While exploring the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s blog, Impatient Optimists, I learned about a great program that has met with so much success, that it has caught the attention of our U.S. Deputy Secretary of HUD.
The program, called the McCarver Elementary Special Housing Program started in Tacoma, Washington where for children of the Hilltop neighborhood, maintaining a stable education is difficult. Because of family financial difficulties, it is frequent for kids to enroll in school and soon have to leave. It has been recognized that these kids cannot gain the proper education they need if they must come and go often.
Now here comes the great idea that I admire: two sectors, the Tacoma Housing Authority and Tacoma Public Schools have joined forces to combat this inconsistency in children’s education. Families who join the program are required to keep their kids enrolled in the school and work towards gaining financial stability. In return the families will be given five years of housing support.
I think this is great philanthropy. Sometimes I feel like the relationship between school and home goes unrecognized. It’s nice to see the two sectors collaborating to work towards this because school and home are inevitably intertwined. I feel like for some families to gain financial stability, all they need is to be given an opportunity and recourses to lift themselves up. A little help can go a long way.
Philanthropy Fix 