When students visit the family resource center at Odyssey Elementary School in Ogden, they ask Destiny DeHerrera, the community school coordinator, if she lives there.
There’s a full kitchen, couches and a TV, a dining room table, a library with books and games, two washers and dryers, a bathroom with a shower, a food pantry and a closet stocked with new clothes. It’s designed to be homey with everything except a bedroom.
DeHerrera loves it when kids play while their families make dinner or learn about available support resources.
“They're having fun, they're laughing with their sibling,” she said. “And I think that people that just have that at home maybe take that for granted.”
Three-quarters of Odyssey students were classified as economically disadvantaged last year. Seven percent were homeless. Students living at Lantern House, a local homeless shelter, fall into Odyssey’s boundaries.
“The center isn't just for those families, it's for any Odyssey families,” said DeHerrera.
The center opened in December, becoming the first resource center at an elementary school in Utah. Teen centers, the high school equivalent, are becoming increasingly common thanks to the $15 million the Legislature put behind the effort. More than 70 high schools have received funding.
Many families struggle to afford housing and food, said Jed Burton, director of clinical services at Weber Human Services. Providing food, clothing, and resources like showers and laundry can equip them to focus on longer-term needs.
“Those individuals are able to get their basic needs met, and then they're in a position to be able to receive therapy or to receive counseling or to get education. We can't even offer them those things until their basic needs are met.”
Odyssey families can schedule appointments to use the center, and teachers can call DeHerrera when they see a student who needs a snack or clean clothes.
“It's really awesome, because they know their students best, and I'm just here to kind of help support them in that way,” she said.
Providing food to students in need does more than fill their bellies.
Brains don’t work when they’re undernourished, said Danielle Littman, an assistant professor at the University of Utah’s College of Social Work. A hungry student won’t be fully present, which “has academic implications, it has social implications, it has behavioral implications.”
With basic physical needs met, children “can better show up in relationships with other students, with teachers, with others in their community,” Littman said.
Providing resources at school, where families pick up and drop off their kids regularly, could alleviate any stigma associated with asking for help. Plus, it’s convenient.
“It's not a behavioral health center, or it's not a medical center. It's not associated with the courts or with legal issues,” Burton noted. “And so I think it actually reduces some of those barriers for families.”
Beyond food, showers and clean clothes, DeHerrera connects families with resources like Cottages of Hope and the Ogden-Weber Community Action Partnership, which provide financial coaching and help writing resumes.
“If I don’t know the answer, I will find the answer for them,” DeHerrera said, from haircuts to low-cost dental services.
DeHerrera is excited to build up the center’s capacity and reach more and more families. It’ll take time and trust, she said, but “as of right now, the center is meeting the really urgent needs that the families here are having.”
It’s too early to tell whether there has been a measurable impact on academic achievement, but Littman is optimistic.
“I would expect that there would be better attendance, and related to both better attendance and relating to one’s brain being able to function more if they're properly nourished, I would expect better academic outcomes,” she said.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
