Over the past two months I have watched many kids come and go. I’ve seen good kids; bad kids, crazy kids and just normal need some help kids. I’ve watched kids grow and I’ve watched them change. I’ve seen how horrible life can be and how much help some youth really need and how little they receive. I’ve watched promises be broken and kids come out the other side disappointed and hurt. I’ve discovered how brutal the system is and everything that happens within this runaway, foster care system takes so much time. I’ve realized that the people who generally hurt these kids are those who are closest to them. The ones that mean the most to them are the ones who have the most power to hurt them. I’ve watched kids lash out because life hasn’t been fair to them. I’ve seen rules broken for the sake of the clients. I have learned how to answer the phone, what to say to new clients who want to come in, how to fill out an intake sheet, how to update a client file, how to lead a group session. I’ve learned that the simple act of eating meals with these kids at the dinner table can create trust. I’ve learned that shelter food isn’t always as bad as it looks, and that clients actually do have input on the meal plan each week. I’ve learned that for funding purposes each clients must sign their name that they have eaten after every meal and they are assigned chores to clean up the house after dinner. I have learned that gloves must be used while preparing food, and that I am not as good of a cook as I thought I was.

I learned a lot working at our house but not nearly as much as I thought I would. I thought I would learn a lot more about the system, but instead I ended up learning more about the clients. I wouldn’t change this learning experience, but I wish there had been someone there who would’ve had time to teach me more in depth about how the shelter and all of the outside forces work. I didn’t feel like I even was able to brush the surface of what I could’ve learned and done. I never got to sit in on an intake because none ever came in while I was working. I never got to help with departures again because none ever happened on my shift. I only ever answered the phone a few times and never was really shown how the case filing and case managing worked. This is not the fault of the shelter, but rather a combination of my time constraint and bad luck.

I could spend all day analyzing all of the things I saw and heard at Our House. I could create conclusions, come up with assumptions and use my sociologist brain to analyze each and every scenario. But I’m going to try not to follow this instinct because it would take away from my experience. I went in as a sociologist, ready to analyze everyone and everything, but instead I came out with personal connections to people who I never thought would give me the time of day. I was worried about being accepted within the shelter and trying to find equal placing with the staff and clients. But once I realized that I was the one who was bringing all of the stereotypes and stigmas about myself and that once I accepted myself in that environment that the others would follow. That skill is easier said than done, but it is the one that I will take with me and use for the rest of my life.

For my teaching project I decided to create a 7^th grade social studies unit that focused on educating the students about homelessness. the name of the unit is Homeless are people too. It is a 12 day lesson plan that spans over 4 weeks. Here is a sample of a few of the days:

Day one:

• Introduce the word homeless, ask them what they think it means and write their answers on the board.
• Have them write in graphic organizer what makes where they live home, what they like about it. Once they are finished with that we would do either think pair share or just go around the room and share what they wrote.
• Hang those on our bulletin board and then ask them what they would do if they had none those things?
• And have them write a reflective 1-page paper on that topic in their daily journal.

Day two:

• Would begin the class going over our writing assignment and having each student share one thing that they wrote.
• I would then show a power point presentation about 5 or 6 people in history who have similar lives and but half would be homeless and the other wouldn’t
• They would not know this so I would have them get together in groups try to guess which ones were homeless and which were not. The objective here would be to get them to see that homeless people could be anyone.
• For homework I would have them read “homeless” by Anna Quindlen and write a response to it in their daily journal

Day three:

• Review the article, have a discussion about their responses to it. This will lead into-
• Start talking about the different definitions of homelessness, what it means to be homeless, present a power point to the class on all of the different ways to be homeless- couch surfing, shelter living, on the street, doubling up etc.
• Split them up into groups and have them make a poster board about each of the different ways to be homeless. Have them do a little extra research on the topic they are assigned we will pin these up around the classroom.
• For homework write a response to the class in their journal.

Day four:

• Review the different definitions of homelessness and finish the posters if they are not already done.
• We would then watch a few clips of videos off of the invisible people website, stories of some homeless people and I would have them write down observations about each person and specifically focus on why each person was homeless.
• We would then share those ideas and write all of the reasons they observed in the videos on the board.
• For homework I would give them two or three more personal stories about homeless people to read and they would have to come back and be able to tell the class who the people they read about were and why they were homeless and have written that up as well. (In their daily journal)

Listening to the police officers talk in our last class, I learned a lot about a group of people who are actively doing something to change the homelessness dynamic. These 3 men are a very small portion of the police force and do not have much help outside of their group but they are working towards a change. they are the people who are known to criminalize the homeless, yet they are working to make the lives of the homeless better.

