Episode 24 - Care and Connection: Insights from Brightlane Learning's Karen Routt and Erin Haring-Switzer
How often do we consider the quiet struggles of children who don't have a place to call home? This episode delivers an eye-opening conversation with Karen Routt and Erin Haring-Switzer of Brightlane Learning. Their dedication to serving the educational needs of Indianapolis's homeless youth shines through as they recount the organization's evolution from School on Wheels and its collaborative efforts with local shelters and schools. Their touching stories and the organization's unique approach to mentorship offer a sense of hope and stability for young learners amidst the chaos of housing insecurity.
Homeward Indy takes pride in highlighting individuals and organizations making a real difference, and this episode does just that. Karen and Erin guide us through the essential framework of volunteer tutoring, which stands as the backbone of Brightlane Learning. The commitment of volunteers spending time each week with students is nothing short of inspiring. We explore the behind-the-scenes orchestration, from Education Support Coordinators to the strategic oversight of an Education Director, that ensures these programs achieve their goals of providing high-quality academic assistance.
The conversation doesn't shy away from the complexities these students face beyond the classroom walls. We delve into the challenges posed by housing insecurity, and the critical role of early intervention, demystifying the McKinney-Vento law and its implications for our youth. Karen and Erin share the importance of stable relationships and community education, which can lead to profound changes in the trajectories of these children's lives. Listen in for an episode that not only sheds light on the unseen hardships but also celebrates the determination and strength of the very children we aim to uplift.
Brightlane Learning - Every child has the right to an education
Program Wish List - Brightlane Learning
00:05 - Bright Lane Learning
10:25 - Volunteer Tutoring and Program Expansion
17:52 - Addressing Growth Challenges in Education
28:42 - Supporting Students Facing Housing Insecurity
45:17 - Supporting Vulnerable Kids Through Awareness
And I had heard just amazing things about what was then school on wheels. Now we're Bright Lane Learning.
Karen:There's such a need in the community and I wish that we could provide this powerful one-on-one attention and support for every single student in Marion County.
Erin:We know those one-on-one relationships are so important and just having one trusted adult who is checking in with a student building a relationship can be really powerful.
Karen:It's really hard to learn your multiplication facts when your brain is processing trauma and you're not sure where you're going to sleep tonight or this week, or what the rules are at this new place that your family had to move into.
Elliot:Welcome to Homeward Indie, a bi-weekly conversation where we meet the people working to end homelessness in Indianapolis and hear their stories. I'm Elliott Zanz.
Steve:And I'm Steve Barnhart. Welcome listeners. Today's guests are Karen Routt and Erin Herring-Switzer of Bright Lane Learning. If you have a special place in your heart for kids, particularly kids that are growing up in very difficult situations, then today's episode will be of special interest to you.
Elliot:This is a friendly reminder that the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they belong to or represent.
Steve:Karen and Erin from Bright Lane. Thank you so much for being a part of Homeward Indie. Thank you for having us, it's an honor to be here, Glad to be here. Great, I'm interested in hearing the story of Bright Lane Learning and maybe let's just start, and either one of you can go first, just to give our listeners a sense of what Bright Lane Learning is.
Karen:Sure I can start. Bright Lane Learning is a not-for-profit and we have been in Indianapolis for 22 years now. When we first started 22 years ago, our founder, sally Bentley, who is still currently our CEO. She's been with us the entire time. She was a school social worker and the story is she was visiting her brother in Los Angeles and she happened upon an organization while she was in LA that was helping kids kind of after school who otherwise were kind of sitting on the street, not without anything to do. They welcomed them into a building and helped them get their homework done and she was like, wow, this is really cool. So when she came back to Indianapolis as an IPS school social worker, she started asking around at some of the shelters that took in families and kids and she said do you have programming for kids to help them while they're staying there with their families to get their homework done? Because a lot of the shelters at that time they had programming for parents and overwhelmingly her response that she got was no, we don't, but could you start tonight?
Steve:And so that was. Uncovered a huge need.
