Visiting The Monarch School

Today we had the unique opportunity to visit The Monarch School, a San Diego public school specifically geared to the homeless community. We had heard about The Monarch School during several of our other visits to organizations for the homeless during our trip. About a week ago, Kristy discovered that her former boss' cousin volunteers extensively with The Monarch School (small world!). Through this chance connection, we were able to set up a tour and information session for today.

Our tour began at a hotel down the street from the school because the campus is very small and there was no meeting area large enough to accommodate our whole group. I was especially impressed by how many of the school administrators came to talk to us at the hotel meeting room. We got to hear from Principal Sarita Fuentes, Vice Principal Joel Garcia, Counselor Jessica Nunez, and more. They all provided an interesting perspective on the school and the students it serves.

The school is K-12th grade and currently has 162 students. The students come to Monarch from a wealth of different backgrounds but all share the fact that they are currently homeless. The classrooms are combined between grade levels, and each student is at a different academic stage. Therefore, the teachers must provide a great deal of individualized instruction to each student. They certainly do a great job- for every six months a student spends at the Monarch School, he or she raises an entire academic grade level.

After our information session, we split into two groups for our tour of the school. My tour group was led by Principal Sarita Fuentes. The campus has a main outdoor courtyard with a covered tent area. There are about eight classrooms inside the building, as well as offices, a library, and several resource rooms. There is also a doctor's office that is staffed once a week so that students can receive full medical care.

Besides education, the school also offers services specific to the homeless population. Students receive two meals a day as well as grocery store gift certificates for those who may not have access to a meal at dinner time. Students and their families can also do laundry on campus. A therapist at the school provides counseling and mental health services to the students. An extensive after school program is also offered in order to let students explore their individual interests and have a safe place to remain after school hours.

After our tour of the Monarch School, our whole team expressed that they were quite impressed by the school. The faculty and administrators were highly qualified and dedicated to the student population, and the programs provided by the school seemed to cover all the needs of the students and their families. This was definitely a great visit!

A Little Bit of Rest and Relaxation!

All of you readers out there can tell we've been quite busy and working hard in our past two weeks in San Diego! Don't worry, we've had time to relax, too. We spent our first full weekend (Jan 9-10) visiting Coronado Island and the famous San Diego Zoo. We took a city bus to Coronado Island, which was scenic because we got to go over the big Coronado bridge on our way there. Once we were there, we had the opportunity to explore the famous Coronado Hotel and relax on the beach. It was warm enough to wear our bathing suits and a few of us even went swimming even though the water was still freezing in my opinion! There were also some great shops and restaurants on the island. A particular favorite was the homemade candy store, where several of us stopped to fill up bags with goodies. Kristy broke the record with a total sixteen dollars spent on candy! I hope she doesn't get mad that I just outed her sugar addiction on the internet :)

On Sunday, we woke up early to make it to the zoo by 10 AM and spent nearly the entire day there. We had the opportunity to visit a baby panda (very cute!) and a sea lion show. Our tickets allowed us unlimited access to the zoo bus tours and the "Skyfari" gondola. Favorite animals seen by the group included the gorillas, Siberian tigers (rawr! go tigers), elephants, koalas, and more! Of course, we also enjoyed attractions such as face painting and the gift shops too.

This past weekend, we went out to lunch as a team. Paige found a great Mexican restaurant for us in Old Town, a fun touristy district of San Diego. After a short trolley ride, we sat down to a huge menu full of our favorites. I must say, the salsa and guacamole was quite an upgrade from those Greencastle Mexican restaurants that we are used to! My personal favorite, the fish tacos, were full of flavor (shout-out to my mom, who also loves fish tacos!). After lunch, we had a couple hours to explore the shops and sites of Old Town. There were plenty of souvenirs and fun gifts purchased.

At the end of our reflection period on Sunday night, we received a special surprise. A few of us who have been on WTIS trips before knew this treat was coming but kept it a secret from our teammates. Becca passed out envelopes full of letters & love from our family and friends at home. It was great to receive such special notes and we thank you all for putting forth your time and effort to provide those for us!

Look for an update next week about our upcoming weekend visit to Los Angeles, where we will continue our learning on homelessness with a visit to Skid Row and then stay overnight at a hotel in Hollywood with some guaranteed fun times!

Love,
Madeline

Food Distributions with the Church of the Nazarene

We've been hopping on the #7 bus pretty frequently the past few days, and we've been starting to form some strong relationship with the great people who run a food distribution out of the Church of the Nazarene in Mid City. The church partners with the San Diego Coalition for the Homeless (more about them in a later post), and also runs food distribution lines on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, as well as hosting a government-sponsored distribution on the first Friday of every month. Our first experience was with the government distribution, since it had been bumped back a week due to New Year's. These Friday distributions are pretty hectic, since all of the food must be sorted into bags by volunteers, then handed out to over four hundred people who have been waiting from as early as 3 a.m. With all of this craziness, we were constantly impressed by the atmosphere: the volunteers make it a priority to ensure that everyone who comes through the line gets a friendly greeting. Father John told us that the government distributions can sometimes be problematic: since the volunteers must give everyone a certain amount of food, they can't regulate it so that everyone in the line gets something.

