For my teaching project I decided to create a 7^th grade social studies unit that focused on educating the students about homelessness. the name of the unit is Homeless are people too. It is a 12 day lesson plan that spans over 4 weeks. Here is a sample of a few of the days:

Day one:

• Introduce the word homeless, ask them what they think it means and write their answers on the board.
• Have them write in graphic organizer what makes where they live home, what they like about it. Once they are finished with that we would do either think pair share or just go around the room and share what they wrote.
• Hang those on our bulletin board and then ask them what they would do if they had none those things?
• And have them write a reflective 1-page paper on that topic in their daily journal.

Day two:

• Would begin the class going over our writing assignment and having each student share one thing that they wrote.
• I would then show a power point presentation about 5 or 6 people in history who have similar lives and but half would be homeless and the other wouldn’t
• They would not know this so I would have them get together in groups try to guess which ones were homeless and which were not. The objective here would be to get them to see that homeless people could be anyone.
• For homework I would have them read “homeless” by Anna Quindlen and write a response to it in their daily journal

Day three:

• Review the article, have a discussion about their responses to it. This will lead into-
• Start talking about the different definitions of homelessness, what it means to be homeless, present a power point to the class on all of the different ways to be homeless- couch surfing, shelter living, on the street, doubling up etc.
• Split them up into groups and have them make a poster board about each of the different ways to be homeless. Have them do a little extra research on the topic they are assigned we will pin these up around the classroom.
• For homework write a response to the class in their journal.

Day four:

• Review the different definitions of homelessness and finish the posters if they are not already done.
• We would then watch a few clips of videos off of the invisible people website, stories of some homeless people and I would have them write down observations about each person and specifically focus on why each person was homeless.
• We would then share those ideas and write all of the reasons they observed in the videos on the board.
• For homework I would give them two or three more personal stories about homeless people to read and they would have to come back and be able to tell the class who the people they read about were and why they were homeless and have written that up as well. (In their daily journal)

The participants of this project had various opinions on homeless people prior to watching the film. When we asked them to write everything that came to mind when they thought of the word homeless they wrote down things like Detroit, MI, veterans, dependent, minorities, lonely, ill-mannered, begging, unemployed, financially irresponsible, dirty, STDs, and misrepresented. While most of these terms carry a negative connotation, not all the participants believed homeless people are drug addicts, alcoholics, and complete bums. They expressed some knowledge about the homelessness crisis, saying the closing of mental hospitals in the 1980s was very detrimental to the lives of the mentally ill. In addition some believed not all homeless people are to blame for their situation, that there are other factors at work; they acknowledged the fact that the system is the real problem. Overall the participants’ views on homeless people ranged from fairly positive to quite negative; however, we then proceeded to watch The Pursuit of Happyness and afterward asked them if the movie had changed some of their opinions on homeless people. In our post-film discussion we heard more terms and phrases like “hardworking,” “loving,” and “trying to do the best with what they’ve got,” uncommon associations with the homeless. One participant then said lack of public awareness is a significant reason why there is such a stigma on homeless people, and that it is important for the rest of society to recognize where these people come from, what their situation is, and what their lives are like. In response to this we had them write down all the solutions to homelessness they could think of. This activity yield vastly fewer ideas than the first one, but in addition to increased public awareness they believed reducing the number of incarcerations of drug users and homeless people, giving homeless a place to live, rehabilitation centers, and food banks are all ways to improve the lives of the homeless. At this point we introduced the participants to some concepts we have been learning about in class such as housing first, as well as the fact that shelters and service agencies are not nearly as impactful as they need to be or could be because of the way society is structured. They were quite surprised to hear how people wait weeks, months, even years to get into shelters because of waiting lists and all kinds of complications and hoops to jump through. None of them were fans of the leaf blower effect and agreed it is the laziest way to go about dealing with the homeless population. Housing first was a more popular topic. They all believed housing first was the most obvious change that needs to be made and that its is probably going to have a significant impact on getting homeless people off the streets and on a better path.

