Inspired students are taking on a huge challenge, attempting to answer the question “What does a just society owe to its most vulnerable children?"
KVCR’s Maile Palacios explains.
Pacific High School recently welcomed a variety of stakeholders from across San Bernardino County to a Civic Engagement Roundtable. The event was coordinated by educators and students to highlight youth leadership in tackling long term solutions for homelessness.
KVCR’s Executive Director, Connie Leyva, moderated the event. She’s encouraged by the young leaders, but appreciates the difficulty of the work. She stressed the point:
“Let's have some urgency. Let’s figure something out, so we can do something… And let's have a profound understanding of the extraordinary odds for foster and developmentally disabled youth.”
The effort is made possible by a 12-month grant supported by UC Berkeley. It provides both funding and mentorship to Pacific High School, including templates that assist students in organizing their research.
From this effort, the students launched their own initiative called Students Stand Together. It is divided into programs focusing on different aspects of civic engagement and student leadership.
Pacific High School Civic Engagement Cohort alum and current Stanford Student, Abril Galindo, spoke about early issues within the program.
“One thing we realized is that we couldn't do this alone. It was too big an issue to tackle, so we brought in council members, we talked to Connie Leyva, we reached out to people who deal with homelessness and could help us understand where money is going.”
After an eventful day of discussing equity, barriers and service gaps, and unique ways each stakeholder could contribute, the group was optimistic.
The closing slide of the presentation shares the group's end goal, “If we do this right, we won’t be the ones telling the story. The kids and families who have never been believed, seen, or stabilized will tell it."
Students will continue their research and the group is set to reconvene in the fall.
For KVCR News, I’m Maile Palacios