Karen:And so that very first year, sally and her mom and her best friend and her best friend's mom went into two different shelters in the evenings and gathered whichever students kindergarten through high school who were living there and brought them into the cafeteria or whatever space they found available and helped. I think that year they saw 50 kids and helped them, get their homework done, and so through the last 22 years we've grown quite a bit. And so we still run programs in the majority of the shelters in Indianapolis that shelter families and children and those are evening programs. But that part of our program has grown in that we do so much more case management. And we work with the parents.
Steve:It's more than just teaching academic.
Karen:Absolutely yeah. More than just getting their homework done, we talk with parents, we set goals, we ask them how is school going? Are all of your kids enrolled in school? Do you know what you're going to do next year when they go to high school? You're going to have to make a choice. Do you know about those choices? Or you've got preschool kids. Are they getting some support now? Are they getting ready for kindergarten? So we really wrap around the family and provide that educational support, whatever it might look like A very organic start that has blossomed. It has blossomed, yeah, yeah. And in addition to that we've also now in the last I don't know five to seven years, we've figured out that a lot of families who experience homelessness in Indianapolis don't necessarily go to the shelters, but they are that kind of hidden homeless that are often doubling up or staying in a motel and so, but often the kids are still going to school. So as an organization, we now go into schools. We're in 20 different schools, in addition to the shelters and community centers, so we run programs during the school day as well where we work with students in their building to.
Steve:So the schools welcome you in to do that work.
Karen:They do, they do. We have wonderful partners with all of our schools and often the school social worker or sometimes a guidance counselor or teacher, they refer students to us and then I always say we're in 20 different schools and we run 20 very different programs because we kind of fit what is happening in the school day. So I see we often get a classroom and we're pulling kids at various times throughout the day to give them some individual attention and just kind of a safety net, a little extra support While their home life may be. You know they're dealing with housing insecurity or you know they're transitioning. We know that sometimes those students absolutely need a little extra attention at school. And so we're there to to provide that.
Steve:I want to talk a little bit more obviously about what your organization does, but I also want to hear what each of your roles are within the organization. Erin, what role do you play? Yeah, thanks.
Erin:So I'm an education manager with Bright Lane Learning and my role is to work with some of our school partners and education support coordinators to ensure that we are providing the best support that we can for the students within the schools that are enrolled in programming with us. So I support our staff in helping to make sure that we are setting appropriate goals so that we can be impactful with our time, because we really only meet with students for a small portion of their day so we want to use that time really wisely.
Steve:What would be a typical situation? I know Karen already alluded to. Each school might look a little different, but what would be a typical scenario?
Erin:Yeah, so we really try to provide one-on-one support as often as we can. I know that that's not always feasible because we meet with a lot of students, so sometimes it's also small group support. We do that in a variety of ways, so our education support coordinators sometimes are pushing into classrooms to work with students to support them on projects or activities, so they actually almost become a part of the classroom, alongside the students that you're serving. Yeah, absolutely. We also pull students out and work with them one-on-one on goals that either the student has set for themselves or that our education support coordinators have helped identify that need working on. We also bring in volunteer tutors.
Steve:Okay, I was wondering about that. So you have your own staff, but you supplement that with volunteers.
Erin:Yeah, because we know those one-on-one relationships are so important and just having one trusted adult who is checking in with a student, building a relationship, can be really powerful. So we really strive for those one-on-one relationships any chance we can get. So we really rely heavily on our volunteer tutors to help build those relationships with students.
Steve:I know that our listeners will be interested in that volunteer part. I happen to know myself even a next door neighbor who former teacher, who would have the skill set. What are you looking for in volunteers? What does a day of volunteering look like for those folks?
Erin:Yeah, I mean, our volunteers come from all walks of life and we really Not necessarily teachers, yeah they don't have to have a teaching background. Again, we're really looking for those relationships and having that trusted adult that's working with a student. So when you are a volunteer, we do ask for a commitment of one hour a week and we try to get volunteers to commit to at least one semester so that there's not a lot of turnover and students do have that relationship that they can rely on.
Steve:And that volunteer then would be assigned a school and then eventually student or students. How does that work?
