Michelle Swisher,
Spotsylvania County Public Schools

Kate Miller: Welcome back to the Project Hope Virginia podcast, Empowering Voices and Homeless Education and McKinney Vento. I’m your host, Kate Miller, training and communication specialist with Project Hope Virgina, Virginia’s Program for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

In the first episode of season two of the podcast, we will continue to highlight the amazing work of McKinney Vento liaisons from across the state who work tirelessly to ensure that students facing housing instability get access to educational stability.

And I am thrilled to introduce our guests for today’s episode, Michele Swisher, the McKinney Vento liaison from Spotsylvania County Public Schools here in Virginia. And we’ll hear all about the innovative practices and programing that Michelle and her team employ throughout the school year to ensure that students facing homelessness are identified, enrolled, and given the support that they need to succeed in school. Thank you so much for joining us today, Michelle.

Michelle Swisher: Thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to this.

Kate Miller: So if we could kick it off by having you talk about how long you’ve been in your role as a McKinney Vento liaison, as well as the approximate number of students that you serve. And please talk a little bit about the demographic and community makeup of Spotsylvania.

Michelle Swisher: Sure. So Spotsylvania is a community that’s halfway between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia. So we have a little bit of rural, a little bit of urban, and a lot of suburban area to cover. We have 23,700 students in our district. We have 17 elementary schools, seven middle schools, five high schools, and one alternative program. So we support all of those locations with our team. We currently, right now as of today, have about 345 students that are displaced in our district. And last year we ended with 560 students. So, we want to of course not have any students. So, we are unfortunately, we see that uptake is occurring in our community. We serve from preschool students to 12th grade. We really work to provide a lot of services for our students to make sure they’re supported in all areas, and kind of embracing that whole child concept.

Kate Miller: As you’ve just highlighted the number of students facing housing instability and Spotsylvania, can you talk about some of those specific challenges that you see them facing as you support them in your work?

Michelle Swisher: Sure, so I think one of the things it’s important to mention in Spotsylvania is that we don’t have any shelters in Spotsylvania that service families other than our domestic violence shelter. So the shelters that are available are outside of our community. So that does impose some hardships for families a lot of times because of that transportation component. And it’s important to be aware of, like being kind of rural, our community doesn’t have a lot of access to public transportation. It doesn’t go to those rural communities. I think one of the challenges that willl face families, is to be able to even get to like our social services office to gather benefit opportunities that can be a hardship for families when it comes to school, again, we don’t have a lot of transportation options. So we don’t have an activity bus. So parents are having to do pick up after school. If students want to participate in after school activities, that can be a hardship for families. We have a high population, of course, of doubled up families. And as you know, I’m sure your listeners are aware of one of the concerns when you’re working with that population is the real instability of housing, that you could be kicked out the next day. And with us not having shelter options, that poses that threat of what’s going to happen to those families. So unfortunately, we have had some families in this probably the past year, more so than ever in my career and I’ve been a McKinney-Vento liaison since about 2012, that we’ve had families that have had to stay in their cars until we can figure out how to get them some place. So when you think about that being a barrier for families, and then we’re expecting kids to come to school and be ready to learn and, and everything, that’s a hardship. But I am thankful that our school district this year, all schools across the district are providing free lunch and free breakfast. So we know, of course, with McKinney-Vento those protections are in place, but if those students haven’t been identified yet, they’re still getting free lunch and free breakfast.

Kate Miller: That’s wonderful to hear that no matter what, whether or not a student or their parent have been made aware that McKinney services are available to them, that they’re still going to be getting breakfast and lunch in your division, no matter what this school year.

Are there any other kind of challenges or barriers that you see students kind of facing within the classroom, or while they’re at school that are really connected to the fact that they’re facing housing instability?

Michelle Swisher: I think, you know, I think all liaisons have probably had this experience where we know kiddos are coming to school and not sure where they’re going to stay that night. And that could lead to kind of some internal anxiety and worries for a student that those behaviors might come out in other ways in a classroom. And so really working from a trauma informed lens on helping to support them is critical. And I think that’s one of the things our district has worked really hard to do, is to try to utilize some of that trauma informed perspective, to be able to support students. I know our social work team really works in that kind of place, you know, and it’s hard when you’re not sure where you’re staying in that instability that we want to make sure your basic needs are met as well. So we have certain programs in our district that help to meet some of those basic needs. I’m talking like food and clothing, hygiene products, those kind of things.

