ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) - Katrina Phifer remembers asking herself, “What have we gotten ourselves into?” when The Salvation Army’s SMART Kids program launched in May.
An elementary-aged girl threw a “toddler tantrum” after being simply told “no,” the St. Cloud Times (https://on.sctimes.com/2hw6lDc ) reported. The stress from being homeless had affected how the girl reacted to things.
Six months later, that same girl is more independent. Phifer, an aide for the SMART Kids program, recently saw the girl comforting a peer who was frightened because she had recently been in a car accident.
“From her first day here when she couldn’t even handle a ’no, that’s not what we’re going to do’ without falling apart to now - she’s leading, she’s being a good friend - that’s just a cool transition to see,” Phifer said.
This transition is just one of many seen at the SMART Kids program, which provides after-school programming for children experiencing homelessness. The program provides dinner and snacks, homework help, access to games and materials for projects and, most importantly, positive experiences with adults other than their parents who care about them.
Before the program started, many kids needed to go along with their parents to required meetings with case workers. SMART Kids offers children an escape from that stress, said Chad Johnson, program coordinator.
“(The parents are) experiencing a lot of trauma, a lot of crisis, so when the kids are always there with them, they’re experiencing that right alongside them,” Johnson said. The program targets children at The Salvation Army shelter, but also is open to children living at other area shelters or motels, or couch-surfing at someone else’s house.
“There (had) never been any established programs for the kids in the shelter, especially since there’s been such a rise in children experiencing homelessness in the area,” Johnson said, noting there’s been a 50 percent increase in families experiencing homelessness since 2012.
A $100,000 grant from the Bremer Foundation allowed Johnson to create the SMART Kids program. He was able to hire Phifer and part-time staff. A number of volunteers also spend time with the children.
Both Johnson and Phifer have children of their own. Johnson said he had experience with kids’ programming before this job. Phifer grew up in a home that offered foster care.
“I’m familiar with kids that come from difficult places,” she said.
For both Johnson and Phifer, the goal for the program is to help the kids in whatever way they can.
“We want to prevent (homelessness) from happening in the future. These kids are surrounded by it. It’s the only life that they know,” Johnson said. “I want more for them, and if there’s not people out there to care to invest their time and show these kids that we care, then who else will?”
Despite some of the behavioral problems, the kids are working really hard, Phifer said.
“When you think about what they’re overcoming, … I think they’re stronger than most of us think,” she said. “You forget just how hard they’re working to keep it together and to grow despite what they’ve been given.”
For many of the kids involved, SMART Kids just feels like a fun place where they get to play games and get snacks.
Sarah, a 7-year-old participating in the program, lives with her family in a blue house. She said she likes the program because it’s fun.
“We get to play on the Wii,” she said. “Sometimes we go to other places, like all the places in the world.”
Johnson clarified that the SMART Kids participants sometimes get to go on field trips. In December, the group went rollerskating.
“I tripped like 100 times,” Sarah said with a laugh.
During a journaling activity with volunteers from the St. Cloud Times, Sarah colored pictures about herself and her life. She drew a picture of a police badge because she wants to be a police officer when she grows up, and she wrote that she is “smart and funy.”
When asked to draw what she cannot live without, Sarah drew a picture of money.
“I want a hundred dollars,” she said.
And what would she spend the money on?
“A car and a house and my own toys,” she said.
Nay’llah, a 6-year-old SMART Kids participant, lives with her family in the same blue house as Sarah. One of her favorite SMART Kids memories is winning second-place in a paper airplane contest with St. Cloud Times reporters.
In her journal, Nay’llah said she wishes for a “unicorness,” which is a unicorn with a horn and wings.
Isaiah Juster, 8, is another SMART Kids participant. His favorite thing to do - at home and at The Salvation Army - is to play video games. He said he likes SMART Kids and school. His favorite subject?
“I just cannot pick any one. I like all of them,” he said.
Juster was living in The Salvation Army shelter when SMART Kids started. Now, his family has moved to a mobile home.
Because The Salvation Army shelter looks like a hotel - it’s actually in a former hotel building - many kids don’t seem to be stigmatized about living in a shelter, Johnson said.
“I’ve never heard any of our kids self-identify as homeless,” Phifer said. “I think for most of them, this is just where we live right now.”
The constant change can be draining for both the children and staff.
“I think my most challenging part is No. 1, the constant transitions. We’ll just be forming a relationship with some of the students and then they’re gone,” Phifer said.
Another difficulty is not being able to help every child. If a kid could be dangerous and hurt themselves or someone else, SMART Kids isn’t for them, Johnson said.
“I just want to make sure the kids, when they’re here, they feel safe, they feel secure,” he said. “Because if they don’t feel safe, they’re not going to be able to grow at all.”
Johnson and Phifer said they sometimes hear complaints about the childrens’ parents, who might be making poor choices. For Salvation Army staff, that’s not a good reason to abandon the children.
“It’s a clichéd saying, but the cycle of poverty is true. It really is a cycle,” Phifer said. “Their parents that are making the bad decisions, at one point were kids that, odds are, didn’t get what they needed from parents.
“If you’re a 5-year-old that doesn’t get what you need, and you’re growing up in chaos, you’re chances … of being able to make good decisions as an adult just aren’t there,” Phifer continued. “Somebody needs to stop the cycle, and the cycle stops when the kids get the help they need.
“If we abandon them, the cycle will continue.”
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Information from: St. Cloud Times, https://www.sctimes.com
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