Help a homeless student get to school
Donation protected
AG is a senior in Boston Public Schools. Like most high school seniors, she's juggling college applications, homework and her commitments as captain of her volleyball team and student body president at her school. Unlike most high school seniors, she's been homeless for six years. In addition to dealing with all of the stresses that come with being a low-income person of color, she's currently spending six hours every day getting to and from school due to a bureaucratic mix-up. While her allies try to get the mess straightened out, we're raising money so that she can take an Uber or Lyft part way to school, cutting her commuting time in half.
How did we get here?
Late in 2018, her family was moved to temporary housing in Weymouth. Because this housing was temporary, under the McKinney-Vento Act , BPS provided door-to-door busing for AG and her brother to their schools in Boston for the rest of the school year. However, two weeks before school started this fall, AG found out that she and her brother had been un-enrolled from BPS, because the state now listed their housing in Weymouth as "permanent." This went against everything AG and her mom had heard from their case worker, who insisted that their situation in Weymouth was temporary. After some frantic calls to the district, the social workers, and state representatives, BPS agreed to "make an exception" and allow AG and her brother to return to their schools for the start of the year. The catch? Because this was "an exception,"the district would no longer provide transportation from Weymouth to Boston. AG and her brother would have to take public transit.
An MBTA Nightmare:
If you live in the Boston metro area, you've experienced the frustration that comes with trying to get anywhere on the MBTA. If you don't live in Boston, let me spell this out for you: AG and her brother now take two buses and two trains to get to school every day, which adds up to be three hours of transit time, one way. Even though she leaves the house in time to catch the first bus of the day (at 5am), she's more often than not late for her first period class. The stress and pressure of spending six hours each day commuting have become overwhelming for her--remember the stress of your own high school experience, then imagine spending the equivalent of another entire school day in transit on top of everything else.
Your Support: the Details...
This is where you all come in! We're working to get the error corrected so that AG and her brother can again be provided with transportation under the McKinney-Vento Act. However, dealing with the interlinking bureaucracies is going to take time, and until that happens, AG and her brother are stuck with their terrible commute. We've done some math, and if she and her brother take an Uber or a Lyft to Mattapan center, they'll only have to take one bus to get to school. In off-peak traffic, this'll come to ~$20 each way, or $200/week until we can get the situation resolved. Worst-case scenario, $2500 will cover transportation through the end of the semester.
I've had the privilege of working with AG through a community organization for the last three years, and she's an amazing kid. Though she's exhausted, she hasn't let the drama of the past couple of months slow her down: she's made it to the semi-finalist round of the prestigious Posse Scholarship, she remains an active member of her church's youth group, she’s stepped up as captain of the volleyball team and president of her school, and she's barreling full steam ahead with the essays, FAFSA forms, and scholarship applications which will make her the first person in her family to attend college. We're asking for your help because the kind of kid who gets up every day to catch a 5am bus to get to school is precisely the kind of kid who shouldn't have to.
How did we get here?
Late in 2018, her family was moved to temporary housing in Weymouth. Because this housing was temporary, under the McKinney-Vento Act , BPS provided door-to-door busing for AG and her brother to their schools in Boston for the rest of the school year. However, two weeks before school started this fall, AG found out that she and her brother had been un-enrolled from BPS, because the state now listed their housing in Weymouth as "permanent." This went against everything AG and her mom had heard from their case worker, who insisted that their situation in Weymouth was temporary. After some frantic calls to the district, the social workers, and state representatives, BPS agreed to "make an exception" and allow AG and her brother to return to their schools for the start of the year. The catch? Because this was "an exception,"the district would no longer provide transportation from Weymouth to Boston. AG and her brother would have to take public transit.
An MBTA Nightmare:
If you live in the Boston metro area, you've experienced the frustration that comes with trying to get anywhere on the MBTA. If you don't live in Boston, let me spell this out for you: AG and her brother now take two buses and two trains to get to school every day, which adds up to be three hours of transit time, one way. Even though she leaves the house in time to catch the first bus of the day (at 5am), she's more often than not late for her first period class. The stress and pressure of spending six hours each day commuting have become overwhelming for her--remember the stress of your own high school experience, then imagine spending the equivalent of another entire school day in transit on top of everything else.
Your Support: the Details...
This is where you all come in! We're working to get the error corrected so that AG and her brother can again be provided with transportation under the McKinney-Vento Act. However, dealing with the interlinking bureaucracies is going to take time, and until that happens, AG and her brother are stuck with their terrible commute. We've done some math, and if she and her brother take an Uber or a Lyft to Mattapan center, they'll only have to take one bus to get to school. In off-peak traffic, this'll come to ~$20 each way, or $200/week until we can get the situation resolved. Worst-case scenario, $2500 will cover transportation through the end of the semester.
I've had the privilege of working with AG through a community organization for the last three years, and she's an amazing kid. Though she's exhausted, she hasn't let the drama of the past couple of months slow her down: she's made it to the semi-finalist round of the prestigious Posse Scholarship, she remains an active member of her church's youth group, she’s stepped up as captain of the volleyball team and president of her school, and she's barreling full steam ahead with the essays, FAFSA forms, and scholarship applications which will make her the first person in her family to attend college. We're asking for your help because the kind of kid who gets up every day to catch a 5am bus to get to school is precisely the kind of kid who shouldn't have to.
Organizer and beneficiary
Anna Barnes
Organizer
Watertown, MA
Jhanel Chew
Beneficiary