This blog post isn’t so much about the news or a personal story its more of a question and an observation of one of my friends living situation. So I know we talk about in class about what the definition of homelessness is and i was wondering if this specific story or living situation is considered a type of homelessness. So my friend currently is in college at this university and he was living in an off campus house and his lease ended so he was forced to move out and he had no were to go so some of his friends let him stay in their dorm room on a futon that he had and he brought into the room and they are letting him live there for the semester because he does not want to have to sign another lease and he does not have the money to afford a new place on his own. so my final and overall question is based on our description and definition of homelessness that we have gone over in class and done in our reading would this considered a type of homelessness or what i know its not a permanent place he is staying at but it is a place that he has his own bed and his own section in the room with two other males so i was just wondering what would this be considered as.

I had to complete a project where I volunteered and observed a social service agency that helps homeless and/or hungry, and I choose The Blessing Center.  This is an agency located in Redlands, about a mile from the University. This organization helps both the hungry and those in poverty. Their goal is “to help alleviate poverty and despair through multi-faceted resourcing of poor and disadvantaged families and individuals who are hurting, in need of food, clothing, medical and dental care, job resources and many other needs.” This goal description also gives a little insight into what type of services they provide and for whom.

The Blessing Center provides a food bank every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. For these three days, the volunteers at The Blessing Center only have two hours to distribute food boxes to upwards of 400 families, with Tuesday’s typically being their most popular day. These boxes contain food provided by local companies and farms, all of which has been donated. 

Since they cannot give out boxes everyday of the week, they do provide sack lunches every day. This is a little easier to obtain, all you have to do to receive a lunch is to sign in at the front desk. These lunches typically include items that will perish faster, but also easy to eat foods, such as sandwiches and bananas. The number of people that come in for a lunch is around 20 people, which is much less than the amount that come in on food bank days.

The Blessing Center has its own “store” full of donated items. Clients can come in each day to pick out a different outfit for free. The criteria for receiving clothing is just like the sack lunches, where they only have to sign in at the front desk. But the clients are restricted as to how much time they are allowed in the store and how much clothing they can take, which varies for single people and families.

The Blessing Center provides many services to make sure people can get on their feet a little easier. Some of the services include: GED courses, AA meetings, resume classes, life coaching classes, computer classes, and job coaching classes. All of these services plan to help people succeed in landing a job and being successful in their careers.

The Blessing Center provides a medical and dental clinic that is free to everyone who does not have health insurance. Here people and families can sign up to be an applicant for the clinic, the only requirement is that they do not have any form of health insurance. This clinic offers general dentistry, such as fillings and cleaning, as well as health screenings, primary care, and minor surgeries.

I spent most of my time in clothing organizing the clothes and their sorting system, but I also spent some time with the food distribution and observing. While volunteering I looked around a lot and observed what was happening at the center. While some days there wasn’t much going on, I still got a feel of how the clients and volunteers were treated and received a little feedback from both.

I don’t think that I actually spent enough time in my organization to be able to fully understand how they operate daily, but I did learn a lot about how important volunteers and donations are. This organization would not survive without the help of private donations. All of their food and clothing is donated, so they wouldn’t have to spend any money on purchasing these items. Without volunteers, they probably wouldn’t have enough money to spend on salaries for their workers, especially those in the medical profession for the clinic.

We’ve looked at places like Dignity Village where tiny houses are starting to pop up as places for low-income and homeless people to live in, but now people are starting to build them for their own minimalist purposes as a new pop culture trend. Is this something that could be detrimental to the purpose of tiny houses? We don’t normally see something that is implemented to benefit the lower members of society become an aspect of pop culture, and I’m starting to think this could either help or hurt the homeless and low-income citizens. I think the introduction of tiny houses into pop culture could be beneficial by showing how higher members of society can live in them; the low cost and high impact of giving someone a place to live could sway public opinion to be in favor of using this method to help those in need of a house. On the other hand having higher members of society demonstrate the effectiveness of tiny houses could give people the opinion that tiny houses are a luxury, and possibly a luxury that homeless and low-income citizens don’t deserve. I guess what it comes down to is how this concept will be brought up to the public; obviously it is rooted in the homelessness crisis, but if others around the country are introduced to this idea as an aspect of pop culture as opposed to a way to a way of dealing with the homelessness crisis how is that going to affect the social stigma around tiny houses, homeless people, and homeless people in tiny houses?

