Start Your Own Club Hope!

Our Mission: Supporting students experiencing homelessness through advocacy, awareness, assistance & outreach.

Start A Club Hope At Your School

Step 1: ESTABLISH THE BASE

Find a group of students to establish the base of the club. Ideally this includes one or more students from student council, as well as at least one underclassman to continue the club in later years.

Seek out a teacher who is passionate about helping to support youth experiencing homelessness and ask them to be your adviser. Take the steps required by your school for starting a new club. Make sure to update all student participants and staff advisers along the way.

Step 2: SET UP COMMUNICATION

Determine what methods of communication work best for your team. For instance, look into using Google Drive to share documents and a group messaging platform (like GroupMe) or email to communicate outside of meetings. Also, create a Club Hope email, Instagram account, and website so you can communicate with community members.

Step 3: GET TO KNOW YOUR COMMUNITY

Do some research! Find out if your community already has existing resources, more specifically if/how your school district has attempted to address the issue (e.g. do you have a homeless liaison*?). Contact these resources and ask how you can help.

Learn more about the identification process. This is easiest through a homeless liaison* of your school district, but if this is not applicable, then contact social workers or other programs within your community. This is essential for establishing a source for statistics (e.g. how many students experience homelessness in your school district?) in order to create a compelling argument when advocating for this underrepresented population.

*If your school district does not already have a homeless liaison, try contacting your school board and preparing a presentation. The "worst" outcome would be a greater awareness of the lack of resources.

Step 4: BUILD THE BRANCHES

Initially, Club Hope can be broken down into three primary branches: Political Advocacy, Community Outreach, and School-Based Services. Split your group members into each of these three branches. You can also add, remove, or adjust branches, based on the specific needs of your community.

Political Advocacy

Visit your local city council website to find out when sessions are open to visitor comments. Prepare a short oral presentation about what needs fail to be met.

Research committees you could join as a high school student (e.g. Mayor's Youth Advisory Board, Human Rights Commission).

Research in further detail how your club can support pre-existing community resources.

Community Outreach

Contact local news sources to spread the word and need surrounding youth homelessness.

Contact school administrators about drives and fundraisers based on the items needed by the School-Based Support branch.

Once this branch has grown, look into spreading your efforts across the wider community. Contact other organizations to partner with, such as other schools in the district or religious groups.

School-Based Support

Find out if your school has a food pantry, clothing closet, or similar resource. If not, start one by talking to a school administrator and finding an appropriate empty space. Work with the community outreach branch to collect donations. Make sure to expand the available goods to clothes, toiletries, food, and school supplies.

Talk to your school counselors and staff adviser about organizing hope baskets! Make sure you have a clear but anonymous identification process.

Step 5: RECRUITMENT

While Step 4 is in progress, design posters to hang about the school hallways inviting new members to join. Talk to your student council adviser about the regulations around posters in the halls. You're going to need a lot of hands on deck to help with all the parts of Step 4!

Make sure to designate one day of the week for regular all-branch meetings. Advertise these meetings on the recruitment posters.

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