Erin:Yeah, so it looks a little bit differently depending on the site or if it's a school versus a community-based program.
Steve:Okay.
Erin:So if they're working within a school, they are assigned a shift of one hour a week and within the school day usually they get to work with the same student on a week-to-week basis.
Steve:So they really are building that relationship, so they would be seeing one, that same student, an hour each week.
Erin:Yep, but that looks a little bit different when you're talking about our community sites.
Steve:Yes, so that I assume is evening as opposed to during the day.
Erin:Those are evenings, some after school programs and some evening, and, depending on the site, volunteers may work with the same student on a week-to-week basis. But if it's an emergency site there's a lot of turnover. So they may have different students each week that they're working with.
Steve:What grade students are you serving?
Erin:K through 12.
Steve:Okay, so it's the whole way through. Does it tend to lean more toward the younger or the older, or pretty even?
Karen:You know we used to say that our average age was about an eight or nine year old, but recently we have really expanded and we're in several high schools right now.
Steve:So it's starting to move that direction more yeah.
Karen:And our volunteer manager here at our office. When she gets a new volunteer, who's applied? That's one of the things she asks Like do you have a preference? And it's funny. I always tell people that I get lots of people who want to. They definitely want to be a tutor, but do not give me high school math.
Steve:Yeah, okay, because when you start getting the older students, then subject matter makes a difference.
Karen:Absolutely yeah. We have tutors who are, you know, like prefer kindergarten through third grade, they want the younger kids. And then we have some that are like, definitely I need older kids, I you know. And so we really try to tailor fit our tutors to match with our students. We have, you know, I have some great tutors who have no problem with algebra two or geometry or whatever. They enjoy that. And so we right away were like, oh, we need to get them into a high school program because those tend to be the courses that trip up our kids.
Steve:that they need a little extra work. So all of us, not just the kids Right, right, absolutely.
Karen:I get it, I totally get it.
Steve:But no matter the subject matter, no matter the grade level, I assume the relationship building is key.
Karen:It is key it is, and we also, I wanted to mention we provide for our tutors a full curriculum of activities. We do have. I say that every school and community site is a little bit different because we are flexible and we make it fit, but we have some structure and some standards. Students generally start with a writing prompt. All of our students have a journal and that's just kind of to break the ice and get the students writing. And we also have a full curriculum of activities. They're game based but they're all based on the Indian academic standards. So they might be rolling dice but they're practicing their addition facts or their multiplication facts and so that is all provided. Our staff person at each location kind of sets up those activities so the volunteers don't have to come with things to do. It's all provided. We've got books, we've got the activities. Sometimes the classroom teachers will send things to work on, but it's a it's a chock full whatever 45 minutes or an hour or however long we get with that student, with plenty of things to do.
Steve:So if I were a volunteer I think this is what you're saying there would be an on-site employee of Bright Lane. Learning to be my support.
Erin:Yeah, those are our Education Support Coordinators, and we have an Education Support Coordinator at every site who is a Bright Lane Learning staff member, who really kind of outlines the tutoring hour and what the activities will be. So, as a volunteer, everything's set up and laid out for you when you arrive. You don't need to create activities. And one thing we tell our volunteers, too, is you don't you aren't expected to be an expert in any way. It's okay to tell students you know, I don't know. Let's find out together. That's a really valuable tool for students to see how you find the answers when you don't know, and going through that process of learning together.
Steve:Yeah, and I can just imagine what builds relationship more than let's work on this together. Yeah yeah, I want to get to Karen. What is your role?
Karen:I am one of the Education Directors here at Bright Lane and so I oversee all of our programs that happen within school buildings. And so we have another director who oversees all of the community-based programming. And then, kind of because of my background, before I came to Bright Lane I was a middle and high school math teacher, so I really work directly with our middle and high school programs and I'm in those buildings the most. But Aaron and I are part of a team and we have another manager on our team that we work together to make sure that all of those all 20 of our schools are running smoothly.
Steve:What I think of there. You're kind of setting the curriculum. Is that correct? You're the one that's primarily involved in. Are we really meeting the standards that need to be met? Is that correct? Yes, yes.
