This course so far has been a great class. I love how small the class is, so it is very personable.  This week the reading was really relatable to my life and it was nice to be able to sit in a circle and just talk as a class and not just be lectured. Nickel and Dimed was an amazing book and took us through the daily struggles to not have money and what it’s like to really not have much to live on. This also made me reflect on my upbringing and current situation. My mother lost her job when I was very young. We did not have much money to live on and eventually lost our house.  By the time I was 3 years old I started living with my grandma. My mother was in and out of jail multiple times so this took a huge tole on my life and my mothers.  She has never recovered from this whole downfall. When she was going through this all she had a car so this book reminded me of my life 100%. She currently lives at a hotel with her boyfriend who works there. They have lived there since I was about 10. This whole situation has been so hard because my mother never had any motivation to get a job due to her not having one for so long. I really want her to read Nickel and Dimed because it related to her life exactly and what she is going through firsthand.

I believe it was last Monday when we briefly got the chance to list some of the 15 functions Herbert J. Gans describes in “The Positive Functions of Poverty”.  He explains how the poor perform these 15 distinct functions for American society . He states the idea that poverty is good in it’s existence because it provides employment for a number of people and other things such as explaining that the poor are used intentionally for medical purposes, trials and tests with new medicines in particular. These were examples shared in class. In his third point he described how certain groups or things they poor do flourish because of the poor themselves. On this list are heroin, cheap liquor, prostitutes and  what i found interesting, Pentecostal Ministers.

I thought to myself what that could mean. I began to reflect on my personal views and conceptions of the Pentecostal church along with my past experiences and I came to several thoughts or inquiries. In my mind, the reason that Pentecostal ministers were intentionally placed on a list of groups that benefit and prosper from the poor would be because of the concept of repentance and forgiveness. Also if the Pentecostal mister conveys the concept that their God is one who will bless, it adds to what they can preach at whoever whenever. I believe ministers use this in their preaching and messages directed towards people who are not in the best of circumstances and Hod is seen as the only answer, as they preach, in getting ones life together.  They speak of a repentance and how one can be forgiven for the situation they are in, which they may interpret as the result of a ungodly life in sin.

Our course will begin January 8th, 2018.  The blog will open shortly thereafter.  You are welcome to explore older posts but they are closed to comments.

— JS

I met a homeless man in uptown Yucaipa, back in November, and he told us a little bit about his story about how he became homeless and no longer had contact with his family. It was a really cold night, and I was wearing shorts by my own choice and therefore was cold, but he took his own jacket off of his back to make sure I was warm. I felt bad because it was my own fault I was cold, yet he didn’t even hesitate to make sure I was warm. We bought him some water and later went on our way. We would see him almost everyday sitting on the same bench, and I hadn’t lately. I was happy to see this outcome for someone in my hometown. This was a post on a Yucaipa facebook page.
“I met Kelly back in October and he was homeless and a drunk. He’d burned all the bridges he ever had with his wife, kids and friends in the community because of his drug and alcohol problems. You probably remember him as the guy who said “good morning or good afternoon or good evening” by the donut shop or liquor store off California and the Blvd.
In January I was able to get him into a rehab. He was ready but so scared. We took this picture on the street in front of the rehab facility. He had the option of 30, 60 or 90 day program and he chose the 90.
He did so good in the rehab house program that they asked him to be a patient/manager of the house.
Yesterday I received a phone call from Kelly asking if I was home and if I’d like a visitor. Uh. Duh!
He showed up with his wife and son and they were out house hunting because they are getting back together and the first thing he had to do after our gigantic hug was to show me his certificate of completion.
He has a new lease on life and he’s clean and sober and has his family back. It was a really good day. So exceedingly proud of Kelly!
To follow more of what I’m doing to help the homeless here in my city please join The Faces of Yucaipa on Facebook.
You can also see videos of Kelly in his transformation on my YouTube channel MARIVB14″

While my last post was on social media harming the homeless issue, this time people actually used social media for good news.

