Taking school to the kids

There was one little girl who always sat at the back of the class. Her teacher saw her there, day after day, with her hood pulled snugly around her 6-year-old face - head down, mouth closed, trying hard to make herself small.

The little girl spoke to no one, not even the other kids on the playground. She wanted to blend in and fade away, and her plan worked - until School on Wheels stepped in.

"We went and spoke to the teacher and got her involved," said Sinead Chilton, the Ventura County regional coordinator for School on Wheels, a nonprofit organization that offers tutoring, school supplies and basic school-related assistance to homeless kids in kindergarten through 12th grade.

What the little girl's teacher didn't know was that she was homeless, that she had been to new school after new school and believed that, because of her life on the streets, trying to forge any permanent friendships was an exercise in futility. "The teacher started to talk to her, and she told the teacher she had one toy to play with and it was a Barbie without a head," Chilton said. "The teacher got her a Barbie with a head."

School on Wheels Inc. is the brainchild of Agnes Stevens, a 71-year-old retired teacher who saw the educational inequities suffered by homeless children and wanted to help. "I thought, OK, when I do retire, I'll spend some time tutoring homeless kids," said Stevens, who retired in 1989, the same year she moved to Malibu.

Stevens' exploration of the area around her new home led her to Santa Monica, where she saw homeless children roaming aimlessly during the daytime. It was there that Stevens, who recruited her nephew's friend as a second tutor, tutored kids on park benches. By 1993, School on Wheels was born.

About six years ago, Stevens went to the heart of downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row, a place where countless children aren't enrolled in schools due to the missing school records needed for them to re-enroll. "We realized a big need was helping people find records to get into school," Stevens said, adding that the organization helps to enroll an average of 200 kids in schools each year. "Now, when they get into Skid Row, they hear about us and they find us right away."

Designed to maintain links between schools and homeless children and offer those children the educational - and often emotional - support they're lacking, the organization now has five major regions in Southern California, including Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, as well as chapters in Indiana and Massachusetts. School on Wheels tutors kids from Long Beach to Santa Barbara, and its five major regions are broken into 10 smaller areas.

Stevens' army of two volunteers steadily grew to its current 300 volunteer tutors - but with more kids who need help than there are tutors, and no way of telling exactly how many homeless kids there are, the organization is always in need of more help. "We're desperate for tutors," said Chilton, who has been tutoring since 2003. "There are over 2,000 kids who are homeless in Ventura County - and those are the ones we know about. We want to be there for those kids."

Erica Anguiano wants to be there for her own children, which is why she strives to take advantage of programs like School on Wheels and the services of Ventura's Salvation Army Transitional Living Center, where she lives with four of her five kids. For 26-year-old Anguiano, knowing where and how to get the support she needs is half the struggle. "I've come a long way in the little time I've had here," said Anguiano. "I'm clear-minded and I see what's in front of me - not what's behind me."

School on Wheels has been there to support Anguiano by relieving stress related to the educational needs of her kids. "It's been a lot less stressful for me," said Anguiano. "I get less stressed out trying to teach my daughter things - and she's made great progress."

Chilton, a mother of three and native of Manchester, England, who relocated to Ventura about seven years ago, said her decision to tutor was a very personal one. After her house in Ventura' Pierpont neighborhood burned down, her family was homeless. "We were homeless for only one night, but that feeling of helplessness and of being so alone was terrible," she said. "It's something that really changed my outlook on life. Until then, I'd been really lucky."

For 23-year-old Kristen Hunsberger, volunteer location coordinator for the Ventura region of School on Wheels, one trip to Guatemala was all it took to make her want to change the lives of disadvantaged children. "It made me think, 'Gosh, I have all these educational opportunities,' " said Hunsberger, who started volunteering this year. "It made me want to do something that affected people more."

There are many different reasons why volunteers pick up a phone to call School on Wheels, but all volunteers ultimately have one thing in common: Until that first meeting with the student who will become part of their lives, there's just no telling what the experience of tutoring will be like.

