Through School on Wheels, hundreds of volunteers donate tens of thousands of hours as tutors for children who live in shelters, in motels, in cars or on the streets. The tutors give homeless children security. When the kids move, School on Wheels follows them and gives them stability in an otherwise unstable existence.

The idea

Agnes original idea was that School on Wheels would help children and their parents with changing schools and retrieving lost documents, like grades and birth certificates. The children can stay in touch with School on Wheels using a toll-free phone number. The kids also get backpacks, school uniforms, school supplies and money for the bus or the subway. At many shelters, School on Wheels has created special learning rooms, with computers, books, and drawing and writing materials, to give the children a quiet place to study and the chance to be kids.

In 2015, Agnes Stevens sadly passed away. But her legacy and organization will live on.

Learn more about Agnes and School on Wheels in the Globe magazine from 2008:

Text: Carmilla Floyd, Photos: Kim Naylor

The facts and figures on this page were accurate at the time of writing, in 2008