Highline has won a grant that the college will use to help local homeless people.
Starting in the spring, the grant of $232,500 will allow Highline to assist in improving the lives of homeless and food-insecure individuals by providing education and opportunity. The grant is giving prospective students a chance to earn a certificate, the Housing and Shelter Facility Operations certificate, which requires 19 credits to complete. This certificate will then hopefully allow the students to find employment in the hotel and hospitality industry.
In addition to assisting the students, part of the grant money is to be used to hire two full-time employees who will be responsible for identifying potential students.
“These navigators are going to be working with these students on a daily basis,” said Justin Taillon, program manager of Highline’s Hospitality and Tourism Management department.
“This is taking people with huge problems,” he said. “If somebody is home and food insecure, their first concern isn’t going to be school.”
They won’t just be walking up to homeless people on the streets though. The navigators will be working with different community support groups to help identify appropriate candidates.
“We’ve identified, within our group, seven organizations who work with home insecure populations to help bring in students,” said Taillon.
The effort is planned to follow a two-year roadmap, giving plenty of students’ time to finish the 19-credit course. The classes involved are a mix from the Human Services and Hospitality & Tourism Management courses.
“Everything we’re doing Is set up for two years, we are hoping to get a new grant after that,” Taillon said. “Hopefully this program is what we think it will be.”
One of the program’s goals is to get many of these students employed in hotels that are willing to work with the homeless and can in turn be supportive to more homeless individuals.
“The number we submitted I believe is 45 per year, but I think it’ll be difficult in the first year,” Taillon said. “If we can get 20 per year, that’s 40 people in two years. If we can turn around the lives of 40 people, that alone will be enough.”
Taillon said he expects there to be bumps along the road, but he said he can’t predict what they will be.
“The biggest obstacle is going to be something that blindsides me. There will be some problems I never see coming,” he said.
“Students in all populations, but particularly home insecure individuals, have barriers to their education,” Taillon said. “These barriers will rear their ugly head at times, unbeknownst to me or even them in advance, and these barriers are things we will as a team overcome with them.”
The grant was written by Dave O’Keeffe, grant analyst/researcher in Highline’s Institutional Advancement department; Teresa Pan, a professor in Highline’s Human Services program; and Justin Taillon; with help from Catholic Community Services.