There are over 2,243 students experiencing homelessness attending school in Oakland County, Michigan and all 28 School Districts have students in need. Lighthouse and Oakland Schools are working together to bring the holiday spirit to 187 children in 58 households throughout the county.

The holiday season brings additional stress to families that are already struggling to meet everyday basic needs. That’s where you can help! With a donation of any amount, you can help us provide holiday joy to a young boy or girl.

Here are some of our families:

• Stephanie is a single mother of 2 children, ages 10 (boy) and 4 (girl). The young boy is emotionally impaired and requires on-going supervision and one-on-one care. The family experienced homelessness after Stephanie was laid off from work and could no longer afford the rent. They are unable to enter a shelter because of her sons’ behaviors so they are left to sleep in their car on the nights they can not scrape together enough money for a motel room. Stephanie has been able to secure part-time employment again but her limited resources are going to make it difficult to provide any gifts for her children this year.

• An Iraqi refugee family residing in Madison Heights for the last year has been through a horrific, traumatic experience from the effects of the Iraqi genocide that is still occurring today in Iraq. They left to Jordan from Iraq three years ago and gave birth to their 3rd child. Jordan would not provide a birth certificate for their child because they were Iraqi citizens. They have 2 older kids (7-year-old boy) & (4-year-old girl) both suffered hearing loss because of the war. The boy needed cochlear implants and the girl needed hearing aids. After months of treatments and the struggle of receiving the needed documents to come to America they arrived in the U.S with nothing but the clothes on their backs, The father was unable to find work for six months and finally found work as a car wash attendant. They do not have transportation and the mother is still unable to find work. The parents and the children suffer from PTSD however they are always happy and optimistic. They keep telling us that they are truly fortunate to be in the safest country in the World.

Oakland Schools has been providing services to students experiencing homelessness in Oakland County for the past seventeen years and refugee and immigrant students for 8 years. Over that time, the need for support and utilization of services for both homeless and refugee students has continued to increase.