Page 4 - 6-9-15 Tuesday's Edition

Letter To The Editor Local
The New Summer Vacation Concerns:
Summer Slide, Safety, Senseless Tragedies
The end of school is a time for celebration and recognition of our students’ hard-earned achievements. For students, it’s a time to look forward to the relaxed pace of the summer months.
Most years, educators and parents look to the summer months with a cer- tain degree of wariness. We worry about the notorious “summer slide,” where stu- dents lose their academic edge.
This year, we have more serious concerns. Along with the summer slide, we’re concerned about safety and senseless tragedies.
By now, we all are famil- iar with the numbers. This year, four teens have had their futures taken from them due to gun violence. Four families have grieved in the wake of gunshots that have shocked entire com- munities. Our schools have had to help their school families make sense of these horrific losses.
Iamproudofmy decades-long association with a school district that does so much to support students and families.
After learning of the death of EJ Harris on Sun- day, the staff at Greco Mid-
dle School did a superb job of support grieving stu- dents and staff. On Monday morning they were ready to start the healing process.
Now, school is out for the summer, and we are concerned for our students. We want our students to be safe and have secure places to go and productive things to do.We want them to re- turn to school in the fall healthy and ready to learn so that they will be pre- pared to pursue their dreams. We want them to know that their lives mat- ter.
As Acting Superintend- ent Jeff Eakins said re- cently: Families can’t do it alone. Schools can’t do it alone. Law enforcement can’t do it alone. Parks and recreation can’t do it alone.
That’s why our school district, the City of Tampa, Tampa Police, Hillsborough County, and the Sheriff’s Office and many other agencies and organizations that support our students throughout the year are working together. We’re getting out the word about all the programs and activi- ties that are available over the summer. This can pro- vide welcomed relief for busy working families.
Through all these agen-
cies and organizations, our students can find an activity that interests them. They can learn to swim or spend the morning playing basket- ball. They can attend spe- cialty camps in fishing or skateboarding.They can learn to play the steel drums or go on field trips every week. Through myON Reader and Istation, stu- dents can download book- sand educational materials for free.They also can get breakfast and lunch at schools and mobile buses around the county.
There is room and offer- ings for everyone.
Links to all these pro- grams and resources are available on our school dis- trict website, and materials are being distributed through the schools.
The stakes are high. We want our students to keep learning and keep growing. Even during the summer, the safety of our students is a priority. We are fortunate to have so many partners who are working hard and have the same goals in mind. Only by working to- gether can we keep our promises to our students.
DORETHA EDGECOMB Hillsborough County School Board Vice Chair
Homeless Helping Homeless Organization
Forced To Close Sites
BY SHERNA BLAIR RICH
We see them everyday. They are a part of our daily lives whether we like it or not.
So, “Where can a chroni- cally homeless individual, who needs a place to sleep be out of the elements? Espe- cially if he or she has no money, job, and does not fit the criteria for public assis- tance.
Where do you suggest they go?, asks Homeless Helping Homeless Founder Adol- phus Parker. Parker cre- ated an organization controlled and operated by homeless clients themselves.
On May 6, the City of Tampa closed down HHH’s Bargain Center Thrift Store which helped to replace lost revenue from Tropicana Field and Raymond James Sta- dium contracts and because of this, HHH might possibly have to close two or three of its six shelter facilities.
“On a single night in Jan- uary 2014, communities across the country counted 84,291 chronically homeless individuals in the point-in- time counts,” National Al- liance To End Homelessness.
Major American cities have yet to come up with a collaborative plan between its politicians, residents and homeless individuals that ren- der an evenhanded approach to ending homelessness rather than “sweeping it under the rug.”
HHH is a corporation li- censed by the Florida Depart- ment of Agricultural & Consumer Services. Located in Tampa on Floribraska Av- enue, it is an emergency shel- ter provider in operation since 2009 whose focus revolves around the chronically home- less.
According to Housing and Urban Development, a chron- ically homeless individual is unaccompanied with a dis-
abling condition that has ei- ther been continuously home- less for a year or more or has had at least four (4) episodes of homelessness in the past three (3) years.
HHH is unique because it is the only organization liter- ally controlled and operated by all homeless clients, its Board of Directors is made up of former clients (a Board re- quirement) and its program gives qualified clients the op- portunity to become entrepre- neurs.
Challenges for HHH in- clude maintaining facility op- erations and simultaneously funding its social enterprise ventures, building a wider network of supporters and a stronger administrative infra- structure.
In the future, HHH hopes to see a Homeless Bill of Rights that protects the civil and human rights of homeless people.
HHH’s vision is to shift the minds, belief and understand- ing of the masses that home- less individuals are unreliable, unproductive and so on. At HHH, the homeless literally help the homeless on a day-to day basis which underscores the organization’s tagline: Empowerment at its core.
All HHH is asking of the Tampa Bay community is that they are able to empower their organization so that they can replicate their system that has been successful for six (6) years.
In addition, they want to have an opportunity to ex- plain if only for 30 minutes on a national stage why their sys- tem has been more successful than any other organization. For more information, please email HHH at hhhomeless@yahoo.com or visit their website at http://HomelessHH.com or better, to volunteer, call 813- 415-3586.
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2015