That’s when their luck began to turn. At the shelter, the Sabellas were introduced to School on Wheels, an innovative nonprofit based in Brockton that tutors homeless children. It was a perfect match. While the family was in the shelter, the tutors visited twice a week to make sure the girls didn’t fall behind in their school work.
In 2009, when Chris Sabella got a job at a printing company in Brockton, the family found an apartment and moved out of the shelter. Still, School on Wheels continued to provide twice-weekly tutoring and arranged for transportation so the girls could finish out their year at the schools they started in, avoiding a disruptive transfer.
Perhaps most of all, the nonprofit became a source of stability and support for the girls. When Tayler started attending Southeastern Regional Technical Vocational High School in Easton, where she took academic and cosmetology classes, School on Wheels helped pay for her uniforms, her homecoming dress, cosmetology supplies, and yearbook.
She is 17 now and a senior at Southeastern Regional. After she finished her tutoring with School on Wheels, she decided to take the organization’s training class - and became a tutor herself.
“I get a really good feeling knowing I help little kids with their homework, that they don’t have to go to school the next day and get in trouble with their teachers,’’ she says.
School on Wheels, she says, helped her and her sister stay focused on school when they were in the shelter. “They made sure I didn’t skip a beat,’’ she says.
Tayler and Britni, who is now in the eighth grade, also stuff summer reading bags that School on Wheels gives to homeless children, as well as holiday gift boxes.
Cheryl Opper, executive director of School on Wheels, says Tayler is the first student alum they have had go through their tutor training program. She is also the only student on the advisory council, which her father joined with her.
