The teaching project I decided to conduct consisted of discussions and several activities, taught to the ladies of Alpha Xi Omicron. As a member I felt confident in sharing what I have learned over this past semester with a group that would use the information constructively. The activities were centered on the themes of re-humanizing homeless and identifying both social and individual factors straining the eradication of homelessness issues. I set up the discussion at the Alpha Xi House in the hopes the girls felt it was a safe space to share their perception of the homeless community and a free environment to grow from sharing any and all other knowledge.

My event took place on Thursday April 5^th, at 8pm. I advertise my event on the social media pages of Facebook connected to our organization. I also spread the word when I saw my sorority sisters out and about, throughout the week leading up to the event. My preparation and materials for the event consisted of research for the activities, poster paper I acquired from SLIC, sharpies, extra pieces of paper, and my laptop. My plan was to do three activities that would last about the maximum of an hour, as to keep it instructive but short.

My three activities consisted of a discussion based critically thinking activity, a participatory instructed activity, and a video. My idea was to initiate a conversation of what everyone knew about the topic before we got into things. Then to do an activity to showcase the hardships of being low income, budgeting for not only yourself but others under the strenuous conditions. Next, to watch a video on re-humanizing people without homes and what being homeless is politically identified as. Finally, to wrap the event up, going back to our initial thoughts and comparing what are thoughts were after the activities. I am not a certified teacher; I was nervous and unsure about what I was about to present. However, I knew my sisters would help me out and not ridicule me if I slipped up, instead would support me if I started to trail off in my confidence. This knowledge of support created an excitement for the discussion.

Overall I think the teaching project was a successful one. An experience where everyone had the chance to contribute his or her own experiences, thoughts, and questions to each other’s learning. Everyone participated, enough so I barley had to facilitate the discussion. At the end I asked if people felt like they might have learned at least one thing, I got great feed back. For future teaching projects I feel like I could have made it more structured and maybe have done more of an extensive activity on a more specific topic. However, although what we discussed was a range of topics, we also went into directions that most interested my audience, making it instructional for both them and me. I appreciated everyone that came and all their input and I definitely learned to teach something new, something I am not completely comfortable teaching.

This week I learned a lot more about different types of services around the inland empire and LA county. Family services, women’s shelters, childcare, and what they offer in programs, their history, the language they use. I also learned more about how to explain my own experiences and to look out for the smaller things. I want to learn how individuals keep themselves motivated through the programs that are offered. I not only learned from the presentations, but from the readings about looking at homelessness from a different perspective. At a workshop I was in, we talked about a celebrity who spent a time on Skid Row filming a documentary showing the life there and how different that was compared to those in a different area, the woman who mentioned it also talked about making her own YouTube channel about being homeless and surviving. It was one of the moments where I realized the different situations people who were homeless were in, and how much they simply wanted to be heard. Then the readings made me question how much truth needed to be taught before the public really focused on the problems that contributed to becoming homeless. How much exposure on homelessness is necessary before the problem becomes dire, and is inescapably in need of a reaction from government. I think the woman was on track when she stress the need to inform the public that not all homeless are on drugs and lazy. It got me to thinking about a few questions, like: When does media really acknowledge homelessness? Without the help of the required readings of this course on different situations of homelessness, would I know or realize what is happening in the community? For instance, the employees at Disneyland. Why have activist movements to end homelessness not been a success? Why haven’t the means we are taking now not worked as efficiently?  

Over this first half of the course, I realized I have learned so much and have been enlightened into a world that I have had the privilege not to experience. However, I think it is a world everyone needs to know about because; the world of homelessness comes with many different covers. I see those on the streets and realize it exists however, I also know friends at this small, private, liberal college who are also homeless. There is no poster example of homeless except the one that the social stigmas have created. Homelessness comes in all different grades of extremes and in completely different situations. An article that caught my attention this week was on the way Disneyland employees have been living. “According to a survey of thousands of low-wage employees at the park, nearly three-quarters of workers who responded said they do not earn enough money to pay for their basic monthly expenses, and one in 10 said they had been homeless in the past two years.”

