November 17-21, 2008
Homelessness is everybody’s problem.
Did you realize Wicomico County has the highest percentage of homeless students in the State of Maryland?
8.8% of OUR students are considered homeless.
Prince George’s County has the next highest rate at 1.8%.
Wicomico County serves 14.4% of students identified as homeless in the State of Maryland.
So often you hear, “We don’t have homelessness in our town,” or “It’s a big city problem,” or “They could get a place if they wanted to.”
Homeless families and teens can be found in every community. Too often they lack emergency and long-term resources to get back on their feet.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
12 comments:
Where is the local food bank? I would love to contibutions but do not know where it is.
Thanks for posting this - I live in VA, but so many people DO think homeless students only exist in big cities. Rural homelessness is also a problem (I'm not sure if where you are would be considered rural). I looked up your county and found it is one of "America's 100 Best Communities for Young People," Ironic, eh?
The Christian Shelter in Salisbury provides food and shelter to hundreds and hundreds of Salisbury residents each and every year for the last 25 + years.
They are a wonderful organization that truly cares about the community.
One thing that sets them apart from each and every other shelter here on the shore is that they DO NOT accept public funding or money from the United Way. The reason...the amount of paper work that they require in order to recieve it.
The United Way is governmetn funded and because of this they require their recipients to fill out reems of reports on the individuals who come through the shelters doors.
This paper work requires a full time employee to do which ends up costing a shelter more in administrative costs than it is often worth.
Not only is it time consuming but shelters find the reports to be personally invasive. As they want tons of personal information on each of the homeless folks that the shelter houses, including follow up information on them for months after they have left.
You gotta hand it to them for spending their time in actual ministry than in filling out paper work.
This winter, don't forget the Christian Shelter. They can always use food, and always use cleaning supplies.
Other important items are diapers, razors, deodorant and tampons.
I dont know about Maryland, but Delaware has several area butchers that will process your deer meat(legally) free of charge and all the meat goes to shelters and church based hunger programs. So shot a doe and help feed someone for free.
No Kid Left Bhind.
You do live in Delaware don't you?
10:17
I have heard the Maryland food bank sells their food to the local pantries that give out food to the people. If you do a search for food pantries in Wicomico County it will give you a list, that is assuming you live in Wicomico County. If you dont I'm sure there is one in your county. You can donate directly to the pantries instead of the pantries having to buy it from the food bank
I always say-but for the grace of God,that could be any of us out on the street,especially with times as hard as they are right now!Can YOU afford to miss a paycheck?Think about it.
part of that number is because so many kids in this area live with granparents, or with mom's boyfriend(s), or the parents are too young to sign a lease - the school district definition of homeless is not the same as what most people think of. it can ofteen simply mean that the student has no permenant address.
Like the Christian Shelter, Joseph House accepts no money from government or United Way either. They can also use non perishable food donations, along with, toiletries and diapers.
if a child lives with a grandparent thet should not be thought of as homeless thank god for grandparents
5:44,
You're right. If we used the traditional definition of homeless (on the street, in the car, no place to stay warm) the number is far, far lower. How many of us who lived with grandparents or aunts/uncles, big sister/big brother growing up considered themselves homeless?
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