Karen:I work with our outcomes and our goals that we set as a program every year. I work with each of our school partners to kind of provide the data that they need and talk about like how. Like Aaron was talking about, we want to make sure that our time with students is impactful and valuable, and so I set those goals and make sure and kind of monitor the progress throughout the year to make sure.
Steve:You had a small beginning that was very organic. You obviously have grown quite a bit. Are you continuing to grow or what? What? How do you see the future?
Karen:We, you know we are actually, yes, we. We get calls on a weekly basis from schools that here, that we're in other schools, so word is kind of, you know, organically spread and we are looking at as an organization. What would this look like if we were to expand into a completely different community within maybe initially within Indiana, like where what's next, and so very early stages of our strategic planning. But yeah, it's exciting.
Steve:What holds you back the most in terms of growth Is it. Are you meeting the need? That's there and we just need to wait till more students and schools are identified, or is it staff? Is it volunteer? What? What would you say?
Erin:You know I I came on more recently, so there's been when I started. I think right when I started was kind of a big expansion until a lot of school sites and how long ago was that? Three years, three years ago, and one thing that just I kind of personally grapple with as we're growing and meeting more students is how do we still ensure that we are being impactful and really focused on meeting each student's needs? We don't want to get so big that we're leaving anyone behind. Yeah, so, just as we continue to grow, I think this year we we kind of stopped and didn't expand into any new locations because we wanted to really catch our breath and make sure that we are providing high quality programming for each student and meeting those needs and not growing too quickly.
Steve:It's not just about the numbers, it's about yeah are you being effective?
Erin:Because again, it goes back to those relationships and we want to make sure that that's number one and that we have the volunteer support that we need and the staff support to really provide high quality programming.
Steve:What was lacking as you were growing fast.
Karen:You know, I don't. I I don't think we ever got to such a quick clip that anything was lacking, but I do, you know it, it's. There's such a need in the community and I wish that we could provide this powerful one-on-one attention and support for every single student in Marion County and every single student in Indiana and everything you know. I know this is so good for kids, it's so good for kids and the word starts spreading and so I think just it's kind of balancing that, that desire. As an educator myself, I'm like every kid should have this, and especially our students who have been dealt a tough situation. You know they, we know from research that any sort of housing insecurity and losing your home is a traumatic event. It is trauma, and it's really hard to learn your multiplication facts when your brain is processing trauma yes and you're not sure where you're going to sleep tonight or this week, or what the rules are at this new place that your family had to move into or are you going to have the supplies you need?
Steve:I can just imagine all kinds of things.
Karen:So many things. We have families who've had to suddenly and quickly move and you don't always think to grab the kids colored pencils and their science project that they've been working on and then all of a sudden they're back at school. And so a lot of times you know it's interesting. When we were we're really getting going with our school site programming, we were looking at, okay, indiana academic standards and what are the kids need, and and some of our school principals and teachers came to us and said you know what, could you, rather than worrying about phonics and all the academics, some of our kindergartners, they don't know how to sit in a circle or they don't know how to the concept of hanging your coat up in your cubby. Kindergarten teachers were finding the kids coats like stuffed in the Lego table. Because just that idea of the process and this is the way it works. And I think about my own kids at home when you walk in from our garage. They each have a peg to hang their coat on, and that's the process and they learn at home.
Steve:They learn and when your home is disrupted when you're living in a car. You don't have a peg.
