FSH Works Success Stories: ECTC

A core strand of our DNA at Family Scholar House is a keen understanding that, if the challenges of daily life can’t be met, a person’s chances of getting an education, securing a career, becoming a homeowner or building generational wealth are all drastically diminished.

In light of this, we focus on helping people meet and overcome those seemingly insurmountable challenges posed by poverty and abuse, so that they can focus on their families and on getting the education and life skills that can open the door to a more secure future.

Many assume that Family Scholar House only serves student parents. FSH Works Regional Support Specialist Rachel Harrison from our Elizabethtown Community & Technical College team shared that we support anyone who needs support and connection to resources. Our team helps both students and community members overcome barriers and gain stability in their life, so they can thrive inside and outside the classroom or workplace.

For example, take James, an ECTC student who was experiencing unstable housing, sleeping in a tent outside, without reliable transportation, struggling to get by. After spending time with James, our team was able to get him connected to the resources he needed to acquire reliable transportation and stable housing, and ensure his basic needs were met. With those changes incorporated, and with much additional work on his part, James was able to finish out the semester successfully, and continues to work to become the father that he aspires to be.

Similarly, when Luke came to the FSH Works team at ECTC, he was constantly in and out of different housing situations with family and friends, and couldn’t really find a stable place for himself. As a student, he really needed that stability to be able to focus on his classes in the HVAC program and get the education that he needed.

Again, ours team was able to connect him to resources in the community regarding potential employment that would work around his school schedule, Luke also had challenges with transportation, so the FSH Works team worked with him and provided emergency assistance in the form of a gas card so that he could get the transportation he needed to get to school and work, which in turn helped him maintain his income toward a more stable housing situation.

When you support Family Scholar House, whether through donations, volunteer time or connections, you are literally changing not just lives, but generations, by breaking down barriers “to end the cycle of poverty and transform our community by empowering families and youth to succeed in education and achieve life-long self-sufficiency.”