Compassion for fellow human beings is the focus of the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week Nov. 10-18. At Daytona State College the week begins on Friday evening, Nov. 9 with a kick-off event at the clock tower. The event hosted by the Student Government Association, Phi Theta Kappa, Democratic Club and Vetrans Club will include guest speakers who have experienced homelessness, the film “The Florida Project” and the creation of emergency kits for people in need.
On Monday, Nov. 12 from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. the Democratic Club will sponsor a “Will Work for Change” event at the DSC main campus. The event uses volunteers to hold-up cardboard signs with facts, statistics and quotations concerning student poverty stationed at the main entrance to campus. The SGA, PTK and the Vetrans Club are chalking the sidewalks with homeless facts. Clubs want the event to inform the commuters along International Speedway Boulevard and students, staff and faculty of the problems of homelessness.
The Awareness week will cucontinue on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 1:45 p.m. with ”Pass It On:Pack the Pantry” on the main campus, with a human chain snaking from the Library to the Center for Women and Men in the Greene Center. Each line will pass along donated items such as food, clothing, and hygiene products until all donations are delivered to the Center.
Prof. Frank Gunshanan of DSC’s School of Humanities and Communication is working with the clubs to bring attention to the resources available for students facing hard times. Among those are students who face losing a place to live, others who must choose between paying for a text book or groceries, and those who use limited funds either for gas or affordable child care to attend classes.
“Many students ask themselves ‘Why am I struggling’ in school and they need to know that there are systems in place to help them, no matter what their situation is,” Gunshanan said.
For many situations, the Center for Women and Men has services that can make the difference for a student facing issues that hinder them from completing assignments or attending classes. Originally called the Women’s Center when it was opened in 1976, the Center’s name changed to include men in 2012. Some of the areas that it can help with are transportation, food, professional clothing, text books, child care, healthcare, jobs and shelter. The Center also offers assistance to victims of domestic abuse, dating violence and sexual assault.
“The Falcon Fuel- Grab & Go Snacks was something that started in August 2016 just before I arrived,” said Erin LeDuc, Director of the Center for Women and Men.
It was the start of the 10-step plan that DSC District Board of Trustees member Forough Hosseini endorsed to fight hunger and homelessness among students. Step one of the plan is to create a single-stop resource center for students to find information on scholarships, counseling, transportation, jobs, books, food and shelter. By the start of the Fall 2019 semester, LeDuc says the CWM will relocate to Building 130 to become the one-stop assistance center by having the Veterans Center, the Counseling & Accessibility Services office, and the Admissions Office all within a minute-or-less-walk of each other.
Other steps of the plan are currently offered by the CWM. The snack program, food pantry, bag lunches and meal vouchers are services to keep students from going without food. Transportation needs are addressed through Votran bus passes, gas cards and bicycles. The CWM has lists of specific healthcare services that students might qualify for depending on their needs. CCAMPIS or Child-Care Access Means Parents In School, program is a program that assists students who are parents with the cost of child care services. The laundry voucher program provides payment cards, laundry soap and dryer sheets for use at two Daytona Beach laundromats. Haircuts and places to shower are also services the Center sees that students receive.
Text books, notebooks, backpacks, pens and pencils and specialized clothing and equipment are other items that the CWM helps students get. LeDuc said that some textbooks cost as much as $300 and a firefighter’s set of protective gear is around $600. Students come to the Center to get financial support with class and career requirements. The Center also has a textbook lending library and a clothes closet stocked with professional clothing suitable for job interviews and work in an office environment. Textbooks, however, are available to all students through the Library’s on-reserve program. Although textbooks cannot be checked out, they can be used in the library.
Another service that any student on campus can make use of at the CWM is the Quiet Room, a calming space with a desk, computer and telephone where students can take a break from the outside world, cry, pray, or seek answers to issues that are troubling them.
“I am humbled by the faculty who are working with students to rally and find a solution to that individual student’s needs,” said LeDuc.
These acts of compassion range from professors lending older editions of textbooks and donating food, especially fresh produce to the food pantry, to professors listening to students as they describe the barriers that make it hard to get to class and offering solutions.
Awareness of the tuition waivers for homeless students has grown since the Associate Director of the Admissions Department, Beth Hoodiman, started tracking them in 2011. Working with the Volusia County and Flagler County school districts and six social service agencies the program has more than doubled in the seven school years, going from 64 waivers in 2011 to 140 in 2017.
The tuition waivers are mandated by statute Hoodiman said. The law defines a homeless student as one “who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence or whose primary nighttime residence is a public or private shelter designed to provide temporary residence, a public or private transitional living program, or a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.”