The term homeless children and youth means
individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and
adequate nighttime residence.
This definition also includes:
>>
Children who are sharing the
housing of other persons due to loss of
housing, economic hardship, or a similar
reason.
>>
Children living in motels, hotels, trailer
parks, shelters.
>>
Children living in temporary housing
awaiting foster care placement.
>>
Children and youth who have a primary
nighttime residence that is a public or
private place not designed for or ordinarily
used as a regular sleeping accommodation for
human beings.
>>
Children and youth who are living in cars,
parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings,
substandard housing, bus or train stations,
or similar settings.
>>
Migratory children who qualify as homeless
because they are children who are living in
similar circumstances listed above.
Looking into the face of homelessness may be
difficult, but a touch of empathy can be the beginning of
making a significant difference in the life of a
homeless child.
We've Got Your Back San Diego is a
weekend nutrition program developed
specifically for students in the San Diego County
Unified School Districts who have been identified as
homeless under the No Child Left Behind:
McKinney-Vento act.
The original We've Got Your Back program was created
by
Giving Children Hope, a non-profit 501c3
organization in Orange County CA. In 2011, the We've
Got Your Back Program was brought to San Diego
through a unique partnership of like-minded people
at
Giving Children Hope and Shepherd's Way.
There are currently over 13,000 children in San
Diego County who have been identified as homeless.
These children take part in free and reduced
lunch programs at their schools throughout the week.
For most of them, the school cafeteria is their
primary source of nutrition. Unfortunately, many of
them return home on Friday to a household with little to
no food. This is where We've Got Your Back San Diego and
the San Diego County Unified School Districts
partner together to alleviate hunger among our
children in San Diego County.
OUR GOAL
The goal of We've Got Your Back San Diego is to meet the physical and
practical needs of children in San Diego County identified as
homeless by continuously providing a stable and nutritious source of
food to carry home during the weekends along with providing them
with nutritional education to enhance their quality of life now and
in the future.
How the Got Your Back Program Works
We've Got Your Back San Diego distributes
backpacks weekly to elementary schools. Each week, backpacks are filled with enough food to
feed a family of four for an entire week-end. Every
backpack, all of the food, and finances come from contributors and
supporters of We've Got Your Back San Diego.
The backpacks are filled and delivered to schools on or before
Friday. There, a
site coordinator distributes each backpack
confidentially to every student in the program. Each
backpack contains enough food for a family of four for two days.
The We've Got Your Back program continues throughout the entire school year. The
program is presented to the children as a Weekend
Nutrition Club, rather than an assistance program,
which helps protect the privacy and uphold the
dignity of the children. Each week students in the
Weekend Nutrition Club receive information pertaining to nutrition.
Students are asked to participate in a short quiz
each week to test their comprehension of the
information and to maintain congruency with Weekend
Nutrition Club name.
For details on
partnering and other ways to get involved with We've Got Your Back
San Diego, please click here.
Immediate and Continual Needs
We've Got Your
Back San Diego needs various food items immediately to provide for
the growing number of students enrolled in the program. There is
always an
urgent need for canned meat, canned fruit and canned vegetables and
other food items. Please keep in mind that food contribution items
should be items that can be prepared in a hotel or place without
most modern cooking conveniences.
Please consider helping. We need food and money to buy
food and other supplies associated with the program. We hope you
will consider helping We've Got Your Back San Diego meet our goal by donating these much
needed resources, or by hosting a food
drive at your church, your school, your place of business, and spread the word! Your partnership ensures that homeless
children in San Diego County are provided with food each week!
Thank you, and please let us know how you would like to help by
CLICKING HERE.
