Nonprofit Helps Get Homeless Children Back in School

Chantel Decker appears to be a typical 18-year-old high school student. She is a member of her school’s color guard, a camp counselor, secretary of the advanced choir club and a participant in the school’s Renaissance play.

You wouldn’t know by looking at her that she was homeless only a year ago.

Her mother, Penny Breshears, also has rebounded well after going through a tough divorce and ending up on the streets when building code violations forced her and Chantel out of their duplex in Lake Elsinore.

The mother and daughter now rent an apartment in San Bernardino, and Breshears has begun a job as a telemarketer. She recently completed a community college course on warehouse operations and is considering taking more classes.

Breshears gives all the credit for her family’s quick recovery to one man: Michael Bautista, a case manager with Education First, a nonprofit organization dedicated to getting homeless children in San Bernardino County back into school. Bautista took Breshears and her daughter shopping for school clothes and supplies. He helped Breshears fill out job applications and even drove her to job interviews.

“Michael has been our guardian angel,” Breshears said. “He has been there every step of the way.”

Education First is one of several programs funded by the Children’s Fund of San Bernardino County, a public-private partnership that raises donations for neglected, abused and poverty-stricken children.

Helping the fund do that is a $15,000 grant from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign, which raises money for nonprofit agencies in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Children’s Fund spends 100% of all donations on needy children because San Bernardino County pays all of the organization’s administrative costs and overhead. The Children’s Fund, which was created at the behest of the county’s grand jury in 1985, raises money through donations, an annual golf tournament and a rubber duck fund-raising race.

But the Children’s Fund faces challenging times. Last year, the number of people served by the fund increased more than 30% while donations rose only 5%. The demands on the organization probably will grow even higher as victims of the recent wildfires turn to the Children’s Fund for help. In addition, the Children’s Fund is expecting to give heavily to the children of military reservists called to serve in Iraq.

“We are looking at double trouble this year,” said Rebecca L. Stafford, interim executive director of the program.

Breshears heard about Education First when she turned to the Salvation Army for help last year. Breshears earned a living by working at a child care center. She also was a data entry worker and took care of an elderly woman. But her world came crashing down last year because of a divorce, problems with credit, a debilitating back problem and her duplex closing because of building code violations.

Being homeless struck Chantel hardest. “It was very traumatic for her,” Breshears said. “It was embarrassing. She couldn’t spend time with her friends.”

Even after Bautista helped get Breshears an apartment and put Chantel back in school, the teenager struggled to adjust.

“Her first semester up here was really tough,” Breshears said.

Breshears feared that her daughter would leave her to live with her father. But Chantel stayed, and the two now hold out hope for the future.

“She has risen above and beyond the call,” Breshears said.

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HOW TO GIVE

The annual Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $800,000 raised at 50 cents on the dollar. Donations (checks or money orders) supporting the Holiday Campaign should be sent to L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File 56986, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6986. Do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made on the Web site: www.latimes.com/holiday campaign.

All donations are tax-deductible. Contributions of $50 or more may be published in The Times unless a donor requests otherwise; acknowledgment cannot be guaranteed. For more information, call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 75771.