Karen:You don't have a peg, you don't have a peg, and so it. We had to really kind of back up and look at some of those, like okay, what does each one of our students need? You know, we even when I talk about when I first started 13 years ago at Bright Lane, I was a coordinator and I was working at a transitional location and I had a high school girl who came periodically in the evening to get some help with her algebra and she was pretty bright, like she knew, knew the material after we went through it and she did her homework, but she kept failing the test. She'd come back and she'd be like, no, I didn't pass it. And then I was like, well, could you bring me your test? I want to see what you did. And she said, well, no, the teacher said they won't release the test. We can look at them, but then they keep them so that you know for their security and whatever accountability. And so eventually it like dawned on me after this happened a few times, I'm like I need to get in touch with that teacher. And so I asked her. I said, could I email your teacher? What's your teacher's name? And so this was, you know, 13 years ago when we were primarily just running that after school or evening programming, and so I emailed this teacher and kind of explained that she seems to know what she's doing but she keeps bombing the tests and, and you know, low and behold, she started doing better. And it was just like making that connection and making that teacher maybe aware that I, as as an educator, I thought she knew the material. Something's going on and it was just the three of us kind of became a team together the student, her Algebra teacher and myself. And it was like in that moment it was almost like an epiphany epiphany to me, like we could be doing this more, like we. We are connectors, we're building relationships, we're looking at each individual student and figuring out what do they need. Maybe it is just like let's connect the dots here.
Steve:Yes, so, and the teacher, just becoming aware, probably made some kind of accommodation. Yeah, it, just if it were maybe even as easy as no reason to be nervous about this. Yeah, yeah. Are you distracted by right something, or whatever the case might be?
Karen:right, yeah, yeah, and I don't. You know it's it's been a lot of years, I don't remember exactly, but I'm like it just was. It's it's not complicated and it doesn't have to be complicated, and just Getting a person whether it's one of our volunteer tutors or our staff in there To really see the kids and and really see the teachers too I mean, teachers are given so much on their plate and we Work to build that relationship too and they learn to trust us and, like you know, like let's work together to do what this kid needs.
Erin:I was gonna jump into because I know we've talked a lot about the academic goals and the academic support we provide with students. But a lot of times we're just providing some social, emotional support for students. Sometimes they just need a break and so we can just be a safe space within the school day that they can come and just take a Break and have a snack and sit down and talk to somebody.
Steve:And, as I think about that, that probably improves their academic performance just in and of itself.
Erin:Yeah, just having that minute to breathe and relax and know that there's somebody there that you trust, you're in a safe place, to just catch your breath and regroup, and then they go back to class ready to learn. I.
Steve:Think about that with. I have two grandsons and every now and then I'll be on duty to Be at their house when the bus gets there, and of course they come home and they, they need a break. Sure, they need something way to unwind and I'm thinking many of these kids probably don't have that space.
Erin:Yeah, just yeah.
Steve:Have calm and quiet and take a break, and think about that now in my own childhood how important that was and if that had been missing, how much a layer of stress that would have been.
Karen:Yeah, I have a recent story and this is getting a little more serious and deep, but one of my high school Coordinators was just at the end of this past semester, at the end of December. She was at her high school and walking down the hall and she ran into a parent who happened to be there meeting with an Administrator about her son who was in our program the previous year and he had a really good sophomore year and he would kind of come into our room and a lot of times it was just for that. He just needed a moment. And then this now junior was we. You know, she never saw him, he, he didn't come into our room and he wasn't part of the program for the next year and, very sadly, he's dealing with a lot of mental health and had a suicide attempt. And so the mom was there trying to figure out how to get him back into school and what he needed, and she ran into our Coordinator there and they knew each other from the previous year and she's like, oh, you're still here, can he come? And she's like, yes, where has he been? And he just didn't. I think he asked his study hall teacher the first time if he could come down and early on in the year they were trying not to have too many passes in the hallway which you know at a high school you get those and then he just didn't ask again. So now he's gonna start coming again and it it's just like, yeah, we want to help him pass algebra because you need that to graduate, but that kid needs a spot to just take a deep breath during the day. And the mom said his whole sophomore year was the best year he had in school and he was in that room a couple or three or four times a week and he was doing well, and so I'm so thankful that they just happened to be at the same place at the same time and their paths crossed and and now he's gonna get the impact on his life isn't huge. It's huge, it's huge, it is, and it's like those moments I'm like, oh, this is why this is what we're doing.
Steve:I Don't want to get too much in the weeds of the details here, but how are the students Selected to leave the classroom and have this special time with a volunteer or whoever it might be?
Erin:So we work really closely with our school partners and a lot of times that's the school social worker, or sometimes it's a counselor, sometimes it's a principal, and they look at what's called the McKinney-Vento list of students. So the McKinney-Vento law identifies students who are experiencing homelessness and there's some built-in rights that they have okay, so students have that For lack of a better term classification already.
