My Efforts To Help The Homeless

Recently, In my first blog post about homelessness, I’ve talked about what it was based on the research that I’ve done, (all links are in my annotated bibliography at the bottom of this post and my past two posts about homelessness). In my second blog post, I interviewed both my parents about their experiences with being homeless themselves. In this blog post, I want to talk about what I did to bring a bit of awareness to this issue and what I did to help a few people affected by the issue.

This past Tuesday June 6th, 2017, i set out with my mother, older brother, and younger brother along with a few of my mother’s friends, to feed a few of the less fortunate. We bought apples, bananas, pizza, philly pretzels, chips, cookies and waters to give out. We also had rags, towels, and large water bottles for them too. We ended up giving away ALL of the food we bought, and it honestly felt good knowing I was able to provide for men, women, and children whether they needed it at the moment or not. Many of them were very grateful. Many were humble and didn’t want to take.they kept their pride and made sure to stay cleaned up, so it didn’t seem like they needed anything. Only a few of them didn’t have those good traits, but not all of the homeless are bad people.

In the process of all of this I met this man. Lets call him “Leo” to protect his identity, plus he looked like a Leo. We asked him what the reason was for him to end up without a home. He said that he got laid off his job and his girlfriend ended up going to jail. He couldn’t get a new job in time to pay the rest of his bills and he lost his home. So he had to resort to living on the streets. I’m sure he’s going to try and find another job, but it can be hard. Just like my dad said in blog post two, people in businesses judge you and are less likely to hire you, after knowing you’ve been homeless. Leo also said that after his girlfriend gets out of jail that they are going to try again to get jobs. Im praying for him. \

I chose to feed the homeless as my agent of change because I’ve done it before and it means a lot to me to help these people. You learn a lot from this. Especially because both my parents had experienced this. You learn to appreciate what you have. I want to give. Even if and when I have nothing, i still want to be able to give and help out people who have less.

To be honest, i really loved doing this project. I loved how I got to actually talk about something very important that people don’t always talk about. Whenever people think “homeless” they think “they did drugs” or “they didn’t go to school” and that is because our parents fill our minds with “you will end up homeless on the streets if you fail school, or do drugs” and that’s really not the case. Yes I know that there are still many people who are homeless because of those things, but there are many other reasons why. I saw homeless children that day. Not because they did drugs or dropped out, but because they had no family to go to. Many children run away from home, not always because they don’t listen. Sometimes children have a very rough homelife. There are many many different reasons people go homeless, so you should have an open mind about it. Be willing to hear them out and know their story. Help them and give to them, but don’t ever give them money, because you don’t know what they might buy with it.

My Annotated Bibliography