom Dart, who as a state legislator was a sponsor of the Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act, observed,

“Instead of letting kids fall through the cracks, HEAR US’ REACH film provides a roadmap for the educational rights to which each of these children are entitled.”

Dart paved the way for HEAR US to film at Cook County Jail, one of the nation’s largest corrections facilities. HEAR US also surveyed dozens of women and released a report, Mom in Jail: Kids Pay the Price.

Pointing to far more than 1.5 million homeless children and youth, Nilan’s hope is that they have at least consistency of education. “It’s the one stabilizing factor in an otherwise turbulent life,” she points out. “Kids get penalized unnecessarily if people are unaware of this law, and the caregivers often get saddled with additional burdens, such as school fees and needlessly proving residency for the child.”

After spending time in the Dallas area, Nilan heads to El Paso then Las Cruces in her quest to empower homeless parents and to give voice to kids who lack a place to call home. Believing that these kids are the best spokespersons, Nilan will travel far and wide to find them.

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Jail Robs Kids of Moms and Stability

“The most potent ‘homelessness creation’ system for families is poverty,” points out Diane Nilan, a national homelessness activist and president of HEAR US Inc., “and incarceration is the ‘two’ of the one-two punch.” HEAR US Inc. today released their report, “Mom in Jail, Kids Pay the Price,” a look at how incarceration affects both moms and their kids, focusing on children’s educational and housing instability while the parent is locked up.

One of the largest county correctional institutions in the country, Cook County Jail in Chicago, provided the setting for interviews of over 75 non-violent women inmates, most awaiting further court action to determine their fate. CCJ’s Women’s Justice Services oversees various programs for women inmates, and they funded and coordinated this survey.

Board members from HEAR US, the Naperville, IL-based nonprofit organization, conducted face-to-face interviews in September to determine how parents and children fare in the indefinite and unpredictable world of criminal justice.

“Mom in Jail, Kids Pay the Price,” a snapshot that could also apply to thousands of county and local jails nationwide, underscores poverty, housing instability, and haphazard childcare arrangements that jeopardize the educational stability and well-being of vulnerable children.

The report also documents that grandparents provide a graying, frail safety net for children and grandchildren, often at great risk.

HEAR US hypothesized that children became homeless because of hardship and mobility related to the parent going to jail. Sadly this theory was confirmed in the report. Most mothers had previously been incarcerated, the majority multiple times.

Along with living in poverty, a significant number have been homeless and lack secure housing or sustainable income when they are released. When mom was locked up, school stability vanished as children’s housing became unstable.

Caretakers, sometimes family, mostly grandparents, and sometimes a succession of friends, family and acquaintances, are ill-informed about the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act which removes educational barriers for homeless children. Homeless children have the right to stay in their old school or immediately get into the school in the area where they are temporarily staying.

Nilan, instrumental in passage and implementation of this law, says “Schools often don’t ask, nor are they told, the circumstances behind a child and caregiver showing up to register at a new school. Nor are they aware that the child has the option of staying in their own school, a choice that could mean stability when it’s needed most.” Research proves that changing schools is severely detrimental to the child’s educational progress.

HEAR US plans a national campaign to distribute invaluable tools empowering incarcerated parents to protect their homeless children’s educational rights. “REACH, Connect Your Child to Education,” an 11-minute film (on DVD), will soon be available with an accompanying brochure to offer parents and caregivers information and assistance with school issues.

HEAR US gives voice and visibility to homeless children and youth. In the past 3 years, Nilan, in her RV that serves as home/office, has traveled over 65,000 backroads miles filming documentaries featuring homeless kids and conducting presentations on this issue. She’s worked over 22 years in this field, including 15 as a shelter director. “It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse,” she laments. “We need to turn the tide or homelessness will devastate even more of our nation’s children.” # # #