February 2008

First Place School:
Bringing the Homeless Home, One Student at a Time

By Cheryl Murfin Bond

A short list of Seattle-based First Place School’s most recent book acquisitions tells you most of what you need to know about the school and its goals. This is a school where children who have experienced hardship are understood – a place where they come first.

You’ll find Joyce Hansen’s African Americans Who Made a Difference (Women of Hope) and Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection by F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada on the list, along with Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America by Sharon Robinson and Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom by Tim Tingle and Jeanne Rorex Bridges.

The librarians in First Place’s bright, inviting library review their inventory carefully. These titles join books and stories from many cultures and about many ways of being family. There are also books about homeless children and children who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence.

“We are building our collection and being very intentional about what’s in our library,” says Allison Stephens, First Place School’s family support services coordinator. “The books here need to reflect the kids that go here – they need to reflect who they are and what they go through.”

Creating a Protective Environment

A private, nonprofit K-6 school located in central Seattle, First Place focuses on providing children a stable, nurturing school setting that they can count on when their families are in transition. Since its founding in 1989, First Place has also been a broad-based social service agency, offering intensive services to children and families affected by homelessness or other disabling crises. Both the academic program and the social service aspects of the school are designed to stabilize the family and break the cycle of homelessness.

Kids at First Place are part of a unique educational approach – one that understands, for example, that they may miss class due to a move or other reason related to their family’s situation. In response, the teachers and staff work hard to keep kids engaged and on track in whatever way they can. One teacher sends school work home in the mail to ensure a child keeps learning and feels remembered. Another might drop in at home, giving the student and the parent an important touch point.
“Two teachers came to the hospital when my daughter was there just to see if I needed anything and to make sure the kids were alright,” says Regina Owens, a grandmother of two First Place students. Her daughter Tifanny Owens, mother of the children, passed away in June.

Each school day, the kids can count on a nutritious breakfast, lunch and snack. They receive clothing, school supplies, transportation, health screenings and referral to others services they may need to thrive. Most importantly, students may remain enrolled at First Place for up to three years.

“Some of these children have experienced a great deal of loss and uncertainty and many have seen a great deal of violence in their short lives,” says Dr. Doreen Cato, First Place executive director. “More than anything, these children need consistency in their lives – one consistent thing, one sure thing that they can count in the midst of constant change. We used to have a revolving door, kids going in and out in nine weeks. Today we want kids to feel ‘I can go to this one place where I can just be, where I know I can stay.’ Now we can say we are creating a truly protective environment for them,” she adds.

“For most kids who are experiencing homelessness or transition, whenever they have to move they have to move schools, and it’s just too hard to make friends. Many make their first real friends here.”

For parents, the long-term nature of the program means they have a fighting chance to end the cycles of poverty, drug abuse or other issues that brought them into crisis. One-shot services rarely do that, parents say.

“It takes a while to trust people and be able to get to your real issues,” says Tracie, a mother of three children, who does not want her last name published. Her 11-year-old daughter Raina attended the school from grades two to six and is now in a Seattle public middle school. Although Tracie and her daughter have graduated from First Place, they both continue to consider themselves part of the school’s tight-knit community.

“Most of us need time to get to know (a case manager) and to learn about what brought you to homelessness so that you don’t get back into homelessness down the road,” Tracie says. “It is so much better to have the time to make real change and to have community support and resources. And for children, it is so important for them to have the emotional support and stability offered by a program like this.”

In the end, adds Cato, investing in families for three years to gain a lifetime of self-sufficiency is far less expensive than paying for the cycle of poverty that keeps so many families down. On a given night in Seattle, for example, more than 8,000 people are homeless and 43 percent of them are parents and children.

Meeting the Need, One Case at a Time

Children at First Place come from all corners of the city. In fact, the school’s bus picks students up anywhere they are within an 84-mile radius, from shelters, transitional housing and – due to the organization’s case management success – some permanent homes.

“We moved to four or five shelters when we were homeless because most are short-term,” says Tracie. “We even lived in Renton at one point, and they came to pick (my daughter) up there. That kind of ability to be flexible was so helpful. I knew they really understood our situation.”

