November 25, 2015
Giving hope a home Recipes
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By Daniel Isom
Jennings School District Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson stands with foster family leaders Scott and Shelley Croft inside Hope House.
Photo by Sara Hardin
Jennings School District’s Hope House gives homeless students a place to live By Sara Hardin From the outside, the house at 8450 Old Lucas Hunt Road looks like any other home in its Jennings neighborhood. Once walking up the porch steps and across the threshold, however, it becomes clear that there is something quite remarkable about this particular home. The arch in the foyer is appropriately adorned with the words “Faith, Love, Hope,” and as one walks the halls of the century-old house the words match its spirit impeccably. Hope House is the product of 30 days of renovations and the continued community growth fostered by the Jennings School District superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson and her team. Since her time in Jennings began in 2012, Dr. Anderson has implemented a food pantry which many parents in the district depend on for their grocery supply. Washers and dryers have been placed in every Jennings school, and steps were taken in order to provide free clothes, tutoring services and dinner to those in need in the district. When some may have slowed down after so much positive change, Dr. Anderson was looking for the next possibility. “For the last three years our commitment has continued to be focused on providing the best possible education by removing barriers that poverty often creates,” said Dr. Anderson. “We have put food in place, which is one of the largest barriers, and made that accessible. We’ve made clothing accessible and clean
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clothes with our washers and dryers at our schools. We also provide uniforms and supply bus passes. The natural next step is to see if there are any other barriers. Well, one barrier is knowing where you’re going to sleep at night and having a place to actually go. Our logical next step is to fill that void of some kids not having shelter.” After the idea to attack homelessness in the district, Dr. Anderson and her team studied the homeless data in the community. They found that some children were in dire need of an appropriate means of shelter. After touring another community’s foster home and forming an idea of what exactly they wanted Hope House to be, Dr. Anderson gave her team 30 days to get it up and running. Renovations started on a century-old former priest rectory that the district already owned, and 30 days later Hope House was standing in its place, ready for its new family to have a chance at a new beginning. “One of the main things that Hope House really brings to the community is a sense of hope. It signifies a new beginning not only for the family but for us as a community to really see ourselves as individuals who can collectively work together to give new opportunities to other people,” said Dr. Anderson. “It signifies stability because we have kids who live really unstable lives, and we have this house that was dilapidated and unused.
We’ve now restored a home in the middle of a community to become a really beautiful home that all of the neighbors are proud of. It’s really a community working together to bring hope and revitalize a community. It’s really amazing.” By partnering with Missouri Baptist on this project, therapeutic services will be available to the children living in the home. A clinical social worker will visit the house every week to work with kids who have suffered traumatic experiences. “We’re studying poverty from many angles this year, and this year we started our work with becoming a trauma-informed school district,” explained Dr. Anderson. “This caused us to look at the traumatic experiences that kids go through when they’re in extreme poverty and understand how those experiences can change behaviors. Not knowing where you’re going to sleep is a traumatic experience for people. It certainly can change your behaviors and your academic abilities will look different than what they really are. All of that has caused us to say this is just yet another barrier to be removed. Every day we wait kids are sleeping somewhere they shouldn’t be sleeping and their needs are not met. Our only barrier is our mindset.” The foster family is headed by Shelley and Scott Croft, a couple found through Missouri Baptist. Shelley Croft, on top of See GIVING HOPE A HOME page 2
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