Since Friday, we've been back a couple of times to help with the regular distributions, which are a lot calmer. For these distributions, the church receives donations from local supermarkets and even KFC. Fresh produce is available through a program called Fresh Rescue, which donates perishable goods that have passed their shelf date but are still usable. I got to hand out the biggest grapefruit I've ever seen (it was so big you needed to hands to grab it!). From watching people come through, I learned that one big problem they face is finding a way to carry all the food. Since people often walk a long way to get to the church, many bring carts or strollers to hold the food, but for those without these amenities transportation can be an issue.

Over the last week, we've enjoyed getting to know our fellow volunteers. We learned that many are clients of the distribution line themselves who have decided to give back by helping out their friends and neighbors. Others were required to do community service at the church, but enjoyed the experience so much they decided to keep coming back. We were constantly entertained (and startled) by our new friend Hien, who enjoys telling jokes and sneaking up behind people and barking. I think he's gotten all of us at least once and will no doubt continue to scare the crap out of us on future occasions.

Third Avenue Charitable Organization

On Monday, the 11th, the group went to the Third Avenue Charitable Organization (TACO) to get a tour of the facility and learn more about their mission. TACO is a non-profit organization that serves the homeless of downtown San Diego. They serve meals on Monday evenings and Friday mornings. In addition to providing meals, they also provide dental, medical and acupuncture services.

TACO is located at the First Lutheran Church in the downtown area. Our group was able to see where the meals are made and served as well as where volunteer doctors and dentists made appointments. The waiting list is over six months!

A group of five of us returned to TACO in the afternoon to help prepare and serve dinner. Already at one (dinner is served at five) people began lining up outside the facility. We prepared MANY vegetables (only one casualty.. Sarah's finger) before setting up. The dinner was a success in that all those in line (over 200) got food, with seconds also available. This interaction with the homeless was different from the Stand Up For Kids Center as all were adults. While we did not spend as much time with the people in line as we usually do with our kids at the center, it was still a positive experience to see smiling and gracious faces.

Two more groups will be visiting TACO in the next two weeks to serve in the mornings.

Cortez Hill

The team is very interested in getting a complete picture of homelessness in San Diego, so in addition to partnering with SUFK, we've also been visiting other homeless services throughout the city. Our first visit was a tour of Cortez Hill Family Center, a few blocks from StandUp. After walking up a HUGE hill to get there, we met with George, the director of the center, who showed us around. Cortez Hill is under construction at the moment, but normally they house about 50 families. The center provides what is known as transitional housing: each family can stay up to four months, and while they are there, a case manager helps them with finding permanent housing. They also get career counseling and other services, and the center also coordinates activities for kids and teens. The staff were incredibly friendly, letting us know about their jobs and explaining to interested team members what kind of education would be useful in order to get similar positions. They all seemed to be doing great despite the construction, which has forced them out of their normal office spaces.

Members of the team have also been volunteering at Cortez Hill to serve dinner and meet some of the residents. On Monday, Yves, Staci, and I also got to stay after dinner and play with some of the kids while their parents attended a parenting class. We were pretty excited about the opportunity, since all of the kids are adorable! I taught a couple how to play battleship, and was losing pretty badly when luckily I was saved by the end of the meeting. More team members will be going over to the center again tonight.

StandUp For Kids

Hello Everyone!
Now that we're all settled in in San Diego, we figured it was time to start letting you all know what we're up to. We made it to StandUp For Kids (SUFK), our host for the month of January without a hitch on Tuesday. We met with Teri Burg, the executive director of this center, and she showed us around and clued us in on some of the rules.

SUFK San Diego provides services for homeless youth 21 and under in downtown San Diego. SUFK is not a shelter--youth only use it in the evenings between 5:30 and 8 pm. They can get a meal, take showers, do laundry, use the phone and computers, and take advantage of the t.v., video games, and our favorite: the fooseball table. While we're here, we'll help serve dinner and hang out with the kids. We also have been helping to clean up around the center by sorting donations, dusting, and cleaning out the fridge (it was pretty gross!). Bayo and some of the guys will be updating SUFK's computer system so that they'll be able to take more advantage of it and provide educational technology for some of the kids.

In addition to all of this, we've been sending a few people every weeknight on outreach to talk to kids who don't always make it to the center. We pass out food, toiletries, and the ever-important clothing item: socks. (They can be used not only on the feet, but also as makeshift gloves or scarves).

We've been having a lot of fun getting to know the kids at the center and learning about their experiences. We found a shared enjoyment of fooseball, watching football games, and laughing over funny YouTube videos. We learned about some of the challenges they face on the streets: dealing with pregnancy, drugs, storing your stuff, finding a place to "squat," and interacting with adult homeless. None of the youth really want to be associated with the adult homeless population and often compete for squatting locations. In addition, we found out how difficult it is to get a job if you don't have an ID, a place to stay, a phone number or clean clothes. All in all, it's been an eye-opening experience so far.