Homeless Children’s Education Fund YOU CAN campaign is a call to action

AJ JEFFERSON

We recently had a conversation with Ardana ‘AJ’ Jefferson, the Executive Director of Homeless Children’s Education Fund (HCEF) on the organization’s YOU CAN campaign which raises awareness of the homeless youth crisis in Allegheny County.

What can you tell us about this campaign?

October is Homeless Children’s Awareness Month and our YOU CAN campaign is a commanding call to action. We are educating the community on the plight of the nearly 3,000 homeless youth in Allegheny County while continuing to advocate on their behalf.

These homeless students are invisible in plain sight and most live in inadequate housing, it is HCEF’s responsibility to ensure they have an educational foundation. It is critical we provide the educational and emergency resources needed to the more than 400 McKinney-Vento students we support so they graduate from high school or earn their GED.

In fact, young people who experience homelessness while attending school are much less likely to graduate. Someone who does not graduate high school is 346% more likely to experience homelessness as a young adult, making the lack of a high school diploma the single greatest risk factor for adult homelessness.

How does HCEF make an impact battling this crisis?

Our goal is to provide students experiencing homelessness with access to stable, high-quality education throughout their childhood so they can graduate on time and succeed in whatever they pursue. We provide after-school programming at shelters, individualized tutoring, funding for emergency needs, social and emotional health education, systemic advocacy, supplies and post-secondary scholarship funding. We provide whatever it takes to keep students on a successful track to graduation, post-secondary schooling, as well as successful careers. It is not easy work, but it is absolutely necessary to do whatever we can to level an extremely inequitable playing field.

You mentioned a call to action. How can people help support this initiative?

Community members can help us decrease the number of students experiencing homelessness by referring a child to HCEF, donating to expand our programs and services and advocating for systemic change.

HCEF fights to raise awareness of the issues these youth face, spread information about student rights, reduce the stigma surrounding youth homelessness and spur community action.

Homelessness is a condition, not an identity, and YOU CAN play a role in supporting those who experience it.

(Paid advertorial by the Homeless Children’s Education Fund)

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