Charleston County School District (CCSD) has more than 220 students that meet the McKinney-Vento Program criteria. McKinney-Vento is a program that helps children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.
Under the leadership of Sonya Jones, CCSD’s Title I Program Compliance Administrator, Abria Pryor and Kimberly Grant (CCSD McKinney-Vento Parent Advocates) hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at Royal Baptist Family Life and Banquet Center on Saturday, November 19, 2022. Due to the families living in inadequate living situations and lacking resources like a refrigerator and stoves, the consensus was to have a dinner for these families and create an atmosphere of home.
The following organizations came together and donated their time and resources for displaced families, Carolina Teen Center, North Charleston Community Resource Center, Chef Kendric, North Charleston Police Department, Soul Harvesters Outreach, Royal Baptist Missionary Church (Foundation), SC Conference Branch Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal District, The Tywanza Sanders Legacy Foundation, and Trident Technical College. In addition, the organizations gave away cleaning products, gift cards, groceries, hygiene kits, clothing, and two students each received a tablet. CCSD’s McKinney-Vento program would like to thank all the organizations that came together to make this event successful.
The McKinney-Vento program is partnering with external agencies and several of CCSD’s internal departments to connect displaced families with needed resources so that students can focus on academic success while fulfilling CCSD’s goal of students reading on grade level by grade five.
CCSD welcomes support from individuals, organizations, nonprofits, and businesses that would like to participate in future initiatives that support the district’s displaced families.
For more information, please contact the Office of Communications at (843) 937-6303, Abria Pryor at Abria_Pryor@charleston.k12.sc.us, or Kimberly Grant at Kimberly_Grant@charleston.k12.sc.us.