For our teaching project, we decided to spread awareness about homelessness by bringing a report of facts to our peers at school. The reason we chose to do so is because we believe that the first step to teaching others about a problem in society is to first demonstrate that there is in fact a problem. We had to recognize that many of our peers would probably have little knowledge on the topic of homelessness, just as we did in the beginning of the semester. So that being said, we decided that we needed to find a way to bring the epidemic to others’ attention. Not only did we have to bring it to their attention, but we also had the task of explaining why homelessness is an epidemic in our present day society.

As for the audience of our teaching project, we chose to teach our peers at the University of Redlands. There were a number of reasons why we decided on this audience. The first reason was that it was simpler to teach our peers, since they are typically at the same level of education as ourselves. This meant that we did not have to design an elaborate teaching plan for professors or staff, nor did we have to oversimplify the material in order to teach youth.  Choosing to educate our peers was also more convenient because they are right here on campus. Once we had our audience, we had to plan out how exactly we were going to present the information. We had to plan it so that the students would be interested in learning about homelessness. We researched homelessness in the San Bernardino County area. This way, the information would be more personal to the students since it is in the area of which they go to school. Not only did we research homelessness in the area, but we also collected data on college students and homelessness. The data that was collected was astounding, and we had hopes that our peer would be just as appalled as we were. So that led us to creating a fact filled sheet with quick facts about homelessness in San Bernardino county. A fact sheet seemed like a good idea so that students can quickly and effortlessly receive the information we provided. For the fact sheet, we chose alarming and eye catching statistics in order to thoroughly grab the reader’s attention. These statistics concerned homelessness among children and students, which we knew would interest the readers. We planned on passing out printed copies of the fact sheet in front of the commons area during peak busy hours. That way we would be able to attempt to get the word out to as many students and staff  as possible. We also planned to keep a printed copy of the full report in case any of the students had any questions or wanted to read over the report.

Rebecca Hulbert

Karina Fernandez

Over the past two months I have watched many kids come and go. I’ve seen good kids; bad kids, crazy kids and just normal need some help kids. I’ve watched kids grow and I’ve watched them change. I’ve seen how horrible life can be and how much help some youth really need and how little they receive. I’ve watched promises be broken and kids come out the other side disappointed and hurt. I’ve discovered how brutal the system is and everything that happens within this runaway, foster care system takes so much time. I’ve realized that the people who generally hurt these kids are those who are closest to them. The ones that mean the most to them are the ones who have the most power to hurt them. I’ve watched kids lash out because life hasn’t been fair to them. I’ve seen rules broken for the sake of the clients. I have learned how to answer the phone, what to say to new clients who want to come in, how to fill out an intake sheet, how to update a client file, how to lead a group session. I’ve learned that the simple act of eating meals with these kids at the dinner table can create trust. I’ve learned that shelter food isn’t always as bad as it looks, and that clients actually do have input on the meal plan each week. I’ve learned that for funding purposes each clients must sign their name that they have eaten after every meal and they are assigned chores to clean up the house after dinner. I have learned that gloves must be used while preparing food, and that I am not as good of a cook as I thought I was.

I learned a lot working at our house but not nearly as much as I thought I would. I thought I would learn a lot more about the system, but instead I ended up learning more about the clients. I wouldn’t change this learning experience, but I wish there had been someone there who would’ve had time to teach me more in depth about how the shelter and all of the outside forces work. I didn’t feel like I even was able to brush the surface of what I could’ve learned and done. I never got to sit in on an intake because none ever came in while I was working. I never got to help with departures again because none ever happened on my shift. I only ever answered the phone a few times and never was really shown how the case filing and case managing worked. This is not the fault of the shelter, but rather a combination of my time constraint and bad luck.