After listening to them talk about all of the hard work and the repetition an the relentless effort they put into getting these people off the street, I began to wonder why it was just these three police men who were doing this work. if they can go out and bring people into rehabilitation centers and find them stable housing, why aren’t there more people out there doing this same work if its proving to be successful? The personal component of this tactic I think is what makes it so effective. If we say as a country that we want to eliminate homelessness, then this would be the way to do it. bringing a more personal aspect into the helping of the homeless I think would make them a lot more comfortable and willing to take help. Along those same lines, many homeless people don’t even know where to start when it comes to finding help or they’ve been rejected so many times that they don’t know where to turn or have given up hope. If we were to create and organization or even expand the HOPE team and make more people available to go up to these struggling individuals personally and offer them help, I believe we would have a higher success rate of bringing people off the streets.

A few days ago, I was going out to eat with my roommate at chipotle and as we were walking in the doors, we passed by a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk in corner outside the restaurant. He did not disturb us at all and we proceeded to walk in to order our dinner. When we were standing in line, my roommate told me she wanted to buy that homeless man a burrito bowl because she felt bad that he was sitting outside a restaurant with nothing to eat. So, she bought him a burrito bowl, and as we were leaving she walked up to him and offered him the food. But to her surprise he actually rejected her, saying that he already had food and that he wanted money instead. It became pretty obvious to us that he was intoxicated in some way. My roommate was taken aback by this and preceded to leave the food next to him and walked away. Back in the car, she made a very interesting comment to me. She said “that is the reason why no one wants to help them. All they want is money for drugs”

On our drive back to school I thought a lot about what she had said. It got me thinking again about society’s perception of the homeless. How they are portrayed as drunks and druggies. From being in this class, we know that the majority of the homeless are neither drunks nor druggies. But the rest of the world’s knowledge about the homeless comes from their 2 or 3 second interactions with them on the streets. So when they run into a drunken man or one who appears to be strung out on drugs, they then assume that all homeless people are one in the same. One bad experience can deter people from desiring to help. This is the problem! One drunk man does not define the whole of the homeless population. Just like one white person does not define all of American or one NBA player does not define the whole national basketball league. We cannot confine ourselves to these constricted views of our world, but especially of the homeless. It is stereotyped views like these that hinder the rest of the homeless from being trusted to hold a job or receive assistance. It hinders them essentially from being able to be apart of society because no one wants to hire a drunk or a druggie.

Treat others as you would want to be treated”my mom used this phrase constantly growing up, so much that it became engrained in me, part of who i am. And a few days ago I witnessed something that made this quote ring even more true to me than before. I was at the park with 5 of the clients from the shelter. We had been there for only a few minutes when one of the clients, a loud, outspoken, lesbian African American girl, began loudly making fun of a boy who was acting a little different on the playground. This boy was about 9 years old, I would say, and seemed to be minding his own business while talking to himself. This girl began to be so rude, I could barely stand to hear what she was saying and I became embarrassed that I was associated with someone who had so little tact that they would call out someone who obviously, to me, had some form of a disability. She toned it down once the staff there scolded her, but she still continued to act in such a way toward him that I thought was so extremely rude. As we were leaving the park I began to think about how we all see each other. This girl obviously saw this little boy as something different and so for whatever reason she decided it was okay to mock him.

This seemed so strange to me because I thought her of all people, someone who from what I had gathered had been kind of out casted her whole life, would be sensitive to such a thing as mocking those who were different. All of this came together and I realized that most people who are different in one way or another don’t see themselves as anything similar to those who maybe different in a separate way. I wondered how she would take it if someone had outwardly made fun of her for being lesbian or even for being homeless. And maybe she had been taunted for that and that is why she does it to others, but this idea of treating others as we would like to be treated struck me in the that why do we put others down in order to bring ourselves up. We all want to be treated with respect so why can’t we do so to others?In our society we take comfort in knowing that there is always someone below us. We as humans never want to be the bottom of the “chain.” So to make sure that doesn’t happen we pick on those who we view as “below” us to boost ourselves up above.

