My internship this semester with the Time for Change Foundation has been a one of a kind experience. Volunteering outside of the class really put the issue of homelessness in America into perspective. Although for several days I did busy work, after a while I began to work with the children, simply observing and listening to the conversations that went on provided me with so much insight. This organization has had a very large success rate because the staff works extremely close with the women and children who walk into their shelters. Their approach is addressing the core issue which might be keeping the women from breaking the cycle of addiction in their lives in order to hopefully achieve self sufficiency.

Aside from all of the positive things that continue to be done, society fails to realize that as long as homelessness is criminalized, very little will change. Not only that but this increasing issue needs to be better closely looked at by politicians and people who hold the power to create policies and make significant changes. Coming into this class at the beginning of the semester I believed homeless people to only consist of those asking for money in the streets. I never once thought that the term homeless also included people who are constantly couch surfing, those barely getting by on minimum wage, people living out of their cars and people who find a home at an airport. Taking this course has really changed my perspective on homelessness and that there is so much that has yet to be done regarding this problem.

I have learned to look at this problem with an entirely different perspective than I would have four months ago. Being the number one country in the world one would think that homelessness would not be such a big issue in America, but the increasing numbers in the homeless population demonstrate the contrary. The mentality that majority of the american population has towards these people is what is really preventing them from getting the help and resources that they need. Several times I have asked myself if only one thing could be changed, what would it be ? And my answer every time has been that I would change the way in which homeless people are seen. I think that simply looking at them as human beings that are going through difficult times because of the flaws in our safety net, things have a possibility of changing. But as long people keep turning the other way, avoiding the issue, and stripping these people of the dignity that they have left, homelessness will continue to be no ones concern. Before this class without realizing it, I was doing exactly what many ignorant people do. I would come across a homeless person and look down and pretend like they do not exist. I am so grateful taking this course that I have become educated and no longer do I look down but instead I greet the person like any other human being because they do exist, they are human and they deserve to be treated with respect. As far as what I can do to solve the problem of homelessness for now as a college student is teach to the people around me what I have learned so that at least they can also treat someone from the streets with the same respect as they would any other human being so that hopefully when homeless people are no longer considered unworthy, America will give the issue of homelessness the attention it desperately needs.