The other night, I attended a training for PADS. In the hour that I was there, I learned so much about poverty in my community. When I was given a tour of the HOPE Center facility, I didn't realize that the Journeys program had so much to offer. From showers to psychologists, the people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless can get so much help from this center. Another cool service that the foundation offers is the condos that people can live in so they can learn to get back on their feet. The leader of the tour explained that the poverty rate was increasing while the funding of the Journeys foundation was lower than ever. Luckily, big companies like Starbucks and Red Lobster donate food to Journeys multiple times during the week. I used to donate my old clothes to a veterans foundation, but I am going to start donating my clothes to the HOPE Center. There is a closet full of clothes that people have donated, but the foundation is always looking for more. The closet had a variety of clothing for people who are businessmen or even babies! There was also a play area for little kids. One thing that the trainer made very clear was that the homeless people that we typically find in the north shore are people that we cannot pick out as homeless. He explained that, like me, most people give homeless people the stereotype of a dirty person who sits on the street with a can begging for money. In Buffalo Grove, you could be standing in line at a Starbucks with a homeless person, and you would never know the person was homeless. I am looking forward to working with people who are in poverty because I have never done volunteer work like this before. I am used to either working with little kids or the elderly. I am glad that I am branching out to help a different group of people.
Without PADS, people would not understand that homeless people are just like you and me. Some people just struggle more than others. PADS teaches us to lend a helping hand to the homeless, or there will be consequences... Watch this video to get an understanding of how not to treat the homeless! http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=209909&title=homeless-attack
You're going to have so much fun with it! I've been doing it for a while now and you';; start to see that these people and exactly like us! They make jokes, they talk about music, and just try to have a good time. It really is an amazing experience and you'll get a lot from it.
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool that you are able to get out there and help a different group of people. Sometimes it's kind of scary because you go in expecting it to be a certain way, but many times it turns out to be the complete opposite. I'm really excited to get out there and volunteer :) Good luck with everything!
ReplyDeletethats awesome. most people that are homeless arnt just lazy and dont want to work. theres tons of reasons that someone can be homeless. and its so great that these places exist for them.
ReplyDeleteThat's so interesting! Seems like an awesome opportunity, hopefully it'll be fun! Also, it's crazy how we can't tell most of the time if people are homeless or not. Let me know how this goes for you!
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