Kate Miller: That’s really helpful to hear about some of those challenges that show that students facing housing instability are coming to school bearing that burden, and it’s going to show up in a lot of different ways while they’re trying to learn.

And connected to that, can you touch on some of the common misconceptions that you might see about students facing homelessness, misconceptions and misunderstandings around that experience that you see, whether it’s among the general community or even among school staff and administrators.

Michelle Swisher: Absolutely. I think one of the misconceptions I’ve seen the most when it comes to administrators within a school district is the assumption is our students that are displaced are what’s impacting our attendance rates, and that is not the case. We have done a lot of work gathering data for our students that are displaced, and what their attendance looks like, and putting protections in place to keep that attendance, you know, keep them attending school. So that’s probably one of the biggest misconceptions, I would say, within our own district that it is. And we’ve done a lot of work about educating that. So I think hopefully we’re decreasing that misconception. The other thing I think that’s important to recognize within the community is when folks hear about students being homeless, there’s the assumption that their parents are lazy, they’re not working, they’re living off the doles, those kind of things. That is not the case. These are probably some of the most hardworking people I’ve ever met in my life that are working multiple jobs to provide for their family, to be able to contribute, possibly to a doubled up situation, or to pay for their hotel if they’re in a hotel setting. So it is not people that are unemployed, they’re working super hard and they’re just not making it. So, you know, one of the things that I think is important is that education piece to educate those around you of what that looks like.

Kate Miller: And just in order to mitigate some of those misunderstandings or misconceptions around the experience of our students and their families, what have you found to be some of the most effective approaches to raise awareness among school staff and other administrators and partners? What are those key messages or ideas or even data points that you find most helpful to get that story and that information across to them so they have an authentic understanding?

Michelle Swisher: So kind of two things. One, I’ll talk about the school perspective first, and then I’ll talk a little bit about the community. For the school we do a lot of educating utilizing our school social work team to educate administrators within their building about students that might be unhoused at that time, and then talking about what are what are the data points. You know, we do keep data in terms of their attendance and their grades And if there’s concerns on either of those topics, the social worker is working with that family. We have prioritized with our school social work team, the most vulnerable populations. And one of those populations are McKinney-Vento students. So they are working with those students and their families to find supports or needs that might need to be met that are not being met. The other thing is really just kind of educating school administrators on how important education is often for our families. The other thing is, we’ve done some book studies for teachers to talk about homelessness and what that means, and what does that look like to be displaced, and what are things they can do in the classroom to help support that. So that’s been, I think, really helpful when we’re looking at some of the approaches we’ve done in, in the school setting. The community side, I’ve done a lot of work around just educating the public on homelessness. We have done, to educate our community, we’ve done radio shows, we’ve done newspaper articles. Those kind of things have all been helpful to be able to get out the message for people to understand what is McKinney- Vento? What are the displacement of people, what does that look like and ways to support that?

Kate Miller: So this does connect a little bit to all of those wonderful ways that you are able to raise awareness in your community and among school staff, as you just discussed. But I’d love to hear more about the incredible work that you and your team are doing and have done in Spotsylvania. If you could describe some of those activities and specific programing that you’ve been doing over the years to not only raise awareness, but also do fundraising for your students and for your program in your division.

Michelle Swisher: Sure, I think probably one of the most proudest things, well there’s two and they kind of go hand in hand. We have something called Treasure House where families can come and shop once a month for free. Hygiene, food, school supplies, that kind of thing, and it’s 100% supported from the community. So we get donations from different civic groups, from schools themselves, we’ll do drives at particular schools to get those items. And we have an event every year called Rock Out Knock Out Homelessness, usually a Friday and a Saturday at our local Walmart, where we hand out brochures to shoppers and we talk about what being McKinney-Vento means but we also are collecting items for Treasure House, and we have so many people that get involved with us, student volunteers is the primary focus, along with our school social work team. And all of the items that are donated then go back to Treasure House to go out with families who can come and shop once a month for those items at no cost to them. This year we actually did an event called The Why Behind The Work, kind of a thank you event for people who have donated to us the past couple of years. And with that, we have done they came, we had a breakfast and then we did immersion activities. So we had an area set up to look like a hotel room. We had someone on our team to talk about Treasure House. We had another person, a member of our team, that talked about kind of the steps to graduation, what that looks like. And then just the other variety of things that we do to support our students, whether it’s helping them with behind the wheel or how to get a driver’s license or, you know, how to obtain their documents, meaning birth certificate and Social Security card, that kind of thing. But we invited, you know, community members to that. It was very well received. We had over I think we had almost 60 people attend, but it was a great way also for them to network with one another to talk about ways that they could possibly support together at Treasure House and our students and what that looks like. So it was a huge success. A couple of the fundraiser things that we’ve done, I think that are kind of unique to us, besides, you know, we’ve done the whole, the food night at Chick-fil-A, you know, spirit night things.. We’ve also done T-shirt sales, where we work with a company that does t-shirts and then donates a percentage back to us. And those items, those t-shirts might be around mental health or kindness or those kind of things. And we advertise in all of the schools. And that’s been really a successful fundraising opportunity for us. We really work hard to keep our partnerships with community members. Being on the radio is one way to kind of pull that in, as we’ll get people that’ll hear the radio and then be like, hey, we want to talk to you. And then we go out and talk to different groups. And really it’s, you know, kind of I keep saying it’s supporting our community, but it’s also supporting our students at the same time, there needs.