But these ideas got me thinking that whole idea of a hierarchy within our society maybe the reason why we have and had such a prominent homeless population. They are the lowest of the low in our society, and as screwed up as it is, people feel comforted in the fact that there is someone who is worse off than they are. So maybe there is a psychological resistance to the banishing of poverty. Maybe society feels uncomfortable with the idea of leveling the field, and having little or maybe even no homeless population might make all of us on the same “level.” Who knows. But the one thing I can tell you is that if we treat each other with respect, there would be a lot less conflict in our society.

After our last class discussion, and beginning to think about my teaching project for this class, I came to the question in my head about how it could be possible to change the out look that the younger generations have on homelessness. Because I believe that the change that is so desperately needed on the way the society views homelessness begins with the younger, more impressionable generation. The older people of our world already have their views and their opinions set in stone. I mean you can’t blame them! They’ve had a lot of time to form these ideas. And most people over the age of 40 have no interest in changing the way they view something.

But the younger generations are still impressionable, still able to be influenced in a new and radically different way. Their minds are still able to take in new ideas and form new opinions. But my question is how do we do that? How do we make a subject so complex as homelessness and its causes be able to be broken down into something a 10 or 12 year old would understand? How do we change their perception of those on the street?

It has also occurred to me that parents also have a big impact on their child’s views and opinions, so you may ask how you would create a bigger influence than that of their parents. Well, I cannot give you an answer to that question, in fact I cannot give you an answer to my above question in full yet either. But I just know that it needs to be done. Because our homeless population is steadily increasing and our government is running out of ways to ignore it and sweep it under the rug. Something needs to change, and I believe that first step toward change is a shift in our thinking, especially in our younger generations. Because the homeless are people too. And deserve just as much care and assistance from the government and as the rest of us. And just as much respect too.

At my internship on Friday, I had a bit of a shock. As I walked in the front door, I saw a boy who looked identical to my little brother. I took a double take and seeing him again made it spookier. This whole encounter got me thinking about how things are more real when they affect you directly. If your family struggles with homelessness then you are more likely to truly understand what the meaning of homelessness really is, what it actually feels like. Seeing someone who so closely resembled a member of my family, someone who I love dearly, in a shelter struck very close to home. It got me to imagine what it would be like to have a sibling runaway, or to be on the streets as a young teenager. Up until this point I had stayed pretty detached from it all, seeing it more as something that happens to others rather than something that could happen to me or the ones that I love.

After coming to this realization, I put together that this idea of it being “other peoples problem” is the mentality that a majority of society puts out about homelessness. They can say they understand, volunteer their time, donate extra food, extra clothes, even money, but they never truly understand the effects and the toll it takes on everyone who is involved. It is not a voluntary action to become homeless; people don’t just one day say hey I’m going to be homeless today. And kids sure don’t runaway from their homes, or end up in foster care just for the hell of it. In fact, a majority of the kids on the streets who are facing homelessness are there because their parents don’t want them or their parents abused them, or they just plain and simple don’t have a family or a house to call home. Before I worked in the shelter, I viewed running away as a kid a kind of glorified action that you did to be a rebel, but that you would always eventually return home. As a kid I ran away once because I was mad at my parents, but never once did it cross my mind that I would never come back or that I would have to find a place other than my bedroom to spend the night.

All the clients at the shelter have a story, a reason for why they are there. Some have families, others have social workers, and some have both or neither. But to comprehend that there are kids out there that aren’t loved and cared about by their own family makes me sick. I know if my little brother ran away I would do everything in my power to get him back. Because that’s what you do for the ones that you love.

Interning at Our House, a youth shelter in Redlands, has been a learning experience. I have learned a lot about the foster system and how awful and disorganized it really is. The organization I am interning for tries to help these foster kids and kids who have runaway from their homes as best they can. But since they are a government-funded program, their resources are limited as well. Between the restrictions of the system and the many factors that put youth on the streets, once they are out there it is made near impossible for them to get back on their feet.

I have spent a total of 4 days volunteering at Our House and in those 4 days I have only touched the surface of what I believe I will learn not only about myself but also about the organization as a whole. Before Friday I had felt like my services at the center were not needed but finally on Friday I was given responsibilities such as answering the phone and participating in group sessions that let me see the first glimpse into how the organization runs.