Recent world news has focused on the murder of freshman Haruka Weiser at The University of Texas Austin.  A surprise to many a few days after the murder they found the murderer and he is a homeless teenager.  Although we do criminalize homeless people we usually do not associate them as murderers.  Typically the crimes we think of are theft and different petty crimes, but not murder.  So the main question many people are asking is why?  She seems to be an innocent freshman college student so what happened to end her life on that given Sunday evening.

Another surprise about Meechail, the homeless seventeen year old, is that he was new to the city of Austin.  Most of the time when we see homeless we can associate them as being a part of that given community for most of their lives and rarely are new to the city.  Sadly, the autopsy can report that there was blunt trauma.  Many are concluding that this young boy had serious mental issues.  After police looked back into his possible history they see he was an angered foster child and he said, “What I want to leave behind is my name — I want them to know who Meechaiel Criner is.”  So the big question is still why?  Unfortunately we will probably never have an answer.

While my time at my small local organization is over, I am pleased at the sheer amount of work that they do for the local low-income and homeless community. This organization started with a food pantry and has expanded to a food pantry, clothing distribution site, a medical clinic, a dental clinic, a AIDS programs, computer classes, GED classes, job preparedness classes, and even a off site women’s shelter. While this organization has seen large growth they are still continuing to grow and are currently looking for larger facility to move to. The organization is funded completely from donations, volunteers, and a small amount of grants from local businesses. They would rather not have government funding or grants due to the amount of requirements needed to get the grant and sustain it as well. For instance, if they have certain government funding for food they would need to get each recipient’s individual identification, a piece of mail from their property, and their social security number each time they went to the food pantry. By not using governmental funding they choose to put their faith in God that he will provide them with what they need. For example, just the week prior one of their delivery trucks had broken down yet the next day they unexpectedly received a three thousand dollar check in the mail from an anonymous donor. This three thousand dollar check immediately went to fixing the broken truck. Putting their faith in God to provide for the organization has helped them reach more individuals in need by not relying on restrictive governmental funding.

It is important to note that the organization would not be in existence and helping as many people as they do without their faith. I believe that their faith has brought together volunteers and the less fortunate to give and receive aid together. They have created relationships with the homeless and low-income while providing them with aid. Unfortunately, while the organization is committed to helping the community, volunteers seem to use sick talk discourse when speaking about the less fortunate. If the volunteers had more knowledge of the structural issues they would be better prepared to help the community without this discourse. While they do not have this structural knowledge, it is important to note that the service they are giving is aiding hundreds of families and homeless each week. Even with the occasional sick talk discourse among the volunteers, the organization still manages to treat the homeless and low-income with respect and dignity.

In our country, we tend to try to make a profit off of anything we can.  In terms of healthcare, we make money off of people getting sick.  Pharmaceutical companies raise the prices of drugs, making it a stretch for lower class citizens to afford the medication that they need.  Insurance companies raise premiums when they see that a client has recently been diagnosed with something.  Even with Obamacare, health insurance companies are still profiting off people being sick.   The private sector always seems to win.

A peer of mine once told me “Our country has the greatest healthcare program in the world.”  I think what he is referring to is the quality of care one CAN THEORETICALLY obtain, by forking over a large some of money.  The same goes with mental health issues.  A private psychiatrist can charge however much he or she wants for treatment.  The quality of care will likely be much better than a government funded social worker.  Both of my parents are therapists, and are in the business of help.  The homeless and other low-income individuals will never be able to afford this high quality of treatment.

