“I can’t ignore it. I count my blessings that I can give back.”
- Dennis Zamora, Program Coordinator, Las Cruces Public Schools
Clouds Over Las Cruces
When asked what is the one most important message you would want conveyed to people, Dennis replied with no hesitation: “Become aware. Awareness is the key in all communities – to become aware that there are homeless families and homeless children and homeless adults. This cannot be ignored.” Dennis has the same approach he takes with everyone (all people in the community, his team, fellow educators, businesses, whomever): “They [the homeless] are our family, our sister, our brother, or our mother, our dad. See them as such and embrace them. Keep on pounding and pounding awareness until all our aware.”
There are many points I would love to share, words that came from Dennis, from his heart, his passion and his experience. I will share two areas that will stand out in my mind as I travel across the country to talk and hopefully have people discuss and connect.
He spoke of a young girl who was homeless for two years starting in sixth grade. Eventually she went to college and now has a full time job. To give back, she has become a student advocate and talks to middle school classes. She tells the teens: “I know that there are many of you who are homeless and are too ashamed to speak. You do not have to feel that way; you do not have to sleep in the street or in the park; you do not have to stay with your boyfriend or girlfriend; you do not have to sneak around as there is help for you. Speak up.”
A Closed Shelter
The one regular family shelter closed – not because of no homeless families but because of budget plus policy etc. Dennis spoke of when your time is up at the domestic violence shelter, your time is up and you have to leave. A while back a mother with four children was asked to leave and slept in the park (and it can be cold here). The team stepped in, but he said it worked out because of the support of the Mayor who understands what they are trying to do.
The team does not wait for homeless kids to come to them, they leave no “stone unturned.” He has a group of his team go out regularly to look for homeless families, on the street, in cars, behind stores at shopping centers, along the river banks, in the parks, inside hidden trailers as well as in the many motels.
I missed meeting Dennis in person, but I knew we would talk – and we did. To all who are working with the homeless families and their children from kindergarten through twelfth grade, you have a soul mate in partnership with Dennis, Yoli, who everyone talks about, and with the whole team in Las Cruces.
The number says 439 homeless kids for the city; everyone knows there are many more. But with their kind of persistence and zeal and support of each other, they [the homeless kids] will be found and be given their opportunity to have a life and pursue an education.
Goodbye to Las Cruces.
Sunrise Over Las Cruces
I am on my way to Truth or Consequences and when there I have a couple of blogs to finish on my experience in Las Cruces. So more to come.
