For out teaching project, we decided the most effective way to share our knowledge and spark important conversations was through tabling in the commons. For two days we tabled in the Irvine Commons during lunch hours, laid out the brochures and documents, and offered free candy in order to attract people to our table. Together we created a brochure and coined it “The Real Face of Homelessness”. The brochure consisted of listing some of the major causes of homelessness, some statistics to emphasize the causes, and a few photos to offer a visual aspect of the data. In the brochure we included statistics about homelessness in the Redlands area and added a “What you can do to help!” section that promotes stereotype breaking, language awareness, the SOAN 324 course, and a link to local organizations individuals can volunteer their time at. Along with the brochure, we printed off the internship and volunteer list compiled on the class website for people to look at and take down numbers. In order to ground the issue in Redlands, we also printed off a document titled, “City of Redlands Indicators of Potential Homelessness”. The document offered an accurate portrayal about income distribution and housing affordability.

We chose the brochure and tabling approach because we wanted to be able to talk to people one on one and spark thought-provoking, casual conversation. Our hope was that through the brochure, students at the University of Redlands would gain a more educated opinion about causes of homelessness, what homeless people are really like, and the ways that homeless stereotypes continuously get reinforced and strengthened. Here at the University we are often shielded from the ugly truths that lay beyond the confines of the campus and it’s imperative that students are aware of the issues that plague Redlands and beyond.

Overall, our teaching effort was successful. We all worked very hard on trying to draw people to our table and spark important questions and thoughts. The most difficult thing with tabling is that even though people walk by consistently, they rarely every pay attention to the people that are in fact tabling. It was amazing how easily people can ignore the individuals lined up around the front of the commons and remain oblivious to the posters and documents spread out on the tables. Due to the amount of people that ignored us for the first twenty minutes on the first day of tabling, AJ had a great idea to buy candy in order to entice people to our table. The free candy did help draw attention, but we also realized that the statements we said to people had to be phrased in very particular ways in order for people to actually come up and talk to us. In the beginning when people passed by we would state something along the lines of, “Come learn about the real causes of homelessness and what you can do to help”. With this line, people quickly walked by. We then completely changed our approach to just yelling out, “Free Candy!” It was amazing to see how responsive people were when it wasn’t laden with information about hunger or homelessness. Once they got to the table to get free candy and realized what we wanted to talk about, most people made up excuses about being late for class or needing to run to get to work.

We also realized that it was easier to appeal to the Greek Community. Since we had print outs of all of the volunteer and internship opportunity list, we were able to pass them out to people in Greek life and ask them to pass it along to their community service chairs (since individuals involved in Greek life need to volunteer for at least ten hours a semester). An interesting experience we had was when we asked someone to take a brochure and they responded by saying, “I actually won’t read it.” It made us wonder, is it better for people to be honest and show their obvious disinterest or to be extremely receptive yet throw the brochure out as soon as they walk away from the table?

We are rarely afforded the opportunity to meet and listen to individuals who have made a huge impact on communities around the world. Thankfully, we were afforded the opportunity in class this past Tuesday when Tammy Durand, the founder of ABCs and Rice, came and spoke to us about the founding and expansion of her organization. It was inspiring to see someone as invested and zealous about activating awareness about poverty and establishing avenues for children to obtain the opportunity to learn English. ABCs and Rice is a nonprofit charity in Cambodia that serves children in extreme poverty by offering them an education and food to eat. Since its inception in January of 2010, the organization has grown to serve approximately 180 students and their families.

In a place like Cambodia where more than seventy percent of the population lives in extreme poverty, children are often exploited to panhandle or recycle in order to contribute back to the family. Due to this, children in Cambodia are often not afforded the opportunity to attend school or gain an education. Recognizing the need for children to contribute to the family and the importance of an education for future employment, Tammy established reverse tuition. In other words, students at ABCs and Rice are given rations of rice at the end of every month based on how many days they attended school. Reverse tuition allows them to obtain an education, learn English, and gain food security.

The organization focuses its attention on three areas: education, food and special projects. An example of their special projects is the Full Belly Farm which houses chickens, fish farms, and vegetable and fruit farms. The food produced from the farm is used in food drops and the Breakfast Club, the part of the organization that helps feed the community a balanced breakfast. Excess food is sold and any food left after that is funneled back into the organization. ABCs and Rice also provides families with water purifying tablets that allow them a safe, healthy, and less expensive alternative to boiling water (which often doesn’t extricate all impurities).

One of the most surprising facets of the organization is the extensive and detailed child protection policy. The protection policy is indicative that the organization is invested in the children and that the physical and psychological well-being of each individual is of utmost importance. Volunteers and full time workers are screened heavily in order to eliminate any possibility of harm or danger being inflicted onto Cambodian families. Though the policy is lengthy and extremely in depth, it is clear that Durand and her organization strives to offer unbounded love and opportunities to a community that has experienced too much hate and injustice.

http://abcsandrice.webs.com/

“There’s a fine line between not doing enough and allowing homelessness” (Samantha Green, ASR). How do counties, more specifically cities, walk the line and find a common ground that neither promotes or admonishes homelessness? We all know that there are wrong ways to help the homeless, but is there a right way? If so, what would the “right way” look like?

Through her work as a case manager for Applied Survey Research, Green suggests that one of the best places to begin to assist the homeless is by conducting detailed homeless counts. Each county that receives federal funding is required to conduct homeless counts. However, since there are no universal guidelines and no funding allocated for counties to administer the counts, the counts tend to lack consistency and depth. If the state or federal government allocated money to conduct homeless counts then our society would offer more effective care strategies for the homeless.

Many counties fear that offering more services to the homeless draw larger groups of displaced individuals to their cities. Known as the Magnet Theory, Green implied that the reason why a large number of counties refuse to do accurate counts is because they don’t want to “attract” more homeless people to the area. Though services are an added incentive, most homeless people migrate for reasons of safety, job opportunities, weather, etc.  What do inaccurate homeless counts mean for the homeless people residing in the community?

Our society is uncomfortable with homelessness and the idea that thousands of people live on the street as a result of societal causes. We enjoy the skewed version of the truth that tells us that people are homeless because of addictions, lack of drive and inability to “work hard like the rest of us”. Statistics like the ones presented in Tina Kelley’s “Almost Home” tell us that “As many as 2,000,000 people in the United States face episodes of homelessness” and that “Forty percent of homeless people are under the age of 18.” Society has failed youth and offers no credible soluitions on how to ameliorate or repair the homeless youth dilemma.

One of the main reasons youth homelessnes statistics are high is because a large number of youth age out of the system every year. Once a youth turns 18, they are left to fend for themselves and can no longer rely on government programs like Child Protective Services to assist them. Tina Kelley states, “Forty percent of youth who age out of foster care at eighteen become homeless before their mid-twenties”. This alarming statistic highlights a major flaw in our system. What solutions do we offer for people who age out of foster care with nowhere to go and only a dime to their name? Do we push them out onto the street and allow them to join the adult statistics of homelessness? Are there solutions that prepare “aging out youth” for life after foster care? What happens if homeless youth continue to go unnoticed?