Saturday, May 3, 2008
PHC6 thoughts and feelings
As we are approaching the day of PHC6, I know that there must be a lot of thoughts that are going through your heads. What are some of your thoughts, feelings or anticipations concerning PHC6. What volunteer job are you doing? What are you looking forward to? Why? What are some things that you are nervous about? Explain? Do you feel more prepared now for PHC6 than you did at the beginning of this term? Why or why not and how so?
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For PH6 I will be assisting a homeless person in getting the services that they need. I wouldn't say it is a nervousness, but I really wonder what my person (or family) will be like. My experience in the past working with the homeless has taught me the extreme diversity that exists within the homeless community. I could get a client who is pretty well off and maybe just needs some free medical care, or i could get someone who has absolutely nothing and needs to visit every station in the facility. I think it will be hard if I get a client who needs everything, but has to prioritize what he/she needs because there is not enough time to get everything. I think it would be extremely frustrating to be a homeless person have all the free services availible on Friday, but not be able to get to everything you need when it is all right there. I just hope if I get a client like this that I can help them to get around the facility efficiently to get the most out of there day here.
I also hope that I get an interesting client who has a good story to tell. It would be great to get to work with someone who has a fascinating story to tell me as we go around for the day. That is another thing I have noticed from my prior service. Every homeless person seems to have a completely different story of how they ended up on the street. Some are similar lack of money circumstances, but really every single one has an interesting (and usually sad) story of how they ended up on the street. Hearing stories like these definitely makes me feel really bad that the person has been so unfortunate and makes me want to help even more.
I think I am more excited for PHC than anything. I am a little nervouse because I'm not sure exactly what to expect, but I think that it will be a really interesting experience. I just did my job at the Denver Rescue mission on thursday and it was very fun. I really enjoyed talking to all of the people that worked there as well as the people I was working with. What I am most nervous about is trying to keep conversation going with my client and making sure that they are comfortable with me. I realize that it just may not be the case, and that some people may just not want to talk, but that is my biggest worry. I'm not sure if I feel more prepared necessarily, than more confident for PHC. At the beginning of the term I had no idea what PHC was about, and now that I know a lot more I feel that going in with that additional information will really help, but as they said numerous times in my training session, you really don't know what will happen on that day. That makes me a little nervous, but overall I'm excited.
PHC6 will be an interesting day for me as well as hundreds of other people who are involved. I look forward to getting to know a less fortunate family. I want to hear firsthand problems and experiences. Many times we read, hear from others, and imagine what the lives of people without homes are like. We hardly ever get the opportunity to converse with the homeless people. I plan on taking advantage of this to clear up or confirm stereotypes and conceptions that I have. I want to know more about their struggles and lives. I want to know their needs. I look forward to having the opportunity to talk and establish a relationship with the clients.
However, I am concerned that the clients will be reluctant to share their stories and everyday life experiences as a person without a home. They do not know me, and may feel as though I will not understand what they are going through. I also anticipate people who will not want to open up, and will keep to themselves. Many people without homes are quiet when it comes to upper class people. After volunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission, I know that they feel as though no one cares and is concerned for them. Working there for three hours has given me a closer look and insight on the homeless. They will open up to each other, but not to people and things in which they feel subordinate to.
I am not nervous, but rather anticipating and eager to talk to the clients. I do feel prepared. Volunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission has instilled comfort. I feel more comfortable to talk to them. I also feel as though I have more knowledge about the things they go through as well as their mentality. I do not completely understand people without homes, and no one but the homeless themselves ever will. However, I am eager to learn and sympathize as much as possible.
At the beginning of the quarter, I was extremely anxious about working PHC6 because I had no experience with homelessness and really didn't know much about it. The only knowledge I had of the homeless coming into class were those opinions expressed by people around me my whole life. Therefore, I was not very informed. However, after talking about homelessness more, reading literature about it, and preparing more for PHC6 I feel more at ease about it and have developed some of my own opinions about homelessness rather than relying on others for their opinions. However, I am still very apprehensive about the process because I still don't know how well I will be at interacting with whomever I am assigned to help through the process of finding and using the services provided to the homeless on that day. I can only hope that I will be able to converse well with them and make them feel comfortable. Other than those apprehensions, I am very much looking forward to this coming Friday.
Overall, I am excited for Project Homeless Connect. At this point, after the training and the woman who came to class to discuss PHC6 with us I feel well prepared. With that said, I am a bit nervous. No matter how eager I am to help, I am worried I won’t have much in common to talk about with my client or that he or she won’t want to talk. Also, after attending the training I realized what a big responsibility this is. We make sure that the client gets all the services needed. PHC is full of potential and as volunteers it is our job to make it as beneficial as it can be. As cliché as it sounds, what we help them with can change their lives.
