Project Homeless Connect: Service Learning-Log
I arrived at Project Homeless Connect at around 9:30 am, and was immediately paired with someone who was hoping to make use of the services provided there. He introduced himself and said “Hi, I’m William and I’m here to get me a job”. William was a forty-seven year old black man from a town in Indiana, who moved to Colorado after high school. The first thing we did when we entered was grab a little bite to eat. While we were eating we did some of the demographic stuff like obtaining his social security number and writing down some information about him. William seemed really excited to make use of the employment services that they provided there as well as checking out the dental care they provided. In fact he was so concerned about getting started early, that he took his jelly filled croissant and put it in his back pack for later.
The first thing William wanted to do was get a haircut. This was one of the special services that were being provided at Project Homeless Connect. William was really excited to get a summer haircut. He had his entire head shaved off as well as his beard, but he decided to keep the mustache. It was amazing how a simple haircut can really clean someone up. I could tell that William felt really good after, or at least more presentable. He said he was excited to feel the wind on his head, and he started talking about how he and his girl were going to go out to a nice dinner and see a good movie.
After the haircut we stood in the employment line for over three hours. In this part of the process I felt really bad. At the first stop, they checked with William to see whether or not he was part of this one program or organization that helps with jobs. After that, we had to wait in another line to make a résumé. It wasn’t until this point that we realized William already had a resume, but they wanted to make him another one even though the one he had was perfectly fine. After this we went to an interview training session, which William passed with flying colors. Finally we went to the different businesses that offered applications. Here William filled out some applications and that was about it. I felt horrible. William had come here with one purpose which was to get a job, and I feel like he left with no more information than when he came.
When we walked back into the Ritchie center we stopped at the medical care services. By this time in the day, all the lines had died down, and William was able to be helped almost immediately. They took his vital signs, and then we waited for a dentist. For William, I thought it was very important see some dental care while he was at Project Homeless Connect. William was missing his two front teeth as well as some others on his upper gums. His gums were encrusted with tartar and other yellow pigmentation. When the dentist saw him, he said just that. He pointed out that he obviously had some bad teeth and William admitted to “a long time of neglect.” The dentist gave him some people he could contact, although I don’t see William being able to pay for the services, so this information may have been useless as well. Although, William did say he got the most out of the dental care during Project Homeless Connect.
By around 2 o’clock we ended up around the check-out table. Here William received a grab bag of necessities for hygiene which consisted of a back pack, socks, soap, toothbrush, flip flops, and a few other things. I had a chance to debrief with William at this point and ask him which services he thought he got the most out of. William responded that he didn’t feel like he got any help from the employment services because all he wanted was a job, and he was unable to obtain one from here. He said that the résumé portion of the employment services probably helped a lot of other homeless people, but since he already had a resume, it was pointless for him to do. He said he probably received the most help from dental simply because he left with more information then when he came. William also said he like the haircut because now he looks “fly for the summer.”
While we were waiting in lines, I learned a lot about William. William was currently living in a house with his friend and has a girlfriend. He met his girlfriend while they were working at Pizza Hut together. When asked the reason why he was homeless, he responded that he “simply just couldn’t find a stable enough job.” He felt like he was always doing odd jobs and random manual labor in order to get by. In fact he dug a few holes for the new Nagel building at DU. I also learned that a main cause of William’s homelessness was a marriage that he entered into coming out of high school. He ended up having a child and then a few years later divorced. Child support has made it very hard for him to make a living. He always has a job, but the child support seems to take most of his funds. He needed to find a job that was stable enough and that paid fairly, but has been unable to do so. During his free-time, William loves to watch TV and movies. He also said he wants to save up for a Nintendo Wii so he can play those “really neat” interactive games like tennis and bowling. William seemed like a he was a very normal man. He seemed somewhat paternalistic in the way he talked with me, simply because I think it has something to do with his age. William said he never got into drugs and has always made sure to stay out of trouble. He seems as if he has all the right motivations but no windows of opportunity seem to make themselves apparent for William.
