The kids notice when Brittany Grover can\u2019t come to school.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s a volunteer with Communities in Schools of Greater Tarrant County, working one-on-one with students at some of Fort Worth\u2019s highest-need schools. Reading, spelling, missing homework, a game or a conversation \u2014 whatever the day calls for.<\/p>\n
She tries hard not to miss because she knows how little in their lives stays the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if I\u2019m only there working with one child for 20 minutes, it\u2019s better than nothing,\u201d Grover said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know how far that 20 minutes is going to go down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now in her third year of volunteering with Communities in Schools, Grover has become one of the people the staff know they can count on to show up for whatever is needed.<\/p>\n
Her work earned her a nomination for 52 Faces of Community<\/a>, the Fort Worth Report\u2019s weekly series highlighting unsung local heroes.<\/p>\n Grover shrugs off the label of unsung hero. But volunteer manager Ivy Beasley said it fits.<\/p>\n This summer, boxes of donated school supplies stretched across the training room at the nonprofit\u2019s Westworth Village headquarters<\/a>. Beasley was overwhelmed with the thought of having to count and track each supply individually.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grover was ready to help, Beasley said. Together, they unloaded the supplies, took inventory and prepared them for students.<\/p>\n Grover was part of the team that set up the nonprofit\u2019s three resource rooms when its new building opened in September 2025<\/a>, Beasley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grover also delivers food bags to area schools. Over Christmas and spring break, she pitched in as the nonprofit filled around 700 bags so students could take food home when school meals couldn\u2019t fill the gap.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aShe is always a person I can text and be like, \u2018Will you come help me today?\u2019\u201d Beasley said.<\/p>\n Grover has been doing this kind of work, in one form or another, for most of her adult life.<\/p>\n She volunteered at Taste Community Restaurant for about seven years and has put in time at Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County and The Warm Place. She also worked for Girls Inc. of Tarrant County and was assigned to schools across Tarrant County to teach students about friendship and financial literacy \u2014 not far from what she does now, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is always a person I can text and be like, \u2018Will you come help me today?\u201d<\/p>\n Ivy Beasley, volunteer manager at Communities in Schools of Greater Tarrant County<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n She studied psychology in college and moved to Texas hoping to do casework, arriving just as the 2008 recession hit. The career she planned never quite materialized. Instead she wound through a string of volunteer roles at nonprofits and jobs working with kids of every age, building a toolbox she now draws on at Communities in Schools.<\/p>\n \u201cVolunteering is not even really a hobby,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of just my work that I fit into my week.\u201d<\/p>\n Grover sees her students once a week. The work can be small and slow, but adds up over a school year. Handwriting steadies. Spelling sharpens. Reading clicks.<\/p>\n The help isn\u2019t always academic. Grover tries to be a steady presence for kids whose lives rarely hold still.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe even being some sort of bright light on their dark days,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Know an unsung hero in Tarrant County?<\/p>\n Tell us about them by filling out the form below. <\/p>\n Sometimes the help is as simple as bringing clothes. Grover remembers picking out a new pair of jeans for a girl who had outgrown hers.<\/p>\n Grover doesn\u2019t overthink why she keeps coming back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just this type of work that really matters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She returns for the kids who don\u2019t let her go unnoticed. They guess her age \u2014 badly, she joked. They tell her they like her shirt. They ask when she\u2019s coming back.<\/p>\n Miss Brittany, can you come every day?<\/p>\n She can\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n But she shows up. Once a week. The same steady presence, an anchor of sorts, in young lives buffeted by change.<\/p>\n Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org<\/a> or @_jacob_sanchez<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/30\/fort-worth-volunteer-offers-stability-for-kids-whose-lives-may-be-unsettled\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=753164&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/30\/fort-worth-volunteer-offers-stability-for-kids-whose-lives-may-be-unsettled\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script>\n