For my each-one-teach-one teaching project, I decided to lead a workshop in Outdoor Programs to my fellow trip leaders and apprentices’. I chose this group of people because I wanted to speak with a group of people who choose to sleep outside willingly about groups of people that sleep outside unwillingly. I ended up leading two workshops. The first workshop was a quick overview of homelessness at our weekly Monday night meeting and the second workshop was a more in-depth conversation the following Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday afternoon, only four trip leaders from Outdoor Programs showed up to talk about homelessness which was disappointing but worked out well. We started off by discussing stereotypes, moved into causes of homelessness, and ended with ways to prevent homelessness. The stereotypes we talked about were the general stereotypes we think of when we think of homeless people: drug addicts, lazy, could work if they tried to get a job, that it’s their choice that they’re homeless, etc. Our conversation about stereotypes led into a brief conversation about the language we use surrounding homelessness and I told them that it was important to try and not victim blame and to search for the structural reasons behind homelessness. When we talked about causes of homelessness, I was surprised to hear that no one brought up affordable housing. Even without them taking our class, I assumed it would be mentioned since affordable housing is such a buzzword nowadays. However, most of the causes they talked about had to do with mental illness, high medical costs/lack of insurance, economic depressions, and systemic oppression against people of color. These themes came up again when we talked about ways to prevent homelessness as they brainstormed a lot of things that would require policy changes. For example, the idea of free healthcare or more affordable services for people who are struggling.

I enjoyed leading my two workshops but definitely liked the Tuesday one better, just because we got to have a small group discussion where everyone shared their opinions and ideas. It was exciting to be able to teach my peers and have them look at a social issue (homelessness) in a new way. I think they learned a lot about the lack of affordable housing we are facing and how easy it can be for individuals to become homeless. I encouraged them to not look away the next time they see a homeless person and to try and understand that everyone has a different situation that led them to homelessness. If we start acknowledging the homeless people we see every day, maybe the problem will begin to humanize itself again and we won’t hear people speak about homeless people in such a negative way. I would call this teaching project a success but I wish that I had more time to plan and prepare because I think I could have reached more people in Outdoor Programs, which would have been nice, but I’m happy with the outcome of the project regardless.