This week’s discussions focused on various histories of American homelessness. This historical lens can be rather disheartening. Despite there being notable periods in American homelessness, our overarching approach has been cruel and consistently failed to fix homelessness since before our nation was formed. This begs the question: what does it take to make effective change of attitudes and policies? In thinking about this question, I start to think about my own community.

I live in the Johnston Community. A group of students at the University who design their own majors and choose to live in an intentional, learning community. Many of our conversations center around social justice and its place in our community. The topics lately have included transgender persons and racism. So many times, students have identified these problems (and problems of the garden-variety) in our community and worked passionately to solve them. Yet, time after time, their efforts fail.

Some fail because the student burns out, some because there wasn’t enough support, and some because they weren’t well planned. Though, the ones that survive these deaths, rarely survive our short institutional memory. The leaders of change leave, and often, the change leaves with them. Is this hurdle of short institutional memory applicable to societal change? What role does generational memory play in the success or failure of civil rights movements. Subsequently, what does it take for a movement to be remembered to and outlive its leaders?

I hope as we continue to explore the realities of hunger and homelessness in America, that we find approaches that have been effective. Nearly as important, I hope that we learn how to create change that persists.