Volunteering at YouthHope this past semester has been an eyeopening and rewarding experience. It’s unbelievable to think that just before this semester, I was completely unaware of a national epidemic targeting youth. Whenever I pictured homelessness, i saw a poor older man, with dirty clothing and an unkept beard. I pictured a man that chose that harsh lifestyle, that was ungrateful for any help offered. However, as we have learned in this class, that is not always the case; in fact it’s not even often the case.  Every year, the statistics of youth homelessness is growing at an alarming rate. That being said, YouthHope is doing its part in helping to prevent youth homelessness. YouthHope, an organization that seeks to aid homeless and at risk youth ages 14-24, was established in 2009. Heidi Meyer, the director, works diligently to provide services and support to these youth. Heidi began YouthHope when she saw potential in an individual who had a difficult life. Since then, Heidi has been devoted to helping each youth find their own potential. From my experience volunteering there, the youth are so diverse in their backgrounds and personal stories. Many of the youth come from families who live in poverty, and simply cannot provide for the youth. These youth then do not have access to resources, such as stable housing, adequate nutrition or even clean clothing. When youth lack basic necessities, it makes every other task more difficult. Many of the youth stress for their parents, and wish that they could work to help pay bills. The problem with that , is that many of them also want to go to school.  Other youth come to YouthHope because they had lived   Difficult lives, which led them to living on the streets or addicted to drugs or alcohol. YouthHope and its staff are great in the way that they welcome all who enter, regardless of who they are or what they may have done. YouthHope gives them all the opportunity to better themselves and overcome obstacles. YouthHope does this in providing support for youth in all areas possible. YouthHope provides a food pantry that the youth can take from as they please. They’re is also a clothing closet, which I have witnessed being an asset as El Niño has come into play this year. YouthHope also provides tutoring and GED help so that students can graduate high school and go on to work or college. Another service they offer is buss passes so youth can get to school and work. The way they can receive these is by providing attendance sheets and old bus passes. The youth always express how thankful they are for what YouthHope does for them, and love going to the new building. The youth at YouthHope are a closely knit group, and seem to all know each other very well. They treat each other like family, staff and volunteers included. I especially see the youth benefit from this, because many have expressed how they don’t have family or support.   Overall, I believe YouthHope is truly benefitting the youth it serves, even if it’s a bit unorganized at times. Many of the youth have expressed that they would like to become a director or volunteer of a youth shelter one day because of the positive experience that they have had. This alone demonstrates that the youth love YouthHope and what it does for them and their families. I myself have enjoyed volunteering at YouthHope and I m looking  forward on continuing my internship with them and learning more about YouthHope.

So far during my internship at a homeless youth organization,  I have learned about what it means to be a homeless or at risk youth, and what ones needs are. I have observed who the youth are, and what has brought some of them to or near homelessness. I have also gained knowledge about what these youth need from an organization, and what such an organization expects of its youth and staff.

Before beginning the internship, we as a class have studied homelessness in America, and have even discussed homeless youth in particular. We have learned that the epidemic of  homeless youth is growing, and that these youth are in need. Prior to this class, I had little knowledge of homeless youth, and was unaware of the growing issue. When I thought of homelessness, i pictured men and women living on the street, and not youth who are forced into couch surfing and shelters. However, as i began the internship, I was able to see the epidemic first hand, from my own perspective. I learned that many of the youth have become homeless because of poverty, abuse, addiction, and abandonment. Some of the youth have also experienced little to no family support, which is what leaves them to fend for themselves. As for some of the youth who have been through abusive and traumatic experiences, many of them have found themselves addicted to drugs or alcohol. What I appreciate about the youth organization is the fact that they allow youth to come as they are, addicted and in need of help, rather than turning them away. They believe in helping the youth first with their basic needs, and then offering help with their addictions. Not only does the organization offer rehabilitation, but counseling as well, which I believe is extremely beneficial.  Along with needs such as these, the organization also assists youth with food, clothing, housing, medical and dental care, and even obtaining a California ID. The organization even goes beyond that, with aiding youth with transportation such as a buss pass, and even offers tutoring for school. I truly believe that the organization is doing an outstanding job with helping the youth, and the youth seem to believe so as well. I believe the one thing that sets them apart from other organizations is there discourse. They provide resources for the youth, as many resources as they can, and the youth can take them whenever they decide to. The youth are not forced to fix themselves, but the resources are there when they decide to. The youth are allowed to go to the organization and play games with their friends, just as they should. They are saved from their circumstances when they are at the organization, and allowed to be kids. And whenever they are ready, they can take advantage of  the available resources. However, as with any great organization, there is always room for improvement. I believe the organization could improve on their organizational skills, because this would make them more efficient. I am interested to see what the remaining duration of my internship will bring, and what more i will learn about the organization and what it does for the youth.

