Research has demonstrated that families impacted by incarceration are likely to experience a decline in household income often resulting in poverty and homelessness.  These families are reflected in the Baltimore County Public School System’s homeless student data. The County is experiencing a rising trend line in the percentage of Baltimore County Public Schools students who are experiencing homelessness.  The County percentage rose from 2.19% in 2012 to a high of 2.70% in 2015, and declined slightly to 2.54% in 2019.  In actual numbers, Baltimore County’s 2019, 2.54 percentage, represents approximately 3,000 homeless students.

The goals of the Family Stability Initiative are to: (1) help families impacted by paren

tal incarceration to maintain their housing and increase their financial stability; and (2) help the children and youth of these families to be academically successful by maintaining them in their schools of origin to avoid the negative effects of student mobility. Research suggests that students are negatively impacted by mobility in a number of areas including test scores and high school graduation, and these impacts can be exacerbated when mobility is accompanied by homelessness.

• United Way of Central Maryland
• Epiphany Community Center

The FSI Program provides case management, flexible financial assistance, financial education, and workforce development support, among other services, to help families: (a) maintain housing; (b) implement strategies to increase their financial stability; and (c) help their children to remain in the school they currently attend to give them the best chance of academic success.

Families with at least one child in school pre-K to grade 12, who are currently residing in the Dundalk, Cockeysville or Essex community, and who are at risk of becoming homeless due to the financial stress associated with the parental incarceration.