When I think of Disneyland, I picture happily ever after’s, fireworks, laughing kids, because that is what they advertise, and yes it is true people have amazing memories from the park, including me. But what you don’t see is the behind the scenes that a lot of resorts and parks tend to have. Although, Disneyland offers so many job opportunities their employees still don’t make enough to live at the needed budget for the state of California not to mention Orange County. ““Every time we get to the end of the month, I have to choose what bills to pay,” she said. “We want kids, but there’s no way we’re going to do that when we can barely afford to feed ourselves.””- Grace Torres. Employee’s sleep in cars, shower at work, and brush their teeth at the nearest Starbucks. Employees want a family, or to grant their current families a good and happy life, but to the extent that they must fake to the world their true struggles to keep out of the stigmatized homeless representation. “I do my job with a smile on my face,” she said. “Most people don’t know what I’m doing. It’s not exactly the most lovely thing to hear about, that I can’t even take care of myself.”- Rebekah Pederson. For me this semester I am learning to look beyond the first face of a person I see, to not judge a book by its cover, if you might say. Someone can be happy yet they have their struggles, and someone can be at their all time low and still have hope. Homeless to me is no longer something I simply see it is not an identity I give to someone it is a situation I look into.

Medina, Jennifer. “By Day, a Sunny Smile for Disney Visitors. By Night, an Uneasy Sleep in a Car.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/disneyland-employees-wages.html?smid=pl-share.

One of the more shocking articles I read this week was a recent one from the LA Times posted on Feb 01,2018. The article’s main focus, the 75% surge of the last six years, on the homeless crisis baffled me because it showed the major increase in unsheltered homeless and the decrease in sheltered. Talking about the causes  of homelessness feels different discussing it in class than it is seeing it through experience. But this article was shocking because initially all the numbers popped out at me, 33,243 to 55,188.

The article then goes on to talk about the housing renovations and the policies and governments that worked and then failed to get the homeless back into the houses of LA.  The fact that LA renovated the city to make it “look better” caused the higher rent and the increase of encampments around the city, making the hygiene of the city becoming less and less suitable to live in. The graph that showed how LA was near the bottom of cities who sheltered their homeless, was also upsetting, near only 25% were sheltered, compared to New York City or Salt Lake City.

The different ways that government has tried to set up or have better opportunities were interesting to read about. I believe in the added shelter beds, the expanded winter shelter hours, and the employment opportunities. However the upkeep of the portable toilets and there being a “dumping ground for hospitals and prisons” and the “guarantee a right to sidewalks instead of a right to shelter” were not the best decisions of government just temporary solutions not long-lasting solutions to allow the homeless to move out of their positions. “L.A.’s homelessness policy had come full circle.”

            This week I read “Voices”, with sometimes chilling but also wondering stories, about the lives of the homeless and their perspective. I have had friends that were homeless for an extended period and yet I never truly took in what it took to get back on their feet. I think one of the most chilling chapters was the barriers to work and the health of homeless. Their stories frustrated me. So much depends on appearances in order to get any type of help from society.

            Getting a job, getting medical treatment, simply being assisted in a store or hanging around on a park bench all depends on how “civilized” you look. Do you have raggedy clothes? Do you have clean teeth? Do you have a decent haircut? Not only do these small things help with being assisted they can also give a person the can-do-attitude that many of the homeless struggle to keep every day. If there were more outlets and availability for the homeless to obtain any of these appearances, they may have a better chance of getting back on their feet.

An Insider’s video demonstrated a celebrity hairdresser going around the streets of LA giving free haircuts to the homeless. Jason Schneidman, the hairdresser says, “So what I find in helping homeless people with haircuts is their appearance changes and their attitude changes and then also the people around them see these people differently.” One of the homeless men that Schneidman cut hair for looked sad but happy, and while looking into the mirror says, “Damn, yeah, that took about 10 years off of huh” then smiles at Schneidman. “I think if we all do a little, we can help out a lot.” Little things do help a concept not only emphasized in the video but throughout “Voices”.