Making a Difference for Homeless Students in Maryland

When Frederick County students returned to school in August, more than 900 were homeless, and nearly 200 were unaccompanied minors who didn’t have a parent or legal guardian in their lives, according to estimates from the Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership (SHIP) of Frederick County. 

To help alleviate the stresses experienced by those students, the FirstEnergy Foundation made a grant of $31,000 to SHIP earlier this year as part of its “Investing with Purpose” initiative. This giving program is designed to support organizations that advance health and safety, workforce development, educational and social justice initiatives. 

Founded in 2014, SHIP provides critical resources and services to homeless students ranging in age from kindergartners to those in college. These resources include basic material needs such as clothing and hygiene items as well as emergency hotel stays, with more than 3,800 such stays logged in 2021.  

For a student experiencing homelessness, the stress of securing food and shelter on a regular basis poses an enormous obstacle to academic success, says Melissa Muntz, SHIP’s executive director. 

“They’re so focused on those basic human needs, it’s very hard to think past those details,” she says. 

SHIP’s mission is to help remove those obstacles, and one of the ways it’s doing that is by securing long-term housing options for students in need. The organization works to pair students age 16 and older with host families for up to six months, and in early 2022 it started a Rapid Rehousing program to help high school or college students age 18 and older find affordable rental properties in the area.  

Based on a national model, the Rapid Rehousing program helps students evaluate leases and pays a portion of the housing expenses for a six- to 12-month period. A case manager counsels each student on issues such as employment and transportation and serves as a point of contact for the student’s landlord. 

SHIP currently has three students enrolled in the Rapid Rehousing program, and FirstEnergy Foundation’s grant  will enable SHIP to assist more unaccompanied students in Frederick County, Muntz says. 

“What they really need is some assistance with budgeting and some of those other barriers,” she says. “If we can help with those, many of our students are able to escape that cycle of homelessness.”  

Hannah, a youth engagement coordinator with SHIP, is in her second year at Frederick Community College and recently applied for the school’s nursing program. Previously homeless, Hannah now lives with a host family in the area. SHIP helped her to obtain missing vital records that she needed to enroll at the college, where she has a 4.0 grade point average. 

“With that help, I started working on knocking down the barriers that were standing in the way of my success,” she says. “It’s just having that opportunity available.”  

To learn more about SHIP, please visit www.shipfrederick.com.  

The FirstEnergy Foundation is funded solely by FirstEnergy Corp. and provides support to non-profit, tax-exempt health and human services agencies; educational organizations; cultural and arts programs and institutions; and civic groups in areas served by FirstEnergy's 10 electric operating companies and in areas where the company conducts business. Learn more about The FirstEnergy Foundation and Investing with Purpose.   

CONTACT:  Will Boye, (301) 790-6420