Kate Miller: I didn’t know about your why The Why Behind The Work event.

Michelle Swisher: We just did that. Yeah. We just did it. Like at the end of, we did in November for Homelessness Awareness Month, a month ago, just a couple weeks ago.

Kate Miller: That’s such an amazing idea, especially how immersive of an experience it sounds like it was for the people who attended to really help them develop a deep understanding of all of the different barriers our students face, but also pivoting off of that. It sounds like they really immediately started brainstorming and coming up with ideas of how they can step forward, like a whole student through that event.

Michelle Swisher: We had an area set up like a hotel room, and we had it blocked off with tape, and then we’d say, okay, four people get in there. That’s how cramped it would be. And we had everything from totes and a mini fridge, you know, just to kind of show what that space looks like, I think. And then like graduation, we had cap and gown and all the things that you need or would like to have experience with when you’re looking to graduate. So it was a really great event. Our team worked diligently to pull it off. We planted it for a couple of months now and it just really came together. We had placemats at each of the place settings. That was all McKinney Vento data. Like how many students we served. How many people lived in hotels? What does it mean to be McKinney Vento? And that was really great too. So they could, you know, while they’re eating breakfast, they’re reading as well some of the information.

Kate Miller: That’s just an amazing, amazing idea. I love the placemats too. That’s really wonderful. I can’t wait to share that concept with other liaisons.

Michelle Swisher: Yes, absolutely, because it took some planning, but it was really great to pull it together.

Kate Miller: Well, moving on from there. All of those amazing activities and the different fundraising and other programing that you do on Spotsylvania. I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit specifically about our early learners. We know that young children facing housing instability are sometimes the most difficult to identify and connect to the support that they need. So could you talk a little bit about how you connect with other early childhood partners in Spotsylvania to ensure that those young learners are connected to the supports that they need to get involved in programs before kindergarten?

Michelle Swisher: Sure. So, you know, we have our ECSC program, so I’m connected with the folks that work in that department, who recognize some of those things. But the other thing is, you know, when I’m out visiting families at the hotels and I noticed folks with little, little children not in school age. You know, I’ll say, have you thought about Head Start? Because maybe that might be where they’re headed, but if not even Head Start and maybe they’re younger, and I’m noticing that there might be some delays. I will give them information about child find to kind of access those services as well, because I think it’s just, you know, having the ability to have conversations with folks to let them know there’s resources out there that can help support their, their children earlier than coming in for kindergarten, because we all know that is really critical. And of course, our shelter, that is the domestic violence shelter, if they have young children there, they know they can call me and we’ll help facilitate to get those students enrolled or at least start the process through child find or even the Head Start VP programs that we offer.

Kate Miller: Is there a yoga program that you do?

