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Tutors for Indy’s homeless children

Homeless school children turn to School on Wheels to get the education the need and deserve.

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — The word "home" carries a connotation of permanence.

But on any given day, for more than 5,000 people in Indiana, that permanence does not exists. And sometimes it's completely unexpected — due to job loss, a health crisis or a host of other unforeseen circumstances.

For honor roll student Kamella Wolfork and her family, it was domestic violence.

"My mom was actually in an abusive relationship that we had to leave," Wolfork said.

Her grades began to slip.

"At that point I was like, my number one priority was making sure I'm fine. Like am I alive? Is this real? Am I getting punked? Where’s the camera? Like can I go home now?" she said touching her arm in recollection as if hoping to wake up from a dream.

"I felt like school was the least of my worries," Wolfork said.

Wolfork moved with her mom to a shelter.

She said that at 15 years old, "It was the end of my world. Everything was crashing down, and I'm like, 'Nobody cares, I don't have to go to school anymore, Im going to work at Walmart when I grow up.'"

Wolfork's mom wanted her daughter to remain focused on her education so she forced her to go to School On Wheels.

"We focus on breaking the cycle of homelessness through education by providing one on one tutoring and group instruction to school aged children who are experiencing homelessness," Grants and Communications Director for School on Wheels Claire Bosman said.

Bosman said disruptions can impact a child's chances of educational success, and School on Wheels tries its best to help provide stability.

"We have a wraparound case management based education service," Bosman said. They do what they can to help families whether it's finding a new school or transportation.

The purpose it to help with continuation during one of the most unstable times in life. Wolfork said it helped her find motivation to stay on track when she was finally safe and knew education was important.

Bosman said the program goes where the students are.

"We are in 16 different partner sites, seven schools, nine different shelters. That means we're in emergency shelters, transitional house and schools."

"We are everywhere to meet the different needs," Bosman added.

Wolfork said coming to the weekly tutoring sessions during one of the most difficult times in her life reminded her people cared about her.

"After that I was like, 'School is important. I'm going to pass and I'm going to graduate,' which I did," she said.

Wolfork said the program helped her see that the pain and difficulty she was going through was temporary.

"It will come to pass as long as you try and there are people who will help you. This is something I had to learn myself. The world is not against you, the world does not hate you and everyone falls off, in some way or another, but its not too late," Wolfork, now 22.

Several years after being a student at School on Wheels, Worlfork is now a volunteer tutor at the program. And says the obstacles she faced were part of her journey and it's all "part of character development."

Wolfork is now pursuing a career as an educator.

"I want to be what I had," she said.

Brosman said during the 2018-2019 school year, 98 percent of students in the program were able to move on to the next grade.

That statistic is staggering considering homeless kids are 87 percent more likely to discontinue their formal education.

There are more than 5,000 homeless kids in Marion County alone, according to School on Wheels.

School on Wheels said they are serving approximately 500 of them but they scale the program intentionally to make sure they are still "deeply impacting the kiddos."

"We have 440-plus tutors providing 6,700 academic sessions," Brosman said.

The nonprofit said it needs more tutors and they depend on grants and corporate partners for funding.

The program serves a smaller population because of its deep efforts, but tutors are working with schools, communities and shelter partners to make sure homelessness is short-lived.

School on Wheels relies on referrals from their partner organizations, whether its school or shelters. They work with all homeless school children and say the biggest age group tends to be between 6 and 10 years old.

The program does accept donations and is currently preparing to host the Giving Tree Uniform Drive this December. But School on Wheels says the biggest need is volunteers.

If you are interested in volunteering. you can visit the volunteer page on the School on Wheels website.

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