Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless

More than 3,000 children are homeless in Minnesota. At Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless, we are deeply troubled that so many children do not have a safe place to call home and determined to make sure they have access to the same quality educational opportunities as their peers. For this reason, we established the Education Grants Fund in 1996 to give children without permanent homes everything they need to succeed and feel at home in school. Over the past 14 years, our education grants have helped provide backpacks, school supplies, athletic equipment, music lessons, college application fees and much more to approximately 50,000 students experiencing homelessness. These funds are reserved for Minnesota homeless shelters, transitional housing programs, and supportive housing agencies serving homeless children and youth for purposes that will assist the students in their educational pursuits.

Here is what some previous grant recipients have said about Open Your Heart:

• “Items such as gym shoes, school uniforms, and school supplies helped the children get a fresh start in school during the transition from shelter to transitional housing […] The Open Your Heart Education Fund offered the children in our program a more level playing field with their peers.” (Minneapolis Public Schools)
• “Children were able to have the same ‘new’ school supplies as their classmates. An effort was made to involve them in the selection of the school supplies whenever possible. They were able to participate in sports and music lessons and have their school pictures taken just like everyone else.” (Elim Transitional Housing)
• “I believe Open Your Heart is preparing each child for school with ensuring they are dressed properly and prepared to begin each school day, without their peers being aware of the crisis their family is in.” (Women’s Advocates, Inc.)

Read more testimonials from previous education grant recipients

Continuing our commitment to the youngest people experiencing homelessness, Open Your Heart is now accepting education grant applications for the 2010-2011 school year. All of our application materials are available to download on our Grant Applications page. Please know that starting with grant applications for the 2010-2011 school year, the Education Committee may move to a competitive grant award process based on the merit of grant proposals rather than awarding a percentage of each request to all applying agencies.

To everyone working with children and youth who are homeless, thank you. Your day-to-day commitment to these students makes a world of a difference in their lives.