February 2016 Newsletter
Hello Friend,
You helped make last year the best yet for School on Wheels and our students. Thank you! 3,491 homeless students in Southern California were tutored by 2,223 volunteers in 2015. How wonderful is that? We awarded scholarships to 19 awesome students, presented the prestigious President’s Volunteer Service Award to 124 volunteers, provided backpacks, schools supplies, uniforms, bus tokens and computers to over 7,000 homeless kids, and, we raised over $2,000,000 in funds.
The only way we can accomplish any of this work is because of you, our amazing volunteers and our wonderful, most generous donors. At a time when poor and homeless children are falling through the education cracks faster than we can save them, it is a true testament to your spirit and character that so many of you come together to help homeless students. California has the largest population of homeless students in the country and twice the rate of homeless students as the national average.
Fewer than 25% of these homeless students will graduate from high school.
We know that education improves lives and that investing in education wisely is an economic imperative for this country. Thank you for being there for our students. They need you. We need you. Please continue to advocate for them – tell your families, friends, neighbors, colleagues about how many homeless children there are in the United States (2.5 million) and how invisible and forgotten they are. They have no power and no voice in our society; but you do, and you are helping to change that.
With deep gratitude,
Catherine Meek
Executive Director