In my short few days of interning, I’ve learned that working in a shelter is a job all about relationships. The relationships you make with your clients, the ones with your piers and the ones with your superiors are what make the job what it is. Listening to the stories of all the staff made me realize that this organization is purely there for the kids. Our House is there to help the ones who need a boost, a support system, somewhere safe to live. But they are not there to take in the trouble cases; they do not have the resources to be the fixers. They don’t want the violent ones or the ones with a tendency to run, because if they do run, the chances of a staff running after them are slim to none. One of the staff made a comment to me saying “if one of the clients goes AWOL (runs away) while I’m working there ain’t no way I’m running after them.” This statement didn’t come from a place of dislike of the clients, but rather from a place of taking the remaining clients best interest to heart. “You cant save them all” one of the staff once said to me, but you do what you can for the ones who want your help. And this is what Our House is all about. They are there for the ones who want help. The ones whose parents have bailed on them or who haven’t found their place in foster care. They are there for support; to create a place that some can call home. They are there to help these kids in need, not save them.

Scrolling through Facebook a few days ago, I ran across an article that caught my eye. The headline was “Florida Ordinance bans homeless people from using blankets.” Curious as to who in the world would take the time to create such a heartless and in my mind stupid ordinance I clicked on the link to get more information. As I read the article I found that it was based off of events happening in Miami Florida. Lawmakers in that area have decided to ban not only the use of blankets but of anything that you could use to cover yourself up when you’re cold, if you were homeless. It is also illegal to provide the homeless with blankets and they have also made it illegal for them to use public restrooms, to panhandle and to camp. As the author of this article Reagan Ali states, “The series of bans has made it effectively illegal to be homeless.”

I was horrified after reading this article. I had no idea that people could be so selfish as to take away a humans basic needs. I then began to question why someone, in this case the mayor, would create such a ban. What benefit does it bring to others to make it so the less fortunate in our society have nowhere to sleep and do not have the ability to keep themselves warm? The only thing that I could think that would drive someone to make such a decision was lack of knowledge. Maybe the mayor believed that by banning basically the entire lifestyle of the homeless that it would make the “problem” disappear. This is called stupidity. People who think like this are naive. They do not understand the way that the world works. There are poor people out there, and have been for hundreds of years and as we’ve seen in past history pretending that they don’t exist only makes the problem worse. And taking away persons right to a blanket does not benefit a single person involved. Because when you take away someone’s basic right, like their right to be warm or their right to use the bathroom you basically strip them of their humanity. I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty upset. And the homeless, contrary to the belief of some, are real people with real feelings and are actually a huge part of our society. You wouldn’t tell your friend or family member they couldn’t use a blanket when they were cold, so why would you tell someone else those same words?

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/02/florida-blanket-ban/#

Mental illness is a very broad term. It can refer to anything from ADD to schizophrenia and everything in between. Many of the people who fall under this broad spectrum, in today’s world, end up on the streets at some point in their life. In a very well written, thought-provoking article Rick Jervis emphasizes that, “The mentally ill homeless are some of the hardest to reach and toughest to treat, often self-medicating with drugs and alcohol and teetering between lucidity and crippling despair.” In my mind the mentally ill portion of the homeless are looked by the general public at as “passed the point of outside help” or dangerous, or just plain crazy so no one dares get near them. I know for me growing up in a town with a large homeless population, I was never to go near or talk to any of them, especially the “crazy” ones. You see a many walking down the street talking to himself or yelling at the lamppost, chances are you will walk the other way or cross the street to avoid him. This attitude towards those who are mentally ill makes it increasingly hard for them to find help or even find a place to sleep. And rather than helping these people find places to live and gain access to medication to help their illness, we as a government are paying millions of dollars a year paying for them to essentially “be on the street.”

But why have so many mentally ill ended up on the street? It is because of the progression of the closing of mental hospitals in the late 1970s and then the slow failure of the help that was supposed to replace them. Without the hospitals and the ability to commit someone against their will, and without the easy access to medication this drove a large portion of the mentally ill to the streets. It’s been almost 50 years since this epidemic so my question is why haven’t we done anything. After reading this article I came across in USA today, I realized that there is more work being done towards a solution that I realized. Between housing first and permanent supportive housing there has been efforts and funding that has been put towards the issue. I think that this is very important because this recognition that there is a problem is the first step towards a solution. But the progress is slow, and it concerns me that it is not an issue that is at the forefront of our awareness as a society. There needs to be help provided to these people who cannot help themselves. Mental illness is a very serious issue that needs to be addressed instead of stared at. Because no one likes to stick out of a crowd and if you have a mental illness, without help, you have no chance of fitting in.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/27/mental-health-homeless-series/14255283/