Steve:Mm-hmm.
Erin:Yep. So a lot of times the students that we work with come directly from that list. But our mission expanded recently so that we can work with any student who is facing housing insecurity. They don't have to meet the technical definition of homelessness Because we know just having housing insecurity can also really Disrupt lives and and we still want to provide support before they get that legal definition of homelessness.
Steve:What's the difference between the legal definition and how you're defining housing insecurity?
Erin:So the McKinney-Vento law has some Pretty straightforward parameters of how they identify students. I don't have the law written in front of me, so I don't want to misquote it right. But it does look at students who are are doubled up, that when families are enrolling they can self-identify. So the school is making those identifications and then passing that list on to us. But we work with the counselors and say, hey, if you know, there's a family that is is having a difficult time right now, but maybe they haven't self-identified or they don't want to be identified. In that way we can still work with those students and provide some support because you are private Non-profit.
Steve:Is that correct? So your funding is not correct. Guide it to exclusively one group of people.
Karen:Mm-hmm, Yep right though the terms, that our school social workers in every school district has an identified McKinney-Vento liaison who is in charge of identifying families and Providing supports for those families. But the words they use are fixed, regular and adequate. So when you look at housing, sometimes there's all sorts of different variables, like, well, they moved in with Grandma for a bit, or they are staying in a motel for a bit, or, and, and they look, is it fixed, is it regular and is it adequate? So when, if the electricity gets shut off, it's not adequate. So those students would qualify for McKinney-Vento supports If they're having to go back and forth and they stay with grandma for financial reasons and then they get an Apartment for a month and that's not regular when they're flipping back and forth. Fixed. You know we have families who've stayed in cars and you know there's. It's got to be those three words and our McKinney-Vento liaisons I hear them all the time, you know saying okay, fixed, regular, adequate, did they meet all three? And if any one of those three is in question or not in place, then McKinney-Vento swoops in and what is the benefit of that? the law so that law protects families. Basically, we want to make sure students Don't get to do anything because of their situate, their housing situations. So even if a family has to go stay in a motel and it's just across the school, border line districts provide a McKinney-Vento Transportation. So they will still, so that the student can stay with their peers and their teachers when the rest of their life has been turned upside down, even if they're just across the border.
Steve:Yes.
Karen:As long as it's, you know, reasonable, where you know if they have to move to Kokomo, we probably are not going to pick the kid up at 4 am and you know that's not. That's not good for anyone. But school has provided some funding to accommodate that kind of thing, yep, and if the student wants to play basketball and try out for the basketball team, and that means staying after, and then the school social workers figure out like, okay, how can we make sure this kid gets to do what any other kid gets to do? And so Transportation is certainly a big, big piece of that. But then, referring to programs like ours for extra academic support, sometimes if the school has uniforms, we, you know, they make sure they they get what they need. If they had to leave suddenly and they don't have the right Uniform or the right clothes to wear, or whatever that might be In school supplies when did that law come into play?
Erin:You know, I don't know. It is a federal law, so it's not specific to Indiana.
Steve:I see.
Erin:It's been. I know I feel like the 1970s.
Karen:Quite a while. It's been a while, yeah, and it there. You know it. I feel like more and more teachers are becoming aware. I, when I was trained as a teacher way back when I started teaching in the 90s, I was not really aware of that.
Steve:I was wondering about that, if the school personnel are aware of it, because my ignorance, I'd never heard of it. I'm not a teacher.
Erin:Sure, I think a lot of teachers are aware of the law. It's interesting because we have conversations sometimes. Teachers aren't always aware of why we are working with students, because that list that we talked about the McKinney-Vento list that students are identified on that's not widely distributed because it doesn't need to be. We want to protect our students' privacy and they don't need to be identified that way to everyone. Sometimes teachers aren't fully aware of why we're there providing support. They just know we're there and we're an extra set of hands to be there to help the students, to help the teachers and help build relationships with the families.
