Desarae Gilbert Capstone
For my capstone, I decided to document Equal Flows activity throughout the year and create a Website. Equal Flow is a non-profit organization my fellow classmates and I created to work towards our goal of having free menstrual products for homeless women. This process overall started out by us winning our Junior year Invisible Issues competition. From here, we kept working by collecting donations, having a coat drive, handing out products to women in need, having a product-raising yoga class, and more. My website is a place where you can get to know Equal Flow better, see our photos, see our accomplishments, and listen to stories from people who have been homeless and shared their experiences. I also wanted our site to be a place where you can find other organizations that help homeless women as well in Philadelphia. Personally, I learned that even though I am surrounded by tall buildings and expensive companies every day, there are people that live on the streets when I go home. Learning how hard being homeless can be for women made me realize that it's even harder when you're suffering from not having the basic materials you need. We wanted to come together as young women and help where we can. Hopefully, my website fully captures the great experience this was to do as my Capstone.
Annotated Bibliography:
Homelessness, health, and human needs. National Academy Press, 1989.
When I reviewed this source, it immediately gave me information regarding demographics, the growing rate of homeless people in the US, and how the composition of the homeless population has changed over time. As I started reading this source, I wasn't sure how it would help deepen my understanding of my topic, but as I continued on, this source gives great insight on general information of homelessness. I think this source will come in handy when interviewing some homeless women and simply understanding their point of views better. I feel as though this will also benefit me in being more sensitive to the topic when talking to people that live this reality every day.
2. Cray, Colin. How to Podcast: Equipment, Strategy & Skills. Wild Trails Media Publishing, 2016, www.indiana.edu/~sphk200/students/2016-How-to-Podcast-with-cover.pdf.
This source helped me because I didn't know much about creating my own podcasts. Looking over this book, it shows me the necessary steps I have to take in order to be successful. I learned exactly what a podcast is (a series of audio or video recordings) and how it can be the perfect way for people to listen to them on the go since they are usually audio. This source was helping in addressing the difference between an audio file and a podcast; an RSS feed makes it so that the listener would subscribe to the site and stay up to date on new podcasts. Although you can just upload an audio file onto a site, it will still count as a podcast.
3. “Creating a Successful Awareness Campaign for Native Communities.” How To Create A Successful Awareness Campaign For Native Communities | Native American | PSA Worldwi, psacorp.com/pgs/lgcy/t-creating-a-successful-awareness-campaign.aspx.
This source relates to creating a successful campaign for Native communities, but I'm still using it because the same aspects apply. The information provided in this source is surrounded around measuring goals, being realistic with goals, identifying support, managing money and time, and paying attention to who your specific audience is. This information is important for my capstone given that all these things need to be taken into consideration regarding Equal Flows goals. The only limitation of this source is that it is specific to raising awareness for Native communities, but all the details can be used for other awareness campaigns as well.
4. Gelberg, L, et al. “The Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations: application to medical care use and outcomes for homeless people.” Health Services Research, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 5 Feb. 2000, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1089079/.
This source speaks on the model of access to care that is particularly applicable to vulnerable populations (specifically the homeless population). Topics touched on in this source include mental health, substance use, residential history, competing needs, and victimization. I felt that this was helpful for me given that I will be talking with homeless people and understanding the things the general public and I don't know about the struggles that homeless adults face will better my capstone as a whole. A limitation of this source is that the topic is broader than what my project is focusing on; It talks about homeless adults while we are focusing on homeless women specifically.
5. Johnstone, Melissa, et al. “Discrimination and well-Being amongst the homeless: the role of multiple group membership.” Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers Media S.A., 24 Dec. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4450171/.
This source is helpful because it talks about the stigma and discrimination toward people who are homeless. Some information that I thought would be helpful is that homeless also experience disproportionate rates of health problems and associated social disadvantages. Like a similar source I did, I felt that this one would be helpful since I will be talking with homeless people and just understanding their lifestyles better will better my capstone. I selected this source because I figured it would be useful in what I am doing. A limitation of this source is it doesn't go into the specific groups of homeless people and each groups problems.
6. Editors, The PLoS Medicine. “Homelessness Is Not Just a Housing Problem.” PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000003.
This source breaks down the causes of homelessness into individual factors such as drug and alcohol misuse, lack of social support, family background, including family breakdown and disputes. I found this source useful because it has a different perspective on homelessness. The actual roots of it and how it can affect the mind of a person. It talks about the multiple sides of this complex issue. I selected it because even though I didn't think it would be directly helpful for my capstone, I feel as though it will indirectly affect it. Looking over this article, I see the statistics that will help me understand how homelessness works.
7. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “We should all be feminists.” TED: Ideas worth spreading, www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists#t-1756032.
This source was a Ted Talk mainly talking about gender and the culture we have that divides us as people. This source was helpful to me because in Equal Flow, receiving donations for menstrual products is apart of us helping women who can't afford these necessities. Tampons and pads are seen as a luxury item even though they are necessary sanitary items. The only limitation I could place is that this Ted Talk was only on gender, the topic was not homelessness, but it did still relate. I selected this source because women face homelessness differently (not dismissing anyone's struggles); if they don't have money for a meal or a jacket then they don't have the money for a menstrual product.
8. Fisher, Benjamin W., et al. “Leaving Homelessness Behind: Housing Decisions among Families Exiting Shelter.” Housing policy debate, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4170684/.
This source talks about federally funded shelter or housing assistance programs and how they are potentially useful to homeless families. I felt that this would be beneficial for me in being knowledgeable about housing for homeless individuals. I found this source useful because it has a different perspective on homelessness. Limitations for me and my group are that we cannot provide this type of help, but it is still good to know. I selected it because even though I didn't think it would be directly helpful for my capstone, I feel as though it will indirectly affect it.
9. Fisher, Benjamin W., et al. “Leaving Homelessness Behind: Housing Decisions among Families Exiting Shelter.” Housing policy debate, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4170684/.
This source provides information about Women and families and how they represent the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. I selected this source because the information on homeless women and families having subsidies prevent so much, so knowing the outcome of a shelter makes a huge difference. This complements my capstone since it is specifically about homeless women and their struggles. I found this source useful because it mentions how permanent housing can lead to helping formerly homeless families to maintain long-term stability. One limitation of this source was that, again, we cannot provide any type of housing, but this information is useful to know.
10.Days for Girls International | Turning Periods Into Pathways, 4 Nov. 2011, www.daysforgirls.org/dfg-our-approach.
I thought this source might be useful given that is deals with donations and knowing how that whole process works. Looking over the site, there are pictures of girls and information about their movement. This program is about girls who have been silenced, who feel invisible, and know what poverty is like and that exactly what Equal Flow is about. The founder of this program talked about knowing what it was like for girls who dropped out of school because of lack of feminine products. I chose this source because it has the same values as my capstone and reflects the same mindset as us.
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