At my training there was a man there named Michael (I think) who spoke. He went through PHC last year and because of the assistance he received he is no longer homeless and is returning this year as a volunteer. That was really powerful to me; it made what we are going to do on Friday real and so much more important. Before, I thought it was a great thing for DU and our class to be involved in but I didn’t realize it’s full effects. Now, I feel like although there is a lot of responsibility on the volunteer’s part to get the client what he or she needs most, it will be exciting helping someone get on the path toward securing a home.
Much of my thoughts and feelings have been put to rest after going to the training session last week. Most of the thoughts and feelings that have been rolling around in my mind are basically what is the overall experience going to be like? I have no expectations because I have never done anything close to what it suppose to be like. The people who spoke to us at the training session made it sound like this is a great experience and that you might get a little emotional at some parts. It will be interesting to interact with and be around hundreds of homeless people. I am looking forward to it because it will probably be an experience I will never forget. The one thing I am nervous for is getting caught up in the chaos that will ensue once the project starts and also that I won’t know what to do and where to go with my person. I don’t think it should be a huge problem because at the training session they gave us maps and info about the entire event. I do feel better prepared for Project Homeless Connect after this year because after reading both of the books and listening to people discuss homelessness in class, it gave me lots of different perspectives and opinions about homelessness. Thus I have developed my own perspective about homelessness. I have never participated in this big of a volunteer job that has so many people and lots of preparation. I have volunteered for organizations and other random volunteer programs but never something like Project Homeless Connect; it should be quite an experience.
As PHC6 approaches, I am becoming more and more excited for the occasion. I think that the course work we have done so far have been extremely helpful in my understanding about homelessness in general. I am anxious and excited to find out who I am paired with on this day. I am slightly nervous that I do not offend the person or anybody during PHC6 because I am not very familiar with homeless people. However, my understanding of homeless people and their situations has become much greater due to the work and discussions we have had in class. I am going to be a personal assistant to a homeless person or family. I am looking forward to meeting this person/s and hearing their story. I want to become educated and also help educate the person or people I get paired up with. I am not nervous about anything more than offending somebody but i am not very nervous about this at all because of my education and understanding of these people now. I am very excited to help make a difference in a person's life because I know this is ahuge deal for them and their current situation in life. I feel much more educated about homelessness and the homeless because of this course in that we have discussed these issues and many of the issues around homelessness. I cannot think of anything I would like to know more about when it comes to this.
I would say that I definitely have some apprehensions heading into PHC6. Going to the pre-event meeting did clear up a lot of my question but also left me with some new ones. I wonder if I am really going to be able to effectively help the person I am assigned to. When I think about what causes my nervousness, I guess it stems from the fact that I have never been in contact with one homeless person for as long as I will be on Friday. Additionally, I have signed up for bi-lingual client services, which means that I will not be speaking English with the person I am helping. I am defiantly hoping that I can accurately communicate with them, and help them as much as possible. I am looking forward to the experiences that I will have in this kind of volunteer work and I am hoping that I can make a positive impact in the lives of those that I help.
As we are approaching the day of PHP6 I am having some thought s about how it really must feel to be homeless. After listening to two man that were homeless the year before and are now volunteering to be a part of the magic I wonder if it was as easy as they portrait it to be to go up a step on the social ladder by just volunteering. I am also wondering who I will be helping on their pursuit of happiness on Friday, could it be a man, woman, single parent, a family? I am really looking forward to hearing their story. how did they become homeless was it from night to day thing or was there any possible signs of misfortune? if they have a job? A house? I really feel that orientation for this really made a good job in preparing me and others.
I am looking forward to PHC 6, I think it will be an interesting experience and opportunity to branch out and connect with someone who I would probably never come into contact with in my day to day life. I don't feel 'technically' more prepared than I did at the begining of the quater, but the readings and the disscussions we have had in class have allowed me to develop a diffrent point of view regarding homelessness, which I think is very neccesary as I will be volunteering to help homless people.
I worry that the people or person I am teamed with may not be interested in sharing their experiences with me. I feel that we have been told that much of our PHC 6 experience will depend on whether or not the person is willign to talk.
i am fairly apprehensive regarding the upcoming Project Homeless connect 6. hink a lot of my anxiety stems from the fact that this big event has been being built up for so long and we have been getting so prepared for it. however, I also think this is the reason it will not be a big deal in the end. We've been trained to say and do the right things to be around homeless people in a one on one scenario and I am excited to get into that situation. I am looking forward to getting to know actuall homeless people and hear about their experiences. I feel more ready for Project homeless connect to happen now as opposed to at the begeinning of the quarter for a couple reasons. First off, I have been exposing myself to american literature that deals with and explores the ideas of homelessness and respectability in America. Also, I have had sufficient introduction as to what I should expect there, and this has made me more confident in my abilities to work with the homeless now.
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