I could spend all day analyzing all of the things I saw and heard at Our House. I could create conclusions, come up with assumptions and use my sociologist brain to analyze each and every scenario. But I’m going to try not to follow this instinct because it would take away from my experience. I went in as a sociologist, ready to analyze everyone and everything, but instead I came out with personal connections to people who I never thought would give me the time of day. I was worried about being accepted within the shelter and trying to find equal placing with the staff and clients. But once I realized that I was the one who was bringing all of the stereotypes and stigmas about myself and that once I accepted myself in that environment that the others would follow. That skill is easier said than done, but it is the one that I will take with me and use for the rest of my life.

For my teaching project Tatiana and I decided to show the documentary Voices in the Tunnels: In Search of the Mole People. We felt that it was an accurate representation of the kind of life that several homeless people have. My aim was to educate our audience enough to have them put aside their stereotypical views and look at this issue with an open mind. We felt that this movie had the potential to prove the message that we were attempting to give out. It is a documentary which exposed the students to real conversations and real people who were adapted to an entirely different lifestyle under the busy streets of New York.
I thought that the film was very beneficial to our project because not only were they able to hear from us about the problem of homelessness but they were able to see it for themselves. We educated our audience about how too often the individual is blamed for being homeless when in reality there are so many factors that actually go into this issue such as the economy, the safety net, affordable housing and minimum wage. The main obstacle that is preventing this problem from being solved is only ourselves. Society is not giving this issue the attention that it desperately needs. It was important for me to point out that part of the reason is because many people do not believe that the homeless are worthy of being saved. This kind of mentality is due to the concept of the American Dream, the idea that if you are in the streets is because you did not work enough. Taking this course has really made me look at homelessness from a humane perspective. How many people people living on the streets and barely getting buy on a minimum wage will it take until politicians and society realizes that this is a real problem. One of my biggest realizations when watching this film was when one of the people in the tunnels said “ there’s a very thin line between where you are and where I am”. I would have never understood these words the way I do now until taking this course. I find it very important that people recognize that homelessness can happen to just about anyone, there are certain things that are hard to prevent. It is even more important to be able to recognize that not every person in the streets is a criminal and that they once had a normal life too and just because life has stripped away their home does not mean that they have also lost their humanity.

I have been volunteering at YouthHope for about two months now on Thursdays. My main role is to supervise the computer lab and help anyone who may need help building a resume or job searching. However, yesterday was not like other Thursdays. I have been debating about posting on the blog and finally came to the conclusion that this is something people should be aware of. Hunger, homelessness, and poverty is a real issue that takes a lot of strength to overcome.

Our project consisted of chalking in various places around the University of Redlands campus in effort to promote public awareness around the issue of hunger and homelessness in America. The initial plan was to create a list of facts about poverty, hunger, and homelessness in America that would eventually be transcribed onto the concrete floors of the university for the public to read. Due to a similar interest in this type of project, we decided to split the project among some of our peers. The other group successfully got the project proposal approved, in order for the chalking to be possible. In the project proposal, the designated areas we desired to chalk were listed. Additionally, the list of facts we wished to chalk was reviewed.

The audience was not supposed to know who was behind writing these facts on the concrete. This was intended to minimize bias and conflict of interest. This activity was also not meant to come off as preaching. However, in the point in time when we decided to draw in front of the Hunsaker plaza, there was a rather large Greek life, recruiting event occurring simultaneously. As we chalked, individuals from the Geek life event were intrigued and wanted to know what we were chalking.

This activity was designed to be straight to the point and create the type of fear in individuals that makes them want to make change and get emotional about the reality of hunger, poverty, and homelessness. The point was not to change the hunger and homelessness, but to make our community aware that it is a major issue in our own city and country. We wanted people to read the chalk outside the commons and think about the people that do not have food, nonetheless a table. We wanted people to walk in their dorms they so often complain about and take for granted, and think about the people living in shelters. We wanted students to think about how privileged they are to be able to complain about the lack of air conditioning in their room that women, hired by the university, clean for them on a weekly basis.