KHSDlynx

Due to a lack of community and school support for high school homeless students, KHSDLynx is focused on finding these students in need, and making sure they have the clothes, hygiene products, sheltering supplies, school necessities and resources needed to improve their quality of life, and succeed in school.

Our primary strategy has been to help schools recognize students in need. Through a partnership with the Kern High School District, we were able to establish a connection with high school counselors from all local high schools. This has allowed us to stay in contact with each school and help them understand the importance of reaching out to teachers and staff to help recognize at-risk students that may need support.
The next step was establishing an easy pathway to support by creating a simple request form that counselors could fill out and email/fax/ to KHSDLynx with each students' needs. We were then able to help locate those exact items for each student and get them the supplies they needed.
Lastly, we felt that an off-site location away from school would help these students feel more comfortable while trying on clothes and looking for supplies. It also gave us an opportunity to get to know the students personally and help share our stories with them, and listen to theirs.

Thankfully, through generous support and donations from the community, we have been able to accomplish most of the initial goals for helping these students. We were able to acquire a location for LYNX. We have continued to build strong relationships with counselors at many high schools.

While we have been able to accomplish most of the preliminary goals we set out to do when KHSDLynx was established, there is so much more we can do for these students. Other groups, such as foster kids, have wonderful facilities and support systems in place that they can go to and form communities and friendships. Our next goal would be to create a similar environment for our homeless students. There are over 500 homeless high school students in Kern County, and those are only the ones that qualify for financial assistance from KHSD. Many others do not, and slip though the cracks in our system. They go unrecognized, and unsupported. These are often students that end up dropping out of school. They face shame and neglect on a daily basis. There is so much more we can do for them. If we fail to support them now, then we'll eventually have to support them as they transition to a homeless adult...and just another statistic.