Christopher Peak Photo
Students receive free winter coats at New Horizons School.
Chance Jackson, Jenifer Blemings, Akeem Barry.
Last week at New Horizons High School, an alternative school in the Hill, six students tried on coats of varying sizes, zipping them up as far as they’d go and throwing the faux fur-lined hoods over the heads — a small fix that might reduce the district’s absences.
Those recipients are just a handful of the 700 kids who’ll get coats this year thanks to a donation from the Dalio Foundation. Now in its second year, the coat drive, run by the city’s Youth Services Department, will warm three times as many kids as last year, thanks to the size of the gift from billionaire hedge-funder Ray Dalio’s charity.
The top two priorities are youth who are homeless or are close to dropping out, as identified by YouthStat, the data-driven effort to help the most at-risk students stay in school. Once those groups received their coats, Youth Services extended the offer to every school.
“What we want to do is make sure it’s going to the kids that really needs them,” Bartlett said. “Young people aren’t necessarily asking; teachers and administrators get to us.” On a cold day, Bartlett said, the adults notice, “Okay, you’re wearing the same kind of light sweater,” and they can fill out a form online that sends an order downtown.
Outside Bleming’s office.
At New Horizons, teachers have found kids often don’t want to publicly request a coat. Jenifer Blemings, the building’s YouthStat coordinator, hangs a folder of paper forms that students can slip under her door.
But Blemings said that after the first round of coats got passed out, more students felt comfortable requesting them. They were unexpectedly stylish, not the thrift store hand-me-downs that students expect. “It’s what they deserve,” Blemings said.
A few even asked if they could take home an extra for their parents, a request that Blemings had to turn down.
In the past, students at New Horizons got coats from another nonprofit, but now that the city’s involved, Blemings is hoping to ask the other donors to provide hats, mittens and scarves to make sure her kids are fully prepped for the winter chill.
Hooking kids up with a new coat isn’t just to add to their wardrobe — even though the students at New Horizons spent plenty of time trying to trade in different styles, colors and fits than the ones they’d been assigned. Rather, it removes an obstacle that might keep them from going to school when the temperature drops below freezing, YouthStat’s coordinators have heard anecdotally.
“Especially with the history of trauma our students have experienced [at New Horizons], we like to break down any barriers to get to school,” Blemings said. “Our students are not going to stand out in the cold for 20 minutes and wait for a bus.”
Youth Services sees the coats as just one aspect of the basic needs they try to make sure every kid in the Elm City has, along with food and grooming products.
Walnaesha tries on a larger size.
But while those items are essential, a few students at New Horizons made sure city staffers understood that an extra layer of clothing couldn’t fix the legion of other problems they faced outside of school.
After being told to “cherish” her coat, a girl named Walnaesha pushed back. She said the outwear wouldn’t help her get to work that afternoon, the hourly job she needed to support her family. The city staffer, Chance Jackson, said he was already on the clock, and with his work, he was trying to help students like her. Walnaesha replied that handing out coats was easy: She held three jobs, she told him.
That seemed to take Jackson by surprise, when, expecting gratitude, he instead was getting an earful. He switched tactics, trying to joke with her.
Jackson said he’d seen the glimmer of a smile when she tried the coat on. Maybe so, Walnaesha conceded.