Until volunteers get to know and care for the children they tutor, Stevens said, they are really only seeking the experience for their own benefit - whether it be to fulfill a requirement for school or for another organization, or even to ease a sense of guilt. But after the tutors make contact, they stay for other reasons.

"Just to walk into a shelter and see a child you know from another shelter - and they recognize you - it can be a horrible environment, but that feeling is wonderful," Chilton said. "I really need tutors who are prepared to do it for a while. It's one thing when other people let the children down, but we need to be there as reliable adults. And we are there to focus on school."

"They just want to know that you're really there for them," Stevens said. "Their job is to learn and go to school, but the obstacles for them can really add up. Once they realize they can succeed, for a lot of them their great outlet is to do well."

School on Wheels asks for a commitment of just one hour a week from each tutor, during which time tutors and students catch up on the previous week, tackle homework, play games, draw and talk. With the permission of parents, tutors can also take kids on outings - to places like parks and zoos, ice cream shops and movie theaters. Most tutors find that the one hour a week they interact with the children is a remarkably rewarding outlet for them, too.

Still, the often very difficult circumstances of the students' lives can be harrowing, not only for the kids, but also for the tutors who wonder where they've gone if they leave town and School on Wheels for some unknown destination. "It's been frustrating at times to see how children get stuck in the middle of situations when the circumstances aren't their fault," said Hunsberger, who plans to continue helping kids by pursuing a degree in law and eventually working in the fields of education and children's rights.

Because of the likelihood that a move will happen, tutors must be prepared to invest love and time despite the possibility of unfortunate outcomes. School on Wheels does its best to track the children and continue tutoring them wherever they go - whether they live in shelters, cars, storage units or cardboard boxes. Most tutors tutor an average of three kids per year. "If the kids are coming and going so fast, you want to get School on Wheels in there as quickly as possible," Chilton said. "It takes so little to help a child, and to make a connection."

The discrepancy between wealth and poverty in Ventura, as in most other cities, isn't always something that those on the wealthy side of the tracks think about, said Hunsberger, who added that "Ventura is a nice town, but there are people who fall through the cracks." Many of the families in Ventura who are homeless are homeless simply because they can't afford the steep rent.

"Something like 60 percent of people are one paycheck away from being homeless," Chilton said. "I've seen so many families still working, but living in cars."

Because kids tutored by School on Wheels are homeless, this means that they've been through the traumatizing experience of becoming homeless in the first place. That's just one more reason, Stevens said, to be a stabilizing force and encourage those kids to do well in school. "I think most of us can think of two or three people who are our safety nets in life," Stevens said. "You have to figure there is that one morning that they find themselves walking toward a shelter."

The staff at School on Wheels hopes to double its throng of tutors by 2007 and continue its three major services: providing kids with tutors, providing school supplies and getting kids re-enrolled in schools.

Because Stevens has elected not to seek state or federal funding for the organization, or to make School on Wheels a faith-based charity, the organization relies on donations from foundations and individuals. At the beginning, Stevens used especially creative means for raising funds, and even invited people to TV tapings in Culver City because studios paid $100 for every group of 25 people brought in.

"You try to get 25 people to go to a TV screening on a Friday night," Stevens said with a chuckle. "If you're doing your best and you put the work in every day, the money will come. You want to raise money because the program has proven right and these kids can be helped." This year, School on Wheels is operating on a $600,000 budget.

"What it really does for you is, you to continue to have a very strong reason to get up in the morning and do this work," Stevens said of her work with School on Wheels. "It gives you, every day, a chance to make a difference. It's not all Pollyanna, but, at the end of the day, you know you made a difference for the future. You can't beat that, really."

To become a School on Wheels volunteer or to donate supplies or funding, visit www.schoolonwheels.org or call the organization's Los Angeles offices at (213) 896-9200, or Chilton at (805) 641-389