Project Connect

Esper Wadih, Summer 2015

Project Connect is a program under the umbrella of Cincinnati Public Schools. It serves the homeless child population in the Greater Cincinnati area. [Project Connect is] an organization that focuses on the educational needs of the homeless children, an area that is often overlooked. The goal of Project Connect is to advocate and provide services for children who have neither a voice nor a choice in being homeless. They accomplish this by: clearing obstacles for attendance, arranging transportation, distributing school supplies and backpacks, arranging access to lunch, providing tutoring, encouraging parents to stay involved in their child's life, referring parents to other educational resources, and hosting a 6-week summer camp for the kids. Beyond the services they provide, they let the children know that there are people that care about them. In some of these children’s lives where there is very little consistency among people, places, and things, Project Connect seeks to fill this role as best they can by forming lasting relationships with the children.

As a UHP intern, I worked mainly with the 10-12 year old classroom. I was partly responsible for helping choreograph “Moving in the Morning” with the 3 other interns. However, my main role was to be a mentor, role model, and guiding presence for the children of my classroom. This role manifested itself in many ways. Occasionally, I would give a talk to the kids about having a positive mental attitude, or answer questions they had about medical school or the body. I also helped with the math and reading groups. I was assigned to the middle reading group, and it was my job to try to help get them up to speed on how to read and critically analyze what they were reading. My guiding role mostly took place in the management of day-to-day classroom activities, such as having the children line up, playing games with them, and talking to them about their misbehavior. I also gave a formal talk about nutrition to all the classrooms. I was hoping to influence the way they saw and thought about nutritious food. I did this mainly by focusing on the nutritional facts on the back of foods. My favorite part about working at Project Connect was the relationships I built with the students. They all had their different personalities and different styles, and it was incredibly enjoyable to get to know them. I hope I managed to make some impact on them, and I hope that impact helps them in their future lives.

Working with homeless children was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. At times, it was also challenging but, overall, it was a great experience to work with these kids and get to know them and their stories.