Manatee High School senior uses soccer to help fight homelessness

BRADENTON -- If Meredith Roberts wanted to launch a project to give back to homeless students in Manatee County, she knew she'd have to combine it with soccer.

"I really just wanted to bring soccer into it. That's all I ever do," said Meredith, an 18-year-old senior at Manatee High School and a forward on the varsity soccer team.

Last year, as part of her involvement with the Braden River Soccer Club, Meredith launched the SOPHIE project -- Soccer Outreach for Project Heart Instills Empathy -- in an effort to raise awareness and needed items for Manatee County's homeless students.

Project Heart, a program run by the school district, serves students who are homeless. It combines a number of services the district provides. Meredith first learned about the startling number of homeless students -- around 2,000 of about 48,000 total students in the county -- from her mother, Laura Roberts. Laura Roberts is a college and career advisor at Bayshore High School and is the school's Project Heart liaison.

Roberts said when she took on the role four years ago, she was startled at the number of homeless students in the county and it came up one night over dinner.

"I mentioned it as part of a family discussion," Roberts said. As Meredith matured, "it started to really bother her, she just has that heart."

As a trial run, Meredith started the SOPHIE project last year with the Braden River Soccer Club, setting up a table and buckets for donations at the fields on Saturday mornings during rec league games. She then counted and divvied up the items into brown paper bags, sealed them with a SOPHIE project sticker and worked with the district to help get the bags to the schools with the most need.

Once that "trial run" with the Braden River Soccer Club was settled, she decided to bring the program to Manatee High.

At each of the remaining varsity home games -- there are at least four, more if the teams plays well and goes into the postseason -- a table will be set up to bring in collections. Meredith will staff the table during part of the JV games before she has to warm up and then her mom will take over during the varsity games. The items most in need are hygiene products and school supplies, Meredith said.

"Most people are really surprised when they learn about it," she said.

A countywide need

Last year in Manatee County, the district recognized 1,857 students as homeless, said Lissette Fernandez, the district's homeless liaison. The determination ultimately comes down to whether the student is "lacking a fixed and adequate" location to sleep at night.

Some of the district's homeless students spend their nights in cars, parks, tents, abandoned buildings. Students who may live with their families in hotels, motels or even doubled up in homes are also considered homeless, Fernandez said. Students are first recognized by the school's registrars. School forms don't say "homeless" but asks which living situation most closely matches.

The registrars refer students to the homeless liaison for a follow-up. Support comes in a multitude of ways, Fernandez said.

"Our focus is on the children," she said.

The district partners with a number of community organizations to help the students, including sending food home on the weekends so the students don't go hungry, collecting school uniforms and other clothing donations and providing backpacks with school supplies and hygiene kits.

The hygiene kits are a high-need item and that's where the SOPHIE project really helps, Fernandez said.

"I felt really excited. That's one of the items we need the most," she said. "I was thrilled we have students in our district who want to assist."

Fernandez said that homeless students can be hard to recognize, especially as they get older and feel the stigma of being homeless, they might not reach out to take advantage of some of the help the district can provide. Homeless students can struggle to keep up with their academics because they are transient and don't have a set place at night to work on homework.

For the love of the game

On Friday, Manatee will face off against Lakewood Ranch for the team's second home game of the season. It's a special game for the SOPHIE project, Meredith said, because the two high schools have the highest number of homeless students in the district.

"Just because someone looks like you doesn't mean they have the same home life," Meredith said. "Everyone's hiding a different story."

Meredith has distributed fliers and talked to her fellow students about getting more donations. Laura also emailed the homeless liaisons at both Manatee and Lakewood Ranch in an effort to raise awareness.

The varsity game will start at 7:30 p.m., after the junior varsity game at 5 p.m. Games are played at Hawkins Stadium. The team will also play home games on Dec. 9, Dec. 11 and Dec. 18.

Meredith is hoping interest grows and so they can help more students.

She's hoping to pass along the project to someone else next year, when she leaves the district to play soccer at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton next year where she plans to study exercise science.

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter@MeghinDelaney.s

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Manatee High School senior uses soccer to help fight homelessness ."