Steve:Like we said, your funding is not tied to that law. Your funding is totally separate from the districts and their funding, which is obviously another way, people who might be listening to this and be excited about joining the cause. I assume a way to do that is just cash, absolutely yeah.
Karen:Yeah, Our website. There's all sorts of opportunities to get involved, whether it's as a volunteer tutor, or we take volunteers who help out with things around the office sometimes and certainly monetary donations.
Erin:We have an Amazon wish list that's on our website because we're always looking for specific needs, like students who really love Harry Potter. We'll put a request out there for the Harry Potter series so that we can get that student the book that they're interested in. So we're always putting things on our Amazon wish list that are specific to what students are needing and what our coordinators are needing to provide that support.
Steve:So first step go to your website. Is that correct?
Erin:Yeah, yeah.
Steve:And what is that website?
Erin:BrightlaneLearningorg.
Karen:Pretty straightforward, yeah, and we're also on all the major social platforms as Brightlane, learning, including TikTok, even Okay.
Steve:Do you guys do the videos A little bit?
Karen:I think I've owned one or two of those, but yeah, yeah, that's our newest social media platform.
Steve:Well, I want to get to before we wrap up your personal stories. How did you get involved, Erin?
Erin:Yeah, so education has always been a really important part in my life. I come from a family of educators. My dad was an administrator at a community college where I grew up. My mom was a public school teacher and then principal and then administrator. So the value and importance of education was really ingrained in us as kids, but I didn't always know how important it would be in my life. I really I had to find my own way. I didn't want to go into education just because my parents did. In fact, I probably wanted to do the opposite, because that's what my parents did. Got a little bit of rebel in you, I just had to find my own path. So I went to college. I got kind of a general like degree in communication. Wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, but after I graduated I really quickly realized that I did not want to be in the corporate world. So I signed up as a Peace Corps volunteer. That sent me to Romania for a couple of years where I was part of their teaching program. So I taught English as a foreign language. I got to work with a wide range of students in different environments, in the school, at summer camps, things like that and that's where I really kind of found my passion and my love of teaching.
Steve:So you came back hooked on teaching.
Erin:I really did, I just loved it.
Steve:So where did that lead you then, when you came back?
Erin:Yeah. So when I came back I was in Chicago with my sister and I went to grad school and got my master's in education. I started teaching in Skokie, illinois. I taught kindergarten and first grade and then, once my husband and I started our family, we really wanted kind of a different pace of life. So we moved to Indiana we have some extended family here, my husband's parents are from here and I was primarily an at-home parent for a while with my kids, did a variety of different things. I substitute Todd. I still kind of stayed involved in education. We did co-op preschools, so I was really involved with my kids' school. But then when I was really kind of ready to get back into the workforce, I was asking around because I wanted to do something a little different, not directly back in the classroom, but I knew I wanted to stay involved with education, but just in a different capacity, and I had heard just amazing things about what was then school on wheels. Now we're Breitlinge learning. My sister, chelsea over at CHIP had great things to say, so that kind of led me in this direction. I initially signed up to be a volunteer and kind of went through that process. But then COVID hit and volunteers had to be put on hold for a little while, but I kind of stayed in touch and kept tabs on what was going on. And then a part-time opportunity came about and so I came aboard as one of our education support coordinators. So I was working in schools and it just kind of grew from there and I really believe that I landed in the right place, because I just truly, truly believe that every student deserves a high quality education and that just 100% aligns with the mission here and the work that we're doing.
Steve:Match made in heaven.
Erin:No, I'm so lucky.
Steve:Yeah, that's great, Karen. How did you come to this place?
Karen:Well, I also feel like it was kind of a match made in heaven. I was a teacher I mentioned. I taught math in both middle school and high school.
Steve:Here in Indianapolis. Here in.
