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WOODS CROSS — More than 1,300 students experience homelessness in the Davis School District and 300 of them are high school students.
The Davis Education Foundation is removing barriers to learning for students experiencing homelessness at Woods Cross High School, with a groundbreaking event Tuesday, for the Woods Cross Teen Resource Center. The center will serve as a safe haven for students experiencing homelessness or who might have unstable home lives.
"The teen center at Woods Cross High School will serve our students in a variety of ways, providing safety and dignity," Woods Cross High Principal Deanne Kapetanov said. "Students will be more able to focus on their schoolwork with these resources."
"Our community is a better place, thanks to wonderful people who care about our youth," Kapetanov said, thanking donors who helped to make the facility possible.
The center is unique in that it is 100% community-funded. After hearing about the need for the facility, the Davis Education Foundation saw an outpouring of support from community members and other organizations, including Big West Oil, Lakeview Hospital, Big O Tires, Murdock Chevrolet, BCG Development, Brighton Homes, the Boyer Company, Badiee Development, Brandon Blazer, Gardner Batt and numerous other individual donors.
AE Urbia Architects and Design donated their services to design the center and Bailey Construction was awarded the bid for construction. The building will be completed by the end of the school year.
"The community has stepped up in a huge way to support students experiencing homelessness at Woods Cross High," said Davis Education Foundation Executive Director Jodi Lunt. "These children face unimaginable challenges and this center will provide them with a place to consistently receive assistance and take care of some of their most basic needs."
The center will provide students with essential aspects to academic success, such as internet access, study areas, laundry facilities, showers, food and hygiene kits.
"It's hard to focus on school and want to go to school if you don't have some of those things taken care of — if you don't have clean clothes or you feel like you haven't showered in a few weeks. That's really hard to get those kids to come to school if they're in those situations," said Lucy Finlayson, marketing coordinator for the Davis Education Foundation.
The center will also have a district employee, such as a counselor, serving as the director of the center.
"That person becomes kind of an advocate for these students. It's somebody that (students) know they can go and talk to — that's just an opportunity for them to have one-on-one time with somebody that they can sit down with and really get the individualized help that they need," said Finlayson.
The center is expecting to serve over 20 students experiencing homelessness, which includes any who are living outside of their own home due to loss of housing, economic hardship or a similar reason; staying in motels, trailer parks or campgrounds for lack of an adequate alternative; staying in shelters or transitional housing; or, sleeping in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing or similar settings.
The first teen center opened at Clearfield High in April and is serving between 50 and 60 students a week. Apart from Woods Cross, four other centers have started construction — at Layton and Northridge high school, Mountain High and the Renaissance Academy. The estimated completion for those centers is summer of next year.
