Grantee Spotlight - SHIP

To better acquaint our members and the greater community with our grantees, we are highlighting some of the nonprofit organizations that have received WGC grant funds. This quarter, we reached out to Melissa Muntz, Executive Director of Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership (SHIP) , to learn more about the organization's mission to address housing insecurity in the youth of our community.

Please introduce yourself. What is your role at your organization and how long have you been with the organization?

I’m Melissa Muntz, Executive Director of the Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership (SHIP) of Frederick County. I’ve been with SHIP for a little over 3 years now and have so enjoyed helping our young people achieve their goals.

What is the mission of the organization, and what personally moves you about that mission? SHIP builds capacity in students to reduce housing insecurity, homelessness, and their impact by breaking the systemic barriers facing Frederick County youth. We work with youth kindergarten through age 24, keeping them connected to education and helping them to work towards their own personal goals. We work to prevent adult homelessness by breaking the cycle for youth, ensuring that they have every opportunity to achieve financial and mental stability as adults. I personally love that this approach addresses both the immediate needs of one person and works to changes systems that are not working effectively for vulnerable populations. Always looking at both short term and long term solutions is the key to effecting change in our community and I love that I get to be a small part of that process.

What are the most significant challenges that the organization is facing right now? What are the most significant challenges faced by the clients/populations that you serve? Growing quickly enough the meet the increasing number of students experiencing homelessness continues to b a challenge. Last year, there were over 1,000 students experiencing homelessness just in Frederick County Public Schools. With a staff of 10, we have struggled to avoid having waitlists for our programming. The demand for services is extremely high and unfortunately funding new staff positions is not easy. In a case management program like ours, the amount of students we serve can’t increase without our staff growing.

What is the nature of the Giving Circle grant that you received in our last grant cycle, and what impact will it have on women and their dependents in Frederick?

We were delighted to receive a grant to fund housing for unaccompanied young woman ages 18-24 who are pursuing education. This means that a young woman attending FCC, without a family to support her, won’t have to do so while worrying about where she’s going to sleep that night. Our program will house her, provide case management support, and work with her on a savings plan to ensure that when our support ends she will be better equipped to continue her educational journey. Allowing young women the stability need to focus on earning a degree increases their long term earning potential and makes them significantly less likely to experience homelessness as an adult.

Do you have any specific stories that you can share with us that illustrate what you are doing in the community?

Back in the fall, a high school student came to us through a school counselor. She was experiencing homelessness and was uninsured. For a variety of reasons, she did not qualify for any kind of coverage and was skipping school due to significant ear pain which she could not address. The school staff were understandably concerned that she was missing so much school and looked to SHIP to assist. Our team provided immediate pain relief items including earphones and ear warmers to prevent wind from bothering her wound. We also took the student to the school based health clinic who determined that she needed a referral to a specialist, which they were unable to provide. SHIP worked directly with Frederick Health to complete financial aide paperwork and to obtain the appropriate referral without a scary bill for the student. The SHIP team also taught the student to use the public bus to access her, now many, medical appointments. Case managers rode with her the first few trips, showing her how to use the Transit app and map out her route. While treatment will be an ongoing process, the student now has pain relief, a plan, and ended her school year on track to graduate on time. While I love that this student no longer has barriers and is staying connected to her education, what I really love about this story is the systemic change that came out of it. We now have a firm process with Frederick Health to provide financial aide to students experiencing homelessness. For our uninsured students, we now go through this process before there is an issue so that they are ahead of any situations that may arise. Since this incident occurred, we have helped 18 uninsured students to obtain financial aide.

Is there anything further that members of the Giving Circle can do to help, in terms of volunteering, in-kind donations, etc?

Our students can always benefit from hygiene items (shampoo, body wash, etc). Not being able to properly address hygiene needs is a common reason students miss school, this is one easy way that we can support school connection.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank you again for your generous contribution to our students!