At Brightlane Learning’s recent Sparking Conversations event, CEO Kelly Coker moderated a discussion with Indianapolis-area leaders whose perspectives spanning education, philanthropy, homeless services, and lived experience to reflect on Brightlane’s 25th school year and an important question: What has changed for students experiencing homelessness over the past 25 years, and what still needs to change?
Panelists included:
- Sally Bindley, Brightlane Learning Founder and Executive Advisor
- Hope Duke Star, Children’s Services Manager at Dayspring Center, President of IPS School Board of Commissioners, and Member of Indianapolis Public Education Corporation (IPEC) board
- Jennifer Bartenbach, CEO of Central Indiana Community Foundation
- Ronnie White, a former Brightlane Learning student and current Salesforce employee
A message that echoed throughout the entire conversation is that lasting change requires us to see the whole student and create systems capable of supporting their whole experience.
“At the end of the day, what still needs to change is that we need to ask the people who are going through it.”
Sally Bindley, Brightlane Learning Founder & Executive Adviser
When Sally founded School on Wheels, now Brightlane Learning, 25 years ago, student homelessness was often hidden and misunderstood. Awareness and identification have improved, but Sally emphasized that perhaps the most important lesson learned over those years is the importance of listening.
Programs and policies cannot be built solely on what organizations believe families need. The experiences of students and caregivers must help shape them. The stories families have shared with Brightlane have led to changes both large and small, from addressing academic needs to recognizing barriers that could easily go unnoticed.
That means creating space for students, families, and alumni to have meaningful roles shaping what comes next.
“Families live a whole life, but we treat symptoms and segments of it in the system.” Jennifer Bartenbach, CEO of Central Indiana Community Foundation
Fragmentation and silos are a critical barrier to creating the comprehensive solutions that student homelessness requires. Mental health providers may be doing excellent work. Housing organizations may be doing excellent work. Schools, shelters, workforce programs, and nonprofits may all be doing excellent work.
But families don’t experience their needs in separate categories.
For a child experiencing homelessness, housing instability does not stop at the schoolhouse door. It affects transportation, sleep, relationships, mental health, attendance, academics, and a child’s sense of belonging and possibility.
Hope emphasized that relationships are a crucial part of the solution, both between families and those serving them and among the organizations themselves.
Systems change requires more than referrals or occasional collaboration. It means building trust, coordinating our efforts, identifying shared goals, and staying at the table.
“I think a lot of people don’t think stability does as much as it does.”
Ronnie White, Brightlane Learning Graduate
Systems change can feel enormous. Ronnie reminded us why we can’t let its size overwhelm us.
Reflecting on his own experience with homelessness as a child, Ronnie spoke about the instability of moving between places and people. What stood out about his experience with Brightlane was the consistency of people showing up, which may seem deceptively simple.
In a time when so much in his life was changing, seeing a familiar person each week mattered.
We need policy change, coordinated systems, sustainable resources, and institutions working together. At the same time we need to show up for the student standing in front of us today. We can pursue transformational change without losing sight of the deeply human moments that make a difference right now.
“We have a lot of great people doing a lot of great things… but we’re not coordinating as well as we should.”
Hope Duke Star, Children’s Services Manager at Dayspring Center, President of the Indianapolis Public Schools Board of School Commissioners, and member of IPEC
The conversation challenged us to imagine gathering again for Brightlane Learning’s 50th anniversary and asking: What do we want to be able to say has changed?
Together our panelists explored the hope that students and their families will no longer be expected to navigate disconnected systems during some of the most destabilizing moments of their lives. They envisioned a system in which education, housing, philanthropy, government, nonprofits, and communities will be working toward shared outcomes, with students and families helping decide what those outcomes should be.
Together they acknowledged that future will take significant work, but that no one has to all that work alone.
A Call to Action
Sally challenged attendees to simply tell one person something they learned. Hope reminded us to preserve people’s dignity in how we give and serve. Ronnie asked us to treat people with kindness and humanity. Jennifer challenged each person to think about the seat they occupy and what they can influence from it.
Each of these is an action that individuals can take each day. The work ahead is big, but our individual actions don’t have to be.
When we keep showing up, elevating the voices that need to be heard, and bringing the people, agencies, and systems doing this work together, small actions can become collective action.
Ready to take action? Learn more about becoming a Brightlane Learning volunteer today!