The thing I love about sociology is with every class I take, I finish the course with a greater understanding towards the people around me. What I once may have been more judgmental about, I learn to see from a different perspective. This semester has made me more aware of the homeless community, by understanding how many people go unseen and how many people have fallen into this social crisis due to structural conditions. I wanted more people to learn about the hardships that come from homelessness, and that not every cause is because of a self-inflicted mistake.

For my teaching project, I wanted to teach a group of people who have more than likely not been exposed to the homeless issue. When I was in high school, I was taught that homeless people were addicts and any money I would give them would simply feed that addiction- so ignore them. Many high schoolers only hear this one sided, judgmental viewpoint, so I wanted to expose them to more. I contacted my former AP Human Geography teacher who is now at Yucaipa High School and taught her two APHG classes, which is the closest thing to sociology at the high school level. Rather than simply telling these kids a bunch of info and have them learn material, my main goal was for them to leave with a greater sense of empathy than they had entered the room with. Knowledge is important, of course, but self development and tolerance are major forces I think need to be developed in every individual.

How I constructed my presentation to the class was broken up into 5 sections, which were the 5 questions we had been exploring throughout the semester. For the first question, “What is life like for the hungry, the homeless, and the near-homeless in the U.S”, I talked to them about how with homelessness comes a lot of shame, and many accusations that they do not try to get a job. I shared difficulties with getting a job, plus perspectives from Voices from the Street and Taylor’s Campaign, as well as a recent story of a homeless Disneyland employee found dead in her car. For the second question, “How many homeless and near-homeless are there?”, the answer I gave was we have no idea, and discussed how inaccurate counts are and how shifting definitions can effect these counts. For the third question, “What are the major and minor causes of homelessness and hunger?”, we talked about personal susceptibility vs structural conditions. I focused on the cost of housing being too high. “What are individuals, small organizations, and governments doing to help?” was the fourth questions, where I mainly shared 2 local organizations (Youth Hope and Redlands Family Services) and 2 nonlocal organizations (Solid Ground and Homeless Solutions) on what they are doing to help. Finally, the fifth question, “What does it take to solve these problems?” was where I shared how I think more affordable housing is the biggest thing we can do for a solution, and encouraged them to volunteer to help. I used this to transition into sharing about my time at The Midnight Mission.

This was a very successful project, and the students were very polite and made it a comfortable space. They all stayed engaged and asked questions and based on their facial expressions throughout the presentation, I think they were changed to better understanding. I hope they gained more compassion and empathy towards a community pushed aside by society.