September 26, 2025
Summer Pop-Ups for Students Experiencing Homelessness
This past July, in partnership with several organizations and agencies across the area, the Henrico County School Division’s McKinney-Vento program hosted their annual Summer Pop-Up events.
Supporting Students Through McKinney-Vento
Students and families experiencing homelessness were invited to a summertime barbeque where they enjoyed food, music, and fun. At the same time, they were able to connect with local school division staff to make sure they were enrolled and ready for the first day of school. Students also received help with basic needs like clothing and school supplies or arranging transportation to school.
Hosted in the parking lots of three area hotels, planning for these pop-ups began in early spring. McKinney-Vento staff sent letters to families to get a head start on the identification process for next school year. Every student who was identified as McKinney-Vento during the current year received a letter to give the division a sense of each student’s plans after the summer. Whether the family had secured permanent housing or continued to face housing instability, this process helped school staff provide students with the individual assistance they needed to enroll and prepare for the first day of school. The letter also included a flyer that invited students and families to attend these pop-up events.
Community Partners and Resources
Over 20 vendors, community partners, in-division departments, and local agencies were present at these festive pop-ups to make sure students received wrap-around services that identified their needs and connected them to supports essential to ensuring they have a successful school year. Neighboring school divisions also connected with families at these pop-ups to make sure students who were crossing over between divisions received necessary enrollment support.
While families experiencing hardship got a sense of normalcy by enjoying a hot meal, a DJ and dancing, and fellowship and games, HCPS staff and local partners were busy laying the groundwork for each student’s school year. McKinney-Vento liaison, Lisa Ann Abernathey put it best, “We want it to be casual and fun and, a moment where they can kind of just exhale and have a little sense of normalcy and some fun…The planning that goes into it is not at all a pop-up kind of thing. It takes a lot of effort, it takes a lot of determination, and it takes a lot of purpose to go ahead and have an event that will really pull it all together that way to properly serve.”