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During the past five years, the number of homeless students in Wisconsin has risen nearly 75 percent. On the next television broadcast of Teen Connection, a panel of teens and adult experts will discuss how these students’ lives are affected by homelessness and explore the resources that are available throughout the state to assist homeless teens.

Green Bay Area Public School District social worker and at-risk program coordinatorAlison Draheim and Good Samaritan Charity Executive Director April Strom-Johnsonwill appear on the program’s panel along with youth affected by homelessness. Together, they will discuss issues faced by teens who are trying to manage the stresses of schoolwork while carrying the burden of homelessness.

Mary Maronek, a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction homeless education specialist also will discuss how homelessness is affecting teens throughout the state. “I think homeless students as a whole are in crisis, because they can’t take for granted where they are going to be sleeping that night…they might not even know where their parents are,” Maronek said. “While they are in school, they may not know what is going on with their parents and, unfortunately, many homeless students take on responsibility for their homeless situation, when in reality it is no one’s fault.”

Topics that will be covered in the live call-in program include an overview of projects in the state that provide support to homeless teens through transitional living options, why the state’s level of youth homelessness has risen so sharply, how it affects students and what should be done to ensure inclusion of teens that are homeless.

Toll-free phone service is provided by Nsight Long Distance.

Host Kathryn Bracho appears courtesy of WBAY-TV/Green Bay.

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