Karen:Indianapolis yep, and I was teaching in a high school and I actually had two students who were seniors, but they were kind of a romantic high school couple and they both were emancipated and didn't have a home to live in. So they were navigating, so I, and at the same time they were trying to pass the math classes they needed so that they could get done with high school. And so I worked very closely with the school social worker and we were giving them bus passes, just Indigo bus passes, so they could get to school and I'd work with them after school. And I got to know them pretty well. And so the school social worker, she was aware back then we were school on wheels and so she talked about that, that at some of the shelters she knew that school on wheels provided tutoring on the days that they couldn't stay after. You know where are you going. And I heard that school on wheels and I was like huh, what is that? And then I was driving home one day and our office used to be near Glendale on 62nd Street and a little like it was like a little real estate sign went in this church. That was there and it said school on wheels. You know, enter here or whatever. And I was like school on wheels. There it is again what is this.
Steve:And so I literally how many years ago was this?
Karen:This was 13, 13 and a half years ago. Almost 14 years ago, I walked up to this little church on 62nd Street, knocked on the door and I was, and they answered and I was like what do you do? What are you doing here? And so I started this conversation and I ended up pretty soon after that coming on board. It was a great fit for my family, my kids at the time my youngest was in preschool and just the schedule and my availability. We laugh about my then three or four year old son. He would be under my desk sometimes playing Legos while I was in the office finishing up some things, and he's now a senior in high school and he's 65. And Sally, our CEO, she's like I can't believe that's little Luke. So I feel like I and my family we've all kind of grown right along. So I started out working part time.
Steve:What was your role?
Karen:I was a coordinator and I oversaw the program at two different shelters and from there I did that for a year or two and then my youngest started school, kindergarten, got him into kindergarten and then I came on as an education manager and I've just kind of grown from there. So it was kind of it was just weird how I'm like why does this school on wheels? It keeps coming into my world. And so here I am, almost 14 years.
Steve:You mentioning the church just made me think. Are you guys faith-based in any way? No, okay, no, we're not Okay.
Erin:And Steve, before we go. I just there was one thing I it's been on my mind as we've been talking. Something my mom taught me from a very young age was that everybody is doing their best, and I think about that a lot with the families that we work with and the teachers that we work with that feel overwhelmed and everyone is just truly doing their best. And your best might look different from my best, but we're all doing our best and the families and the students that we work with are faced with a lot, and I think it's easy to forget that. We don't always know everyone's story, and sometimes teachers get frustrated when this project's not getting finished. And why isn't anyone helping the student work on this at home? Well, their family might be trying to figure out where they're going to sleep that night and their project gets left behind. And it's not that they don't want to work on that project and they don't want their student to do the best that they can on that project. They just don't have the time to do it, and so I think it's just really important for everyone to remember, when you're approaching anyone, that that person is doing their best, and their best today might just be showing up.
Steve:Yes. And so I just maybe they've done super well to just show up that day. I know just in my own personal experience, in a very limited way, I'm amazed at the resilience of kids and the tenacity of kids in many situations, and that sounds like the kinds of kids that you're working with on a daily basis.
Karen:Absolutely. They blow me away with how much they can handle and how they get through situations. One thing we say often here is that childhood homelessness doesn't raise its hand, and a lot of times it's that hidden peace. And so sometimes, like Erin talked about before, that families don't always self-identify, but teachers and raising this awareness that this is an issue in our community that families and kids are dealing with, and that's just such an important part of what we do we're trying to give kids' voice and teachers a voice and an awareness, and then maybe some tools like them, what do you do? What can you do? And so we're there to provide a safety net and provide something that the kids need. When it's not a very talked about, it's kind of like hidden in plain sight and it's not an issue that gets talked about a lot and it is very much, like Erin said, like everyone's doing their best and you just don't know the stories and the different situations that so many of our kids and families are dealing with.
Erin:And sometimes a kid might come to school and they need a nap and the teachers can't figure out why is this kid sleeping in class? Well, that's where we can be a voice for those students and just say you know what? They just need that right now. Let's give them 15 minutes in a quiet place, like that's okay.
Karen:And then they're ready to go back and learn.
Steve:Karen and Erin. Thank you so much. If I can speak for the community, I'm going to try to just say thank you, thank you, thank you because you're dealing with very vulnerable kids at very vulnerable stages of their lives that can make a total difference in the trajectory of their path.
Erin:Thank you, thank you, we love it.