A case manager assigned to each family ensures that parents remain involved in their child’s education and that the family connects to social services necessary to move out of crisis. Whether it’s assistance with housing, food, health care or other basic needs, families can count on help in navigating the city and state’s convoluted human service networks. First Place does all this, serving 70 children in 50 families at any one time, with a budget of $2 million.

“We count a lot on volunteers and gifts,” says Cato. “This is a real community work.”

For many parents experiencing homelessness, poverty or traumatic life experience, the school is the first place where they feel they have been treated with dignity, respect, understanding and support.

“There is a story about an old fisherman and an old man who was hungry. The man who was hungry needed a fish, but rather than give him a fish and be done with it, the fisherman taught the man to fish so he could always find his own food,” says Owens. “First Place is kind of like that – parents learn to be stable on their own. They learn to advocate for themselves and their children and to eventually meet their own needs. When people have the option to do for themselves, they begin to feel so much better about themselves. That is giving families dignity.”

Tracie, the First Place parent alum, agrees.

“It is definitely about dignity. For example, there were several meetings regarding Raina’s progress in school and they were hard sometimes, but I always felt like I had a say in how any meeting would go. I was able to say what I needed to and they respected my decisions and choices.”

One Parent’s Way Out of Homelessness

“Homelessness brought me there,” says Tracie of her first contact with First Place. “We came here from Arizona in 2003, and we camped out in Enumclaw for the summer. But when school was starting up, I thought we should be in the city.

“We were staying in a shelter when one of the case workers told me about this school that was for homeless kids,” she says. “We had no family, no friends here and it is easy to feel judged, but that never happened at First Place.”

“Having women in similar circumstances, who understand what we have gone through, meant a lot to me,” she says. “I have several really good friends with First Place families. They know I am here for them and I know they are for me.”

While Raina gained academic footing in the classroom, Tracie was encouraged by case manager Allison Stephens to get her nursing assistant credential. She worked for some time in this capacity and has since moved into permanent housing – a home just a few blocks from the school. She has decided to return to school and get a degree in social service support.

“They have always been there. Everything I’ve needed, whether it is simply listening to personal issues or offering financial help so that I can stabilize,” says Tracie. Even though Tracie and her family are no longer official members of the school, First Place case workers made sure their holidays were bright by including them in the school’s annual holiday adopt-a-family program.

Recently a member of her First Place family became a member of Tracie’s real family. Caseworker Stephens served as Tracie’s support partner during the birth of her baby in the fall. Stephens was named the baby’s godmother soon after.

When she contrasts her vision of the future with what it could have been, Tracie is humbled.

“I see us being very happy as a family, and I see myself satisfied with my life and the way it is going and that is because of First Place respecting my decisions,” she says. “Without the support of First Place, I probably would have been suicidal and out of my mind. If I didn’t have some place to go to get advice and to ask where to go to find what I need, I don’t know where I would be today or what the future would look like. Really, I just don’t know.”

As Raina settles into middle school and Tracie’s infant and 18-year-old span the other ends of the parenting spectrum, she says she has what she needs to succeed. There is only one thing she’d like to see change at First Place School, she says.

“I would love to see it grow.”

Cheryl Murfin Bond is a Seattle writer and mother of two.

Advisory Council Helps Parents Advocate for Themselves

Darasavanh Craven always tried to keep her daughter Genisis in one school, even when the family experienced homelessness. But when Genisis, age 9, started getting picked on in school, Craven decided she needed a setting that was more nurturing and understanding of her daughter’s and her family’s needs and hopes.

Genisis was enrolled in First Place School in 2005. In the past two years, she has grown and thrived in the school’s small classrooms. And Craven, who also has a 2-year-old, has become a critical leader in this close community of parents, children and staff.

As the chair of First Place School’s Parent Advisory Council, Craven leads one of the school’s core community-building programs. Like the PTA at a public school, the advisory council sponsors fundraising events and encourages parents to participate in education.

Unlike a typical PTA, the council focuses as much on the development of the parent as the child.

At once-a-month meetings, parents are given an opportunity to talk about their successes or frustrations wrangling social service support from organizations outside First Place or addressing their children’s behavior at home.

“We tell our stories and we learn from each other,” explains Craven.

Parent Advisory Council members are “their own best social support network and positive parenting resource,” says First Place Support Services Coordinator Allison Stephens. “They are building social capital.”