Paradoxically, top tier doctors and physiatrists don’t seem to be using their skills on those who need it most.  They tend to treat minor issues of the upper class, such as minor pains and depression.  The homeless and low income individuals typically have the most severe cases, don’t they? How can we mesh top quality care with the lowest quality of living?

Lately I have been seeing a lot of remarks on social media about homeless issues, and too many times they have been negative. I wanted to discuss this one example, that recently caught my eye. I follow a page on Facebook called “Redlands Buzz 2.0” this is a public group where people can post about the on goings around Redlands and has 18,000 members following the page. The last few days I have been noticing multiple posts about homeless people on this page in particular, many people concerned about what their city is coming too, not realizing that this is an ongoing issue for many years.

This post in particular caught my eye, partially because I attend school right off this off-ramp. The post is calling for people of Redlands to call in to get the “trash” cleaned up. While they may have been only referring to the physical trash being left behind by these homeless people, I got a different vibe from this post. To me it seemed as though they were referring to these PEOPLE as trash, and that is definitely something that the city of Redlands can not stand. The reason I took it this way was how it was said and the comments following the post. But, I could just not believe that so many people had an issue about the people and the place that they go to sleep at night.

One comment said “RPD should do frequent raids on the camps to get the transients on their way.” My reaction to this is, where do these people expect them to go to next? Homeless are constantly moved from camp to camp, being kicked out of places to stay and where they have their belongings. Most people who become homeless stay in the cities that they are from, which is something not many people know, but at one point that person was someones neighbor and now they are expecting them to just leave town and move elsewhere.

Another comment said “I don’t want to solve these people’s lifelong ability to make incredibly poor decisions. I just want them out of my community. I want to be able to take my 6 year old daughter out into the town without being accosted by these leeches on society. They should round them all up and drop them off at Jerry Brown’s front door. Maybe when they’re all hanging out at his house we will repeal the laws he signed into law making it easier for the to live off of the taxpayers.” This comment just goes to show some of the beliefs of the people in this city.

For me, it is frustrating to see how many people agree with this post and how many people this post reaches. This page is a pretty popular page, and while they have the power to help educate on homeless issues, they are only harming it by posting so many negatives about homeless people.

I may have no worked that long at Operation Grace but I truly appreciate the new perspective it gave me and all that I learned there. I’ve seen how Ms. Pride handles the calls that are not always so easy to listen to, I’ve learned how Jessica manages the organization with her family, and I’ve learned about more underlining issues about homelessness. This isn’t a pleasurable job to do, yet they do this work for the people they are able to help. Even months later after getting help, many women still call Operation Grace thanking them and updating them on how they are doing. I’ve also seen some cracks in the system and why it’s hard for some many homeless people to get services they need. Sometimes it’s about an organization not having enough money, funds, or resources. It’s frustrating and I believe is what needs to be changed. Non profits should definitely be getting more aid and resources than they are now because they are the ones who help the people that everyone ignores. All they want to do is improve the life of the client, and they should have the resources to achieve that.

Overall, I was most thankful to get experience working in a non profit and with social services because it is what I am interested in working in the future. I remember asking Ms. Pride if the work ever got too hard and if she ever felt burnt out from it. I’ll always remember her response because I feel like it’s how a lot of social workers must feel and what keeps them going.  Ms. Pride simply stated, “It’s hard work, but it’s work that must be done. There’s bad in this work, but there’s also good.” I truly believe this because I know it’s hard to keep a positive attitude in this kind of work, but the small rewards is what makes it worth it. I had doubts about pursuing a career as a social worker because I feared that it would be too much to handle sometimes, but after this experience I realized I truly have a passion for helping people and cannot see myself doing anything besides that. More importantly, I realized that I hope to work one day in a position where I can make real change happen for a lot of people. To me that means working possibly in the government where I can help create legislation that would aid people in need. After learning about the causes of homelessness, the services they offer to homeless, and the little legal protection they have, I realized that there needs to be more people higher up who are on their side. There needs to be more people in government who give the homeless, and any minority, a voice. This class and internship has motivated me to be a voice for the voiceless.