GTSF School-Based Outreach Programming
GTSF hosts large-scale, onsite shoe distribution events, which outfit 400 to 450 high-need children at a single school with new shoes and socks. We partner primarily with Clark County School District Title 1, Tier 1 schools where 100% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Each school year, we offer 25 distribution dates from September through early-April, with the goal of serving 10,000 Southern Nevada children in need. Programming typically books six months in advance, and schools are only eligible once every 13 months. Qualifying schools are primarily in Vegas Valley zip codes where the combined household income is approximately $55,000 per year.
At each event, children choose their own brand-new, name brand pair of sneakers from our stock of traveling inventory. Empowering children with choice is made possible by our 48-foot mobile shoe unit, launched in January 2010—a complete shoe store on wheels that brings our outreach directly to children at their school.
Community funding and volunteer support drive our work, allowing us to host two to four events each month during the school year. We may add events when resources allow.
Rather than accepting individual referrals, we work directly with social services agencies, school counselors, administrators, principals, and the CCSD partnership office to identify the schools and groups of children who will benefit most from our large-scale, scheduled distribution programming.