Michelle Swisher: Yeah, we do yoga. We have a yoga instructor that we have been able very fortunate for several years to have her go into certain schools with a higher number of students that are McKinney-Vento, and the class is not just McKinney-Vento kids, because we do want to, not single that population out, it is primarily, there has to be McKinney-Vento children involved and then maybe a couple sprinkles here and there of other students that could benefit. We do yoga, she does it once a week. She’s currently at two middle schools and an elementary school, or two elementary schools, yeah. So two middle, two elementary, and we’re getting ready to add an additional elementary school. No I’m sorry. We’re going to add additional yeah. Additional elementary. So it’ll be three elementary and then two middle schools. It’s a lot of work. I think that’s the part that, you know, we don’t recognize. It’s a lot of work on the school because they need to be willing to give up space, need to be willing to accommodate the time of the yoga instructor, as well as accommodating the students that we’re selecting that, yes, they might miss a little bit of instruction of some time We try not to miss instruction time, but the benefits are going to outweigh that. We had a class, this was a couple years ago, we had a class at a middle school and I was helping out that day at the class and one of the things I noticed was the students, there were three boys in the class who had all lived in local motels for a very long time, like five, six years. There was an exercise they were doing where it was just kind of sitting in silence. They really struggled with that. And the yoga instructor is fabulous. She has worked in an alternative school program, so she’s well versed in not only yoga, but of course, you know, education and what’s needed. And we started talking afterwards that these students, their nervous system probably never has the opportunity to just be quiet because living in a hotel, there’s lots of noise around you, your entire family is in the room. And so that’s one of the things she was going to work on, is just helping them to calm their nervous system for very few minutes. And it was, it’s great. I mean, kids now that have been in yoga for a couple of years “when are we going to have yoga again?” Or they see her at the school and say “Can I come to your yoga class again?” And that kind of stuff. So it is a very, very cool opportunity and we know it is making a difference, especially for our students that are displaced and helping them do some mindfulness activities.

Kate Miller: That is wonderful to hear about the opportunity that they’re having through those classes. And I can just imagine the ripple effect that it’s going to have for those students in and outside of the classroom.

Michelle Swisher: And one of the cool things we have is we have a we have a Google site that I send out to every new family when a student is identified McKinney-Vento. And on that site we have information about McKinney-Vento and what it is. We have upcoming events that might be happening in our community that would benefit them. But when we had COVID, our yoga instructor made a series of videos. So we keep those videos up on that site so parents can have access to that. And it may not be the exact same thing they’re doing in class, but it is giving some yoga opportunities for all families that are that are displaced and looking at the sites.

Kate Miller: That’s really wonderful. So we touched on our younger learners. If we can pivot a little bit to talking about our older youth who are facing housing instability specifically, many of those might also be unaccompanied. And if you could touch on what are those unique needs or challenges that you see them facing specifically?

Michelle Swisher: I think the biggest need I see is that vulnerability piece for them. They are the most vulnerable population because a lot of times they might be couchsurfing with folks and they may have not disclosed at first that they’re displaced. So once we find out that they are, we want to make sure we’re wrapping supports rather quickly around them to get them connected. So at our high school level, we have two part time McKinney-Vento case managers that work only with our high school students as their primary focus. And they come in and they meet with each student and they kind of do kind of an assessment just to see kind of what their plan is. What do they need? You know, if they’re a high school senior, do they need a cap and gown? We take care of that. Do they need their documents? There are certain things we like to make sure they’re leaving with when they leave high school. If they’re an 18 year old, we like to see that they have their birth certificate, social security card and if at all possible, their driver’s license. So we have paid, we have a homeless student fund, it’s not McKinney-Vento grant, it’s all donated that we will use to help pay for Behind the Wheel. We’ve made notebooks for each of those students as well, so if they have an IEP, we’ll put that in their notebooks. So they have a copy of their IEP when they leave high school. But we just want to make sure they have all the things they need. But also we want to make sure they’re experiencing the really cool things that high school seniors might be experiencing, you know, Do they need prom tickets? Or homecoming tickets? Do they need an outfit? We make sure we get that done. Do they need a graduation outfit? We make sure that happens. The other really, I think a much needed thing that we do in our high schools with every high school McKinney-Vento student, our school social worker is doing a suicide ideation assessment on them to see if there’s any thoughts of suicide, because we do know there’s a higher propensity for kids placed to die by suicide. So we want to make sure we’re doing things to assess them and make sure that there’s no need to be hooked up with services that we’re able to do that. But that’s for all, all high school age students. Just the unaccompanied minor piece, but I think our two part time case managers really do a great job of making sure they’re coming to school, they go over grades They, you know, hook them up with a tutor. If we need to get them connected with a tutor, they’re checking in with their school counselor. So it’s just one more added adult, that’s really supporting the students to see what’s going. Like, we had an example this summer, we had a young lady that needed to go to summer school. Well, she was having some difficulty. And, you know, with summer school, you could only miss so many days and then it really doesn’t count.

Well, she immediately reached out to her case manager, her McKinney-Vento case manager and said, my gosh, I can’t get in the computer. I’m going to miss tomorrow. She was able to intervene, talk to the principal. They figured out what the problem was. She was good to go. And I think if we hadn’t had that person, she might have been like, okay, I just can’t do it and quit. But having that person you can reach out to to help you navigate the grown up stuff is really helpful.

