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| Homeless Children's Awarenes Day: | |
| November
1st is a special day focused on bringing awareness to the chronic
problem
of homeless children. In conjunction with National Literacy Day,
Homeless Children’s Awareness Day directs attention to education
and reading readiness for our nations homeless children. This day
includes a series of events for the general public that encompasses:
creating a newsworthy event that would extend outreach through major
media, distributing educational print and multimedia items, providing
a venue for open discussions in the schools and book drives to provide
books to homeless children and establish libraries in area shelters.
We also conduct interactive story times and other activities with
volunteers that stimulate interaction and discussion with children
and their parents/caregivers |
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| Resolution: | |
| Whereas, America is enjoying a time of great hope and prosperity
yet many Americans do not see the fruits of our prosperity in their
daily
lives; Whereas, the Urban Institute, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, estimates that more than 2.3 children are homeless during a year’s time and that the 1998 US Conference of Mayors’ Survey of homeless in 30 cities found that children under the age of eighteen accounted for twenty-five percent of the urban homeless population; Whereas, according to the US Department of Education, at least one-fifth of homeless children do not go to school and homeless children who are not able to attend have many more problems learning, and repeat grades at twice the rate of other children; Whereas, through teaching children to read, and providing them with a brighter future, person-by-person, family-by-family, we can break the cycle of homelessness; Whereas, we know that reading to children in their early years does lay the ground work for vocabulary and later reading success and that without an opportunity to receive an education, homeless children are much less likely to acquire the skills they need to escape poverty as adults; Whereas, we have the opportunity to share our understanding and unite out communities around a common effort to address these issues; Whereas, through hard work and activism, we are building a nation where every child and every family has the opportunity to succeed. |
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| Highlights from the first day: | |
| November 1, 2000, marked the first ever Homeless Children’s Awareness Day in Washington, DC. A special event was organized, conceptualized and produced by the DreamDog Foundationat the MCI center that brought together many literacy and homeless advocates and created a forum for discussion about the specific issue of literacy in homeless children. The Foundation worked closely with the Reading Connection, a Washington DC, based organization that provides books and reading mentors to homeless children, to bring much needed awareness to the issue. | |