Press Releases | Newsletters

Citizens for Adequate Housing in Motion
School on Wheels is Arriving

Citizens for Adequate Housing, Inc.
40 Washington St.
Peabody, MA 01960
Press Release

Contact: Judith Murray at jmurray@cahns.org
July 30, 2007

Citizens for Adequate Housing, Inc. (CAH), located in Peabody ,a not for profit organization providing shelter and affordable housing to families who might otherwise be homeless, is continuing to move in a great direction. CAH operates the Inn Between, a shelter for homeless parents and children; the Inn Transition, a sober-living transitional housing program for homeless families with a parent in recovery; and the Communities Land Trust, which provides families with affordable housing. The agency, celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, will be introducing School on Wheels at its shelters beginning this fall. The mission of School on Wheels is to provide academic support for homeless children in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 by providing after-school tutoring, school supplies and educational assistance for families.

School on Wheels was founded in 1993 by Agnes Steven in California to help shrink the gaps in education for children experiencing homelessness. A similar School on Wheels program was founded in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2001; and thanks to Cheryl Opper, a child advocate and educator living in Easton, MA, School on Wheels rolled into Massachusetts in 2004. With three program sites currently in southeastern Massachusetts, School on Wheels is now coming to the North Shore, and Peabody specifically in the fall, thanks to the efforts of Dina Dressler, Regional Coordinator for School on Wheels and a Board member of Citizens for Adequate Housing, Inc. Ms. Dressler states, "The program will be a part of Citizens for Adequate Housing's offerings to its families once or twice a week for an hour each session. Our goal right now is to recruit and train volunteer tutors and collect school supplies. A tutor will be matched one-on-one with school-aged children living at Inn Transition and Inn Between. The tutors will also work with pre-kindergarten students to provide school readiness skills." Continues Dressler, "At the start of the school year each student, ages 5-18, will get a new backpack filled with necessary supplies, and throughout the year children will receive supplies for school projects they are working on."

In addition to one-on-one tutoring, the School on Wheels volunteers will provide support to the Inn Transition and Inn Between parents with parent/teacher conferences. There are three components to School on Wheels: tutoring, supplies, and work within the school itself. During the summer there is a continuation of School on Wheels with a family read-aloud program that includes reading books and puppetry.

The School on Wheels Executive Director of the program on Boston's South Shore is Cheryl Opper who says, "In the fall we will be doubling the amount of children being served between our new program site in Brockton, and two new placements in Peabody. We will be expanding from 3 sites to 6 sites by the end of this year." She continues, "When you change one life, you change the world. We are the only organization in Massachusetts providing comprehensive academic support exclusively for children experiencing homelessness. The average age of a homeless person in Massachusetts is 8 years old." There are over 20,000 children in Massachusetts that have no home to do homework. A recent study shows this number has actually doubled.

At a recent introductory meeting Joanna Channell, the Regional School on Wheels Supervisor for Peabody and on the Board of Directors for School on Wheels, spoke to the young parents. Ms. Channell, now a North Shore resident, will be working with Ms. Dressler to implement the program. Channell stated, "Our tutors are committed to working with children experiencing homelessness and their families to help shrink the gap in education for these children. We are here to empower the students through education in order to break the cycle of poverty." The philosophy of School on Wheels simply stated is – one hour a week can make a difference in a child's life!

Says Nancy Crowder, Executive Director of Citizens for Adequate Housing, Inc, "We are very pleased to be part of this forward-thinking program. Our goal is our families' well-being, always. The children who reside here today may indeed be the leaders of tomorrow. We are glad School on Wheels is part of what we can offer to help make that happen."

For more information about becoming a volunteer tutor, coordinating a school supply drive at your school or business, or making a financial donation please contact Dina Dressler, Regional Coordinator for School on Wheels at 978-273-8461 or by e-mail at dsdressler@verizon.net. Check out the School on Wheels website for more information at: www.sowma.org