VOLUNTEERS HELP COORDINATE backpacks filled with new school supplies for the seventh annual La Center JumpStart Backpack Program’s distribution day on Fri., Aug. 14. So far this year, the backpack program has provided 152 La Center students with new backpacks and supplies for the 2015-2016 school year.
LA CENTER – Last week, as teachers across Clark County prepped for the new school year and students crammed in just a few more days of summer, Mindi Payne, coordinator of the La Center Family-Community Resource Center, sat inside her room at the La Center Elementary School, arranging backpacks filled with brand new school supplies.
“They’re lined up by grade level,” Payne says, pointing to a neat row of backpacks along one wall, the lower grades featuring cartoon-like characters and bright pastel colors, the high school packs from Nike, in shades of neutral greys, blues and black. “These are for people who don’t know about the program, or maybe people who have just moved here with nothing and didn’t think about getting school supplies.”
In mid-August, Payne and a group of volunteers, including Starbucks employees from Vancouver, convened at a La Center church to hand out backpacks full of supplies to families who needed them. The Starbucks employees brought snacks and coffee for the parents and worked like a well-oiled machine, Payne says, giving away 115 backpacks in just 45 minutes.
“The community makes it possible,” Payne says. “Every year, the local Lions club has a fun run to raise money for the backpacks. And this year some kids from a local vacation Bible class went door to door collecting money for the program.”
In the end, the backpack giveaway took about six months to organize and cost about $3,300, even with generous donations from a parent who works at Nike and scores “cool” packs to help low-income kids blend in with their more affluent peers. Aside from Payne, the program relies on volunteer power and the help of the community. In fact, of the $3,300 worth of costs this year, Payne says community members donated nearly 100 percent of it. As of last week, the program had donated 153 backpacks, with more waiting for families who found themselves in a bind at the last minute.
Of course, giving away free backpacks filled with school supplies isn’t unusual. School districts and community groups throughout the nation have similar giveaways each year. But poverty isn’t typically the first thing people think of when they think of La Center, a city with higher than average median incomes, the lowest crime rate in the county and few low-income housing units.
Nevertheless, says Payne, the community includes many families who are trying to make ends meet. “My binder is nearly full,” she says. “We definitely have a lot of people in need here.”
Some families are truly homeless, often bouncing from one friend’s couch to the next. Others are staying with extended family in La Center, often with older relatives who struggle to meet everyone’s needs on a fixed income.
“Maybe they grew up in La Center, moved away, had children and then had to move back in with their parents,” Payne says. “We see a lot of that.”
Other forms of “poverty” in La Center aren’t as apparent. Some families may have had steady, good-paying jobs in the past, with a nice house and a healthy savings account, but find themselves – having lost that job and used up the savings – becoming “house poor” and unable to afford much more than just the roof over their heads.
For these types of families, asking for help is not always easy. Payne understands that. Having grown up in an upper-middle class family, she says she experienced lean years for the first time as a young wife and mother, living on a military base. Her husband worked his military job all day and then took on extra jobs in the evening and on weekends to make ends meet.
“It was tough, and I’m one of those extremely proud people who know how hard it is to ask for a hand up. We’re taught to blame ourselves, to think, ‘If I’d just done something different,’ but when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, one little thing can throw it all off balance.” Payne says.
For La Center folks who find themselves needing help, but not wanting to admit it, Payne encourages them to check out the La Center Family/Community Resource Center. “We’re here for the community,” she says. “And people in La Center love to help out. If I called 10 people right now and said, ‘So and so doesn’t have money for gas to get to work,’ I’d have someone arriving here with a gas card for them. People here like to help each other. It’s the La Center way. And what we like to say is that we are giving people a hand up, not a hand out.”
Located in a spacious room inside the La Center Elementary School, the resource center offers more than a dozen programs to help families and community members in need. There is the JumpStart Backpack Program, of course, but also things like the Care Closet at La Center High School for older students who may be in need of groceries to get them through the weekend, a rain coat or toiletries; the Fuel Up program, which provides healthy snacks for students who may have missed breakfast; attendance-boosting programs throughout the school district; early childhood intervention and parenting programs; and the WatchDOG Program, which asks men, including fathers, uncles, grandfathers and community members to volunteer in the schools and be healthy male role models for students who may be lacking father figures in their lives.
Last year, the resource center and its partners met 2,241 individual needs, Payne says. The bulk of these needs, 52 percent, were considered basic needs. “Basic needs include food, housing and school supplies,” Payne says. The remainder fell into “site based programs,” which include the attendance-boosting projects; “school-assisted food programs” like Fuel Up, which provides healthy snacks; and “health resources,” which includes medical, vision, dental and mental health referrals.
Just three years old, the resource center is already thriving. The program started with a grant from the La Center casinos, and Payne says they hoped to be self-sustaining within five years. Instead, the program is already there, thanks to the partnerships and donations of community members throughout the La Center area.
So what’s next for the resource center? Payne says they are starting to fundraise for Discovery Kits for Early Education – $150 buys a kit that parents can check out and take home; always looking for more male role models for the WatchDOGS program; and seeking donations to help the center remain self-sustaining.
“We are constantly looking for funding to help families in crisis get back on their feet,” Payne says. Some examples of donations needed include gas cards, gift cards for groceries, help with baby diapers and formula, and help finding job opportunities.
“We are always looking for ways to help our families,” Payne says. “That’s the La Center way: Figure out what needs to be done and then figure out how to do it.”
