News Release
April 2006
Bethlehem, Pa., April 17, 2006—As part its commitment to community engagement
and civic responsibility, the Center Leadership Center at Moravian’s will host
a talk by Russell Valentini, Allentown School District Homeless Liaison, on Wednesday,
April 19th at 7 p.m. in the UBC Room, Haupert Union Building.
Valentini is the principal individual responsible for the delivery
of educational, social, and related services to homeless students and their families.
Such services include enrollment, arrangement of transportation, meeting shelter and
nutritional needs and keeping children socially connected to their home schools. "Rooster," as
he is known to those with whom he works, has been doing this job for nearly 20 years
under funding by federal grants provided after the McKinney Act was passed in 1987.
In any given year, Rooster has to manage approximately 500 cases with active files
normally approaching 75 cases.
Valentini is also a poet who has read his work at local churches
and community gatherings as a way of helping his audiences come to understand that
the children with whom he works matter and should not be left "invisible."
