Stillby.
LoadingStillby · the one who stays
Kids across East Palo Alto move from a motel to a garage to a friend's couch, over and over. Stillby is the one person who stays.
Still here when everything else moves.
When everything in a child's life keeps moving, they need one person who will
What a move costs
Each time a family moves, a child can lose their school, their teacher, their counselor, their friends, and the record of who they are. The boxes get packed. The people who knew them do not come along.
So we send someone who does.
Meet the "difficult" kid
Maya is eleven. This year, she has moved three times. New school, new shelter, new caseworker, every few months.
She has told her story so many times that she has stopped telling it. So her new teacher doesn't see a child whose home keeps falling apart. They see a quiet, withdrawn, 'difficult' girl, and they have no idea why.
She isn't difficult. She's exhausted. And nobody in the building knows enough about her to be gentle.
Here is the part that should make you angry
We follow the child, not the building.
What we do
We pair a child and their family with one trusted adult who follows them through every move and every new school, and does not disappear because an address changed. Not for a semester. For as long as it takes.
Their school history, their plan, and what the next adult needs to know about them moves with them, so the new teacher already understands who they are. No more starting from scratch with strangers.
Why a new organization
Good organizations already serve these kids. Each one is tied to a place or a program, by design. The child is the one thing that crosses all of those lines, and no one is assigned to cross with them.
Holds A paid mentor for years
But Tied to specific sites and slots
Holds A voice in court
But Only for children already in the court system
Holds School rights during homelessness
But Stops at the district line
Holds A caring adult, sometimes
But Often ends when the child moves away
Holds One trusted adult and one record that follow the child
And Across every move, for as long as it takes
The crisis is hidden in plain sight
3 in 4
homeless students aren't on the street or in a shelter. They're hidden in someone else's home.
Fifteen minutes from the richest companies on earth
1.5M
American schoolchildren were homeless last year, the most ever recorded.
3-4 mo
of learning a child loses with every school move, and these kids move again and again.
1 in 5
school districts gets any dedicated funding to help homeless students. The rest are on their own.
In San Mateo County, housing instability makes a child up to 6 times more likely to miss school and 4 times more likely to never graduate. (Stanford John W. Gardner Center, 2022)
Why it works
When a foster child moves, California law already makes a caring adult and their records follow them, because the state learned the hard way that moving children breaks them.
The kids sharing motels and garages face the same broken system, with none of that protection. We bring a proven idea to the children no one is counting.
The single greatest predictor that a child beats the odds is one stable, caring adult.
What your gift does
Their records and their story move with them, so they never start from zero.
One navigator stays beside them through every move and every new school.
The calls, the gas, and the showing-up that hold a relationship together.
And we show you the proof.
How we're funded and where it goes
The bulk of your gift funds the navigator relationship and the records that travel: the time, the gas, the calls, the showing-up. A small share keeps us running honestly.
Exact program-versus-admin split will be published here once our first-year budget is set.
We're enrolling our first families now, so we won't pretend to have years of outcomes yet. What we promise is proof, not spin.
Charity ratings, seals, and partner logos will appear here as we earn them.
Why I started this
A child should never have to keep proving who they are to a new set of adults. After all these years, that is the thing I could not let go of. Stillby exists so that when everything else in a child's life moves, one person, and one record of who they are, stays with them.
Kwonsub Lee · Founder · born 1952
[Professional background to be confirmed.]
Join The Constant
Most giving disappears into a building. This goes to a person, the one who stays with a child through every move. Start monthly and you join The Constant, the circle of people a child can finally count on.
Helps keep one navigator beside one child through their next move.
Give this monthlyWe're enrolling our first families. Founding gifts make the pilot real.
For the kid who moved four times and stopped telling their story.
Helps keep one navigator beside one child through their next move.
Tax-deductible through our 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor.
The bigger idea
Our goal isn't to become a big organization. It's to prove a standard of care so clearly that schools, counties, and the state adopt it, the way they finally did for foster kids.
Stay close
A short note now and then on the children we're walking beside and the proof your gift creates. No spam, ever.
Stand with these kids
Become a monthly donor and join The Constant. The most direct way to keep one person beside one child.
Train as a navigator, or support one who already walks beside a family through every move.
Bring a school, shelter, or clinic into the network, so a child's story stops dying at the door.