Council meetings almost always include a training component. At a recent gathering, parents learned about advocating for their children in the public school system. At an upcoming meeting, they will learn how to tell their stories to state lawmakers and many will later travel to Olympia to speak about impact of homelessness on children.

“We don’t force families to come to meetings; we invite them, and after that the ball’s in their court,” says Craven. “When I first came there, I was very uncomfortable, I wasn’t really sure where I fit in, and I know that the parents are thinking that way, and I understand. We try to help parents be self-advocating.”

Caring is what Community Does: Regina Owen’s Story

First Place School could not give 8-year-old Marcelas the one thing he longed for this past Christmas – the teachers there could not bring back his mother, Tifanny Owens, who passed away in June. But teachers and staff at this special school made sure he got something at the top of his wish list.

“I got my first wrestler!” exclaims Marcelas, referring to the new wrestler action figure he adores. He is quick with a laundry list of the other things First Place has given him:

“First Place has given me clothes and lots of stuff and they teach me different things like feelings. If I went to a different school, I wouldn’t be as smart as I am!”

The school has also given Marcelas freedom to grieve, allowing him to care for his little sister in his own way.

“I go in her (kindergarten) classroom and I check on her,” says the little boy, who often goes through his toys in order to create a pile for others who don’t have any. “I just want to make sure she is OK.”

In fact, his teachers and other members of the First Place community continue to make sure that he, his 5-year-old sister Monique and their grandmother Regina Owens have everything they need to avoid homelessness, remain connected to a close-knit community and to thrive as a family – just as they did for Tifanny Owens. From her first contact with the school until the day she died, First Place helped Tiffany Owens take care of her kids with dignity, offering basic items where needed and encouraging her independence everywhere else.

“When Tifanny got sick to the point of being put in the hospital on June 5, I was at the hospital around the clock,” says Regina Owens. “The school would bring baskets chock full of foods the kids would eat. Teachers came to us from the school to make sure there was something in my pocket for whatever I might need.” Marcelas’ teacher mailed him school work when he needed to stay home.

“It was just really, really helpful,” Regina Owens says. “When Tifanny passed, they took up a collection at the school to help with the burial. And Marcelas’ teacher called me every day to check on me. She kept saying ‘Whatever you need, just ask me.’”

“There was so much I had to think about – getting custody of the kids, getting their benefits back because when their mom passed, they lost their benefits,” Regina Owens recalls. “I lived in a one-bedroom apartment and I needed something bigger that would have access for a disabled senior. They helped me. They really kept me afloat.”

The outpouring of love makes sense. Tifanny Owens, like many other parents who participate in the school’s Parent Advisory Council, was one of the heartbeats of the First Place community. She was always ready to step up for someone else. She was also an inspiration toward self-sufficiency to many parents at First Place. Until she fell ill, Tiffany Owens worked, albeit at a low-income job, and refused to take cash welfare benefits from the state.

“When she became ill, she was fully employed and her income was really low, which is why they were facing homelessness. It was more important for her to be a working parent … she worked even though she was never able to get ahead,” says her mother. “She felt like she was doing her job as a mom. The school helped her to keep that perspective by helping her with social services and helping her get what she needed for the kids and helping them stay in the home and be stable.”

When Regina Owens could not afford a site for a memorial service for her daughter, the school opened its doors and the whole community came. When those in attendance went outside the school to release balloons with messages to Tifanny, the crowd took up an entire city block.

“When we let go, it was a truly magical moment. All the balloons sort of came together with some sort of magnetic force. It was like First Place, this community. We come together,” Regina Owens says.

What was a magic moment could have been a tragic memory.

“Without First Place, Tifanny’s would have been another statistic family, another low-income family who’s been booted out of her home. She probably would have been bitter. So many families end up that way when they have to deal with the system and all its hoops,” says Regina Owens.

And her grandchildren might be bitter as well, moved from school to school, never feeling secure in themselves or a community, she says.

“This school doesn’t just teach academics,” she says. “They also teach children and parents life skills, how to think for themselves, how to make decisions and advocate for themselves.”

Today, Marcelas is very independent, helps out in the house a lot, loves to write to his pen pals in Africa, and has a mentor. He is always ready to do projects that help other people out, including volunteering at a food bank and soup line.

“These kids really have positive outlooks despite what they have seen and that is largely because of this school,” says Owens.

©2008
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