Did you know the Barnabas Center teams up with FIT (Families in Transition) Program Director Mollie Cressey to provide items for homeless students in need in Nassau County schools?
The FIT Program identifies homeless students in Nassau County schools, enrolls them in the FIT program, and works with parents, teachers and community partners to help ensure access to school and community services, which hopefully will increase these students’ overall success.
“I would like to thank Barnabas for the generous donation of a bike to one of our FIT families,” Cressey said. “The middle school student’s mother asked for a bicycle for her son who was riding her bike to school. Also, he had only one set of clothing to wear to school, which she was washing every night. She was concerned her son may be bullied because he wore the same clothes every day.”
When Barnabas staff spoke with Cressey, they quickly located a bicycle for the boy. She picked it up and delivered it to the family the same day!
“The student was thrilled to have a new bike and said he was very grateful to Barnabas,” Cressey said. “Through other donations to FIT, we also dropped off clothes for him, and jackets and sleeping bags for the family. Thank you, Barnabas, for showing such love and support to our wonderful community.”
Helping this young man with a bike lead FIT to contact Barnabas about a 11th grader in the program who needed a bike for transportation to his new job. Again, Barnabas provided a bike. The need for bikes for children became evident. Barnabas developed a pilot program “Junior Bikes for Barnabas” to meet this need for the older children enrolled in the FIT program. Junior Bikes for Barnabas will be a sister program to Bikes for Barnabas which is a service providing bikes to adults needing transportation to and from work.
If you know of a Nassau County Public Schools student whose family has lost housing, or who is living with someone other than a parent or court-ordered guardian, FIT may be able to help provide transportation, clothing, resources, and services. Contact Cressey at (904) 277-9021. To learn more about Barnabas, visit BarnabasNassau.org or call (904) 261-7000.
