Oregon Public Broadcasting

An Oregon school district that’s struggled for years with a big homeless student population is getting a national award this weekend. Rob Manning reports.

Roughly one in every fourteen students in Medford is homeless. That means students are living in shelters, motels, cars, and doubling up with relatives.

Less than a year and a half ago, Medford’s homeless services director launched a new initiative to align services from a variety of community agencies.

It’s called the Maslow Project, after psychologist Abraham Maslow. He developed a theory that people have a hierarchy of needs with shelter and food at the top.

Hundreds more students got connected to services through Medford’s Maslow Project in the last year. That success earned  the Medford School District an award from the National Association for Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

Maslow Project officials  will accept the award Sunday, in Washington D.C.