The Davis Education Foundation is closing in on a long-sought goal to help out teens who may be facing homelessness or other associated issues within the Davis School District.

Over the course of the summer, work has been underway on adding teen centers to Syracuse, Viewmont and Bountiful high schools.

Jodi Lunt, executive director of the Davis Education Foundation, told the Standard-Examiner last month that this has been a long-term project for the district.

“This has been a project that’s been about three and a half to four years in the making,” she said. “We already have six operational in the school district.”

Lunt said the facilities have arisen out of a major issue with homelessness throughout the school district.

“Davis School District has more than 1,600 students right now that experience homelessness or housing insecurity,” she said.

More than 300 of those students, Lunt added, are high-school aged.

“The biggest concern is students experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity … graduate in the 70th percentile as opposed to the mid-90s,” she said. “They are twice as likely to be absent from school.”

The Davis Education Foundation then took on the challenge of trying to remove these barriers to learning by creating what the group called One-Stop Drop-in Centers. They are currently on-site at several schools in the district, including Clearfield, Northridge, Layton, Woods Cross and Mountain high schools as well as the Renaissance Center.

Each center includes:

• An advocate/family advocate to assist students in creating a plan for academic, social and transitional success into adulthood.
• A community-based food pantry allowing access to food services.
• A study area.
• Showers and hygiene necessities.
• Laundry facilities with washers and dryers.

Layton High School is currently having a food bank and mindfulness center added to its teen center.

Lunt said more than 2,100 students used the existing centers during the 2022-2023 school year, amounting to more than 24,000 services rendered and an average of 89 students going through them per day.

She said the district learned a lot from the first six centers that they’ll look to apply at the new centers being built and ones to come in the future.

“Most of the biggest lessons that we have learned is to make sure we utilize our space so we’re efficient and effective on serving students,” she said. “We’ve realized that, more than ever, every child is one caring adult away from a success story.”

Lunt said the three centers currently under construction will be finished by the opening of the school year, barring any major setbacks with the construction process.

“The world of construction is still reeling from COVID,” she said. “As long as everything comes in, we should open by school.”

She added that the work won’t be done with the schools currently under construction, either.

“We will be putting in what we call ‘mini centers’ in Davis and Farmington this year coming up,” she said. “That will complete all 10 high schools and our Renaissance Center. By 2025, all 10 high schools and our learning center will have a drop-in center.”

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