According to the article Seattle Underbelly Exposed as Homeless Violence Flares by Kirk Johnson, a homeless camp is making Seattle headlines. The homeless camp known as “the jungle”, is the largest camp in the city and is well-known. The reason for this is because over four thousand homeless men and women inhabit it. The camp is surrounded by trash and dirt, and the living conditions are terrible. However, the cleanliness of the area is the least of the problems people face there. Within the past five years, the Jungle has requested law enforcement over 820 times. There has been 70 violent incident crimes, 500 emergency medical calls and 250 fires. Camp resident Darrel Sutton explains that ha has been assaulted twice, and has since always watched his back. He explained that he never feels safe at the camp, but he has nowhere else to go. The locals of the city have stated that they think te camp is an embarrassment, and cannot believe the city allows the “human wasteland” to exist. The area is so dangerous that fire fighters  cannot not even enter the area to relinquish a fire without a police escort. Many believe that the camp needs to be eliminated and the people removed. In fact, city officials are planning to create an 8000 foot chain link fence around the area so that homeless people cannot enter. However, Mayor Murray has a different idea, one that consists of building an authorized camping area for the homeless. While reading this article, i could not help but notice that the locals and city officials blame the homeless people for the jungle, and not themselves. They do not consider the ways they can help the people who live there, just themselves. I do not believe that building a fence will help the issue, but instead make the issue more apparent since all 4000 people will have to relocate all over the city. Hopefully the city does in fact create the authorized camping area for the homeless.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/us/seattle-homeless-jungle-camp.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FHomeless%20Persons&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=U.S.&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

With the rainy weather we’re having today, I cannot help but think about how this weather affects the less fortunate. I myself, as a native Californian, am not too fond of the rain. I know we need rain, and many people here really seem to enjoy the gloomy wet weather however, I just prefer warmer weather. Others in our society, however may hate the rain. They do not see the novelty of it, because the rain makes everything that much more difficult. Those who are homeless and out in the street in this weather must find shelter when it rains. They have to get their belongings and carry them to a safe dry place, and hope they can find just that. Homeless people have to deal with their belongings and self getting soaking wet in this cold temperature. I can’t help but feel bad for those who have no home during this whether and have to sit in the cold all night. Some homeless people are lucky, and have tarps and lots of blankets. But, there are those who have no resources when it rains. I was reminded about this issue when I went to my internship today at YouthHope. The youth came pouring into the dry building, finding shelter from the rain. They were given warm dry clothes if needed and a hot dinner. YouthHope excels at getting these youth out of the cold weather and into a safe building. However, I cannot ignore the fact that there are many homeless adults who are out in the open today, and will have to sleep in the rain tonight. I wonder what more can be done to help these people individually, when there is no more room in weather shelters?

In section four of “The Book of the Poor” by Kenan Heise, Heise explains the reality of how poverty can and has lead to death. Heise begins by revealing the unfortunate truth that “death from poverty” belongs on millions of death certificates world wide. However it is not, because society does not recognize the many issues homeless and extremely poor people face in order to stay alive. As we have learned in class, it is difficult for those living  in poverty to get basic resources, such as health care for themselves. When a person can’t get the medical attention they need, their health further declines leaving them in a worse situation than before. I remember reading a story about a diabetic man in the book “Voices from the Street”, who struggled with taking care of himself while living on the streets. He explained that there were many occasions where he could not get the insulin he needed, which left him hospitalized. He explained that when he did have the insulin he needed, other homeless people would try to take it. Diabetes, a chronic illness that is maintainable, can be an everyday struggle for someone who doesn’t have the resources to get insulin. Heise explained that other health issues such as obesity are common place for the poor. When all one can afford is fast food, it is no wonder why individuals become obese or malnourished. This chapter explained that there are many ways how poverty leads to death, and there needs to be something done about it.

Saturday afternoon, I met with a representative from YouthHope, the organization I will be interning at this semester. After we finished filling out paperwork, she began to give me background on the organization and shared stories about young people that YouthHope has helped. As she went on,  the representative told me a story about a young girl whom the organization had met and helped a number of years ago. The girl, who they had come across by in Golden Gate park, was homeless and had been for many years. Her parents weren’t around, and she had no one to care for her. She explained to the representative that she had been on the streets for so long, that she did not even know her own age anymore. That information really struck me, as I could not fathom the experience of having been alone on the streets for so long, that I cannot recall my own age. The representative went on, and explained how the homeless girl had to sell her body for not only money, but also for human interaction and somewhere “safe” to sleep at night. The girl also explained how her friends, other homeless girls, had the same experiences as her. After hearing this story, I couldn’t help but be even more motivated  to volunteer for an organization that helps youth. I would never want to be in the situation that many homeless youth are in, and I realize that I am very privileged to have a home, and the many other things that I take for granted. I am very much looking forward in interning for YouthHope.

The reading assigned for this week, which was chapter two of Braving the Street by Glasser and Bridgman, explained the patterns of homeless individuals. The chapter begins by asking, “Who are the homeless?” I find this interesting because before taking this course, I though I knew exactly who the homeless were. I used to believe that the homeless were drunks and addicts, crazy or just plain lazy. I believed that they were nothing more than lazy drunk men and women. However, now that I am five weeks into this course, I realize that homeless individuals cannot be generalized nor stereotyped, because they are humans, and each person has their own backgrounds and experiences. Yes, it may be the case sometimes that they are addicts or alcoholics, but there are also people who fell into homelessness purely because of unfortunate circumstances. And as went went over in our class discussion today, there are many circumstances that can cause homelessness. Trauma, divorce, loss of job or home are some just to name a few.The chapter went on to explain the statistics of those living in homelessness, and the authors found that most homeless people are single white men. The authors explained that women, children, and individuals with mental illnesses also account for a portion of the homeless population. What really intrigued me while reading was learning about homeless youth, and how unfortunate it is that there are people my age or younger living on the streets. It leads me to ask how do these youth become homeless, and what kind of aid or help is there for young adults and minors? And are they more likely to be homeless in their adult lives?