With support from our generous donors, Open Your Heart provided Intermediate District 287 with funding to remove barriers for homeless and highly mobile identified students, ages 5 to 21 years of age, so that they will have the resources to continue to attend school with dignity. “Receiving the Open Your Heart Hunger and Homeless Grant Award positively impacts our homeless/highly mobile students by being able to purchase basic necessities for them—clothing, footwear, toiletries, and bedding—and to provide transportation to/from school until their McKinney-Vento transportation starts. Our students experiencing homelessness can continue their education and arrive at school each day with dignity! They need to worry less about basic necessities so that they can focus and thrive in their personal and educational pursuits! “Intermediate District 287 is a specialized public school district that exclusively serves high need students from across the Twin Cities west metro area—the .5% of students with the most unique and significant education needs. It was founded in 1967. We have 11 member districts and operate four major Education Centers (North Education Center in New Hope, Ann Bremer Education Ctr in Brooklyn Park, South Education Ctr in Richfield, and West Education Ctr in Minnetonka) as well as some smaller sites. Our highly specialized programs include intensive special education services for students with a wide range of challenging disabilities (kindergarten through age 21),alternative high schools for students who are at risk for dropping out of school, and educational services for young people who are in chemical dependency or mental health treatment.”The mission of Intermediate District 287 is to be the premier provider of innovative specialized services to ensure we meet the unique learning needs of our students. Small class sizes, dedicated and trained staff, partnerships with community agencies to help us support the holistic health and wellbeing of students, and innovative approaches to learning including career and technical programs and hands-on experiential education, help many of these high-risk students be successful.”We provide much-needed opportunities for vulnerable students to engage in school in a new way and access the benefits of an education. We typically are working with 100 homeless/highly mobile students each school year with many of these students experiencing multiple address changes.
“Thank you, Open Your Heart, for choosing Intermediate District 287 as a grant recipient!!!”