Bridges, a nonprofit that supports homeless high school students so they can safely continue learning and eventually graduate, broke ground on a new facility in Moore Tuesday.
The new facility will help students with food, clothing, medical needs, and especially, stable housing. When completed, the facility will provide housing for up to twenty “unaccompanied,” or homeless youth in the Moore Public School system.
The facility will be built in south Oklahoma City near Sky Ranch Elementary School and will eventually include duplex housing to provide the students with a secure place to call home.
The Bridges program, which started in Norman, provides transitional aid to students who suddenly find themselves homeless, whether from domestic violence, drug abuse in the home, or other factors that push them into the street.
When Norman Bridges began helping Moore with some of its homeless student problems, Moore high school students began the “Moore Love” initiative.
“If you don’t know, that student fundraising effort really kickstarted this campaign,” said Lizzy Bozarth, executive director of the Moore Public Schools Foundation. “They have given well over $400,000 to date.”
A strong community effort followed, including parents, teachers and others from the Moore community who added to the funding. Following that, Cleveland County’s Board of Commissioners in July passed funding for the facility, noting Bridges’ efforts in its report.
“Bridges is a nonprofit program in Cleveland County which provides critical services to youth struggling with homelessness,” the report states. “Their services empower the youth to graduate by providing housing, food, clothing, medical care and behavioral health support. Building Bridges is a unique project with the Moore Public School system, Moore Public School Foundation and Bridges.”
Also thanked during the celebration were numerous donors and builders who donated money, time and effort to the initiative. To date, the campaign has raised $4.5 million for the facility.
When completed, the Bridges of Moore Village will have 10 duplexes, a student center, and two Resident Assistant houses.
Moore Foundation member Skyler Parker, who is also part of City Rescue Mission, said the new center is a message of hope for students and the community.
“This is the beginning, it’s not the end,” Parker said. “The beautiful thing about this, and this is what gives me hope, is that we stopped pointing fingers and saying ‘This is a problem’ and we started solving that problem. We have to continue to do that.”
By providing help to a homeless student now, the community is ending the cycle not only for that student, but to those who follow, Parker said.
“You are changing not only their lives but their childrens’ lives and their grandchildrens’ lives,” Parker said. “Thirty to fifty percent of students who experience homelessness will experience homelessness as adults.”
Moore Public Schools Superintendent Robert Romines said he originally didn’t realize Moore had a homeless student population until Bridges in Norman arranged housing for some of the district’s students.
“My eyes were opened,” Romines said. “I am forever grateful to them for opening their doors to our students who had a need…That’s when our students picked up the initiative and four years later we are here.”
Romines told The Transcript that the students in Moore were given a presentation by the Moore Schools Foundation and Bridges of Norman, and immediately took up the cause.
“They were all over this initiative, immediately,” Romines said. “Part of it has to do with the fact that these kids walk with the students who found themselves in hard times. They got it. They get it.”
For Moore student Lily Engelbert, the effort was very personal.
“I was very passionate about it, “ said Engelbert, who is part of the “Moore Love” fundraising effort. “My mom was a homeless teen in high school at Westmoore in the 1990s. Being able to make that connection and create homes for homeless kids is really very important to me.”
Her mother, she said, made it out.
“Now she’s a financial advisor at OU with an MBA and is doing well in life. I’m very proud of her story,” Engelbert said.