Kate Miller: I’m just curious, with the two part time case managers, how long those positions have been in place?

Michelle Swisher: They’ve been here for a while. They’re paid for under the grant. The personnel has changed a little bit as time has gone on. But we have held them for this entire grant cycle for, but even before that we had them before that. So maybe six years we’ve held on to and it might have been one and then we were able to add two.

Kate Miller: Through your regular McKinney-Vento through the grant?

Michelle Swisher: Yeah. And that’s I mean it’s been it’s been great. I mean, I don’t know what we would do if we didn’t have that.

Kate Miller: It’s a wonderful use of the funding because like, just with those specific examples you were describing, the way that they’re really able to wrap around the students and give them that support and guidance.

Michelle Swisher: The great part is both of the women that are in the positions right now have been interns with us in the past. So they were an intern in our social work department and then came over into these roles. And one is a bachelor level student or bachelor level, and the other one is a bachelor graduate but has started her master’s degree. It’s great because they know our schools, they know social work, they understand and they you know, they’re great with connecting to community support. One of the case managers is helping a student navigate, exploring the different military branches in terms of which one they want to go in the military, but they’re not really sure which one. So they’re doing exploration right now on military branches to figure out what’s going to work for that student. And then there’s also the basic need thing. Like if we have a student that needs a coat, they’re more likely to tell the adult that’s in front of them because they’ll say, hey, are there any things you need? Do you need a coat? That would be really great. And it would work with our community partners to get a coat or a hoodie or whatever their they’re needing as well.

Kate Miller: That is all so wonderful to hear about. And it’s clear that you’ve been doing this for a while and have really established so much impactful programing and developed just a long list of wonderful partnerships, both within your division and then within the broader community as well.

Which leads me to my next question. Thinking of our liaisons out across the state, and even those who might be listening from other states who are newer to their positions and might find the very long list of requirements that liaisons have in their positions to be a little daunting, a little overwhelming – what advice would you give them as they begin to take on this significant role?

Michelle Swisher: I really say kind of its two parts. Get to know everybody in your division at your central office. Get to know who handles transfers of students. Who handles transportation, who handles food service. Because those are people that you’re going to be working with. But it’s helpful when you know who they are. And you can say, hey, let me tell you about this kid and what’s going on with them, right. To be able to give a little bit of the story. So getting to know everybody in your district that you can. And then I would also say, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Like think of the things that might be way out here kind of fringy and be like, well, how can we make that happen? What’s you know, and really, that’s where the greatest things happen from is those fringy ideas. And then really educate people and utilize, and this is easy, utilize certain months to do that education. Right. So November is homelessness awareness. March is school social work month. May is mental health awareness month. Use those months, you know. January is human trafficking awareness month. Use those months to educate people in your community that you can then be like, hey, I just want to let you know we have this many McKinney-Vento kids. You know, there’s a higher propensity for those students to maybe have some suicidal ideation. That’s a great statistic to give in May. Or human trafficking, kind of talk about that and how we know the vulnerability of students that are in foster and McKinney-Vento or foster care, that vulnerability is increased. And why is it important to recognize that? So when you’re using that, you’re able to get kind of that information out to other people and really talk about what McKinney-Vento is and how it’s important for a district, how it’s important for students, how it’s important for families, but most of all, how it’s important for your community. Because if we’re not supporting these students now, we will be as adults. If we haven’t given them education to do, to do what they need to do. So it’s really, really important just to kind of keep talking to folks and educating along the way. And I would say, get involved in your community. I mean, in the beginning I worked a lot. I worked a lot outside of normal hours, I went to church groups. I went to scout meetings to talk to people. I went to the COC every month and just sat there and listened. I didn’t participate, but, you know, I eventually became, I was a board member. I’m now on committees. Like all of those things are important once you start getting involved, but it’s really also giving a voice to your students and their families that may not be seated at the table. So yeah, it’s really, really helpful to kind of educate and get to know the folks in your community to do that with.

Kate Miller: That’s all really great, really tangible advice. So thank you for sharing that with people who are liaisons or just doing similar work as you are in Spotsylvania.

For my last question, I’m wondering if you can share a success story of one of your students, or a success story about your program that really keeps you motivated in the work that you do?

Michelle Swisher: Sure, I can kind of have a lot of stories, but probably the one that I think is probably the most profound moment is we had a student in our community. He’d been homeless for a very long time. He actually, unfortunately went into foster care, came out of foster care, was not homeless, but was always on the brink of that homelessness and we kept in touch with him. And then they did become displaced again. Well, he was a high school senior. He applied to five colleges, got into all five, and he was a cello player, and he had used the cello of the school for cello playing. He was getting ready to go to college and needed a cello. So his orchestra teacher and I, with our Homeless Student Fund, went to Richmond, bought him a cello. He received said cello. He went on to college, he graduated from college and is, you know, doing well. But I think all of that has to do with, you know, he had people along the way that helped support him. And I think it’s important to recognize a McKinney-Vento liaison is one of those people along the way, because you can help connect them with other people as well and keep moving forward. You know, when he when he went off to college, we helped fill, you know, a basket of stuff to take with him. You know, just kind of really having those conversations with him of how important education is and how it can change the trajectory for him and his family as well. And he’s still playing the cello today. He’s a graduate and doing great.

Kate Miller: Thank you for sharing that story. I mean, it really just illustrates what a powerful role you’re in as a liaison, but also as you’ve highlighted at many points during this podcast, just the importance of connecting with all of those other division partners, but as well as community partners outside of your division, to ensure that students facing housing instability have that network of people and network of support.

Michelle Swisher: I have one other story I can share that was about the network. We used to take families to Washington, D.C. for the day. During the summer, we would take parent and children. So parents or whoever. So many people wanted to sign up on the bus. And we kind of targeted our families that were living in the hotel. And, you know, it really came out of every summer, you know, people come back to school and like, what did you do this summer? And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of our families that are displaced, it’s true survival, right? We are, we might get to go to a swimming pool or have a cookout, but it’s rough. So we had decided we would take families to D.C. and, you know, to go see the museums. And so we, you know, pack the lunch. So here, you know, that’s me making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for 54 people to get on a bus. But I used the community to help support. I reached out to a community partner and said, hey, pay for a charter bus versus a school bus? Absolutely. They paid for the charter bus. Hey, can you pay for some money to donate so we can take families to Golden Corral at the end for dinner? Can you pay for chips so we can pack their bags or water or whatever? But that was everybody coming together to give these students an experience with their families to go have a great day in Washington, D.C. and that’s what we did. And it really is a community effort to support these families. But it’s for the good of your community, too.

Kate Miller: Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that story as well. You know, as many success stories as I’ve heard and have liaison share. I’ve never thought about that. How our students really often don’t have anything to say when they go back to school about a place, a trip that they have gone on, or, you know, an excursion that they’ve had over their summer break. And it’s so amazing.

Michelle Swisher: We’ve also gone to Virginia Beach. We took some students with their parents to Virginia Beach one year. So, I mean, it’s a pretty good opportunity when you can make it all come together. So we’ve done summer camp where we made our own summer camp. That’s a little harder to pull off. It’s a lot more tiring, but we’ve done community activities like a trolley tour in our town, a trip to the ice cream place, a trip to the zoo, a trip you know, all within a week. Like a summer camp. Um, and that was pretty successful. But that’s a lot of work. I will say that’s a lot of more work than just saying, hey, let’s charter a bus and go to D.C. But those were great experiences for kids to get to see, right? To go to a zoo, to watch trolley tours, to do a walking tour. We went to a water park. And I remember one student coming up to us at the water park and they were like, this is the best day ever. And I’m like, it really is the best day ever.

Kate Miller: And you’re giving them that sense of normalcy.

Michelle Swisher: And as a parent, right? I mean, every parent wants to have all these wonderful experiences, but it really, truly does come down to the dollar. And if I can’t afford to take my kid to the water park, but somebody is offering to do it, absolutely. You know, and I tell families all the time, this is not a handout. This is a hand up, that’s all. This is a hand up to get you somewhere else. Because I think sometimes that can be hard for parents to do, to accept the help that’s there. But it’s like not a handout, just a hand up.

Kate Miller: It’s really inspiring to hear about those different activities because I feel like, at least for me, listening, I immediately think about those specific students and the memories that they’ll have from those trips and just the impact on their, you know, potentially on their mental health. And again, what it’s like for them to be able to go back to school and talk about those experiences.

Well, we thank you so much, Michelle, for taking the time to share all of your success stories and your insights and experiences with us. It’s clear that you’re making such a difference for students and families in Spotsylvania. To listeners who would like to learn more about the amazing work of Virginia liaisons across the state, or to learn who your local McKinney Vento Liaison is, please visit www.projecthopevirginia.org And thank you so much for joining us.