From this experience, I learned that some people who are homeless don’t really have a crazy story to tell. I realized that even simple things like a divorce can bring someone into poverty and homelessness. This really related to the story of Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness in the way that things got difficult for him once his wife left. It seems to me that a divorce seems to be a huge factor of homelessness and can certainly affect someone emotionally and cause instability. I also realized that I was a little disappointed with the way the services were provided. I think that sometimes the people running the program need to be a little more aware that maybe these people have some of this information already and it would be more useful for them to just move on to the next step. From this, I learned how much more I would like to be able to help these people. Our economy is not the greatest right now and I can see how even when William has a job, that he needs something more substantial in order to progress. I know that PHC can’t simply give jobs out to everyone because there are too many people who are homeless and would like the services. I understand that there are limitations to what Project Homeless Connect can offer, but in this case I was hoping that it could offer a bit more to help William with getting a job. I now recognize how difficult it is right now for anyone to get a job and how this is even more of a problem for people who are homeless. From my experience with William, I have become aware of the hardships that many homeless people face in terms of just living. I didn’t really think about how hard it is for people who are homeless to obtain a stable job. But William also made a point that if you “don’t like the job, then you are probably not going to show up for it and then you end up getting fired after only having the job for two weeks.” Without having a profession or skills, people who are homeless get stuck with jobs working at your local McDonalds which is demeaning as well as a pain in the ass to work at. No one wants to work at some of these jobs and I can see how miserable life could be for someone who always has to work the jobs they hate. I personally think employment needs to be considered more closely in terms of homelessness and the types of jobs that are available to them.
Volunteering at the DRM
For a service project I volunteered in the kitchen of the Denver Rescue Mission (DRM). I went with Deven from our writing class and we both volunteered in the kitchen. When we first arrived at the DRM we met a man named “Nick”. Nick was one of the staff members who checked us in and got our aprons for the jobs we were about to do. After that, we met “Ray” and “David”. Ray was in charge of the kitchen for the DRM. David was another worker. Ray, Nick, and David all seemed hold some authority amongst the workers. Ray informed us that we would be preparing the food, as well as serving it to the people who were in the Rescue Mission as well as people from outside. The people that were in the DRM were recovering addicts trying to get sober.
Our first job in the DRM was cutting zucchinis. Because I have worked in a soup kitchen before, the state of the zucchinis wasn’t as alarming to me as it was to Deven. Many of the zucchinis had entirely rotted through and were inedible. These zucchinis we were supposed to throw out. We were supposed to pick out the “good ones” and chop them up. Deven seemed rather alarmed by this and I think it had something to do with the fact that all the moldy ones were next to and in the same box as the edible ones. Also, the zucchinis were never rinsed before they were cut or served. I think that that zucchinis should have been rinsed very thoroughly before we cut them. Pesticides as well as other bacteria could have been on the zucchinis which could also make anyone who is eating them sick.
Next, we began serving the food to all the people who came. I served the fruit salad and banana-pudding. The fruit salad looked more like a bucket of juice with a little bit of fruit in it. Banana-pudding seemed to be a hit this day, possibly because of the weather outside. Ray said that people who are homeless like chocolate on days with bad weather. While I was serving the food, I was limited to serving only one scoop per person. This was very difficult for me to do because I wanted to give them more if they asked. Some people would stay in front of me longer hoping that I would give them another scoop. After the desserts ran out, I moved to serving salad. While I was serving salad, I put the salad next to this man’s lasagna and he got very angry. He couldn’t believe I would mix the food or have the foods touching. I was very surprised by this outburst because I didn’t think that people who don’t have much of a choice would be so picky or particular.
When we finished serving, we bussed tables and cleaned up after the other people. While doing this, a homeless man stopped me and asked why I was the only female worker there and how I felt about it. To be honest I didn’t even notice that I was the only female until he said something. So I guess I felt comfortable around everyone, although I have never been hit on by so many middle-aged, balding men with little to no teeth in my life, but it made for an interesting experience.
This experience was eye opening. I was almost positive I would have seen more families come to the kitchen but was surprised to see that it the majority of them were middle-aged men. I usually picture women as volunteers because women are depicted as being the care givers in our culture. Also, previous volunteer experiences have led to an atmosphere filled with estrogen in that most of the volunteers were women. It gave me a better understanding of what this specific homeless community of Denver was like. Later it puzzled me that there weren’t any other female workers there. Although, this didn’t bother me at the time, I think that it is interesting that there weren’t other female volunteers or workers because of my previous experiences volunteering. I enjoyed working at the DRM because it was a very different experience for me. I usually don’t do too much volunteer work, but I can see how this could become someone’s lifestyle. Helping people is really satisfying, because you are helping someone out with no expectation of anything in return, when really you end up getting a whole lot in return in terms of a life experience. Ray, David, and Nick had all seemed to make a full time job out of helping people. I didn’t really know too much about all of their backgrounds and why they chose a job like this. There was one other volunteer there that I had a short conversation with. He told me that he was there because he had to do community service and had to be there due to some infraction. So I suppose some people volunteer because they have to due to some sort of infraction they’ve had with the law. I also learned from the experience with the man and his lasagna. Because people who are homeless don’t have many choices, it can be important for them to control the things they can. He may have seemed picky, simply because it is important for him to feel like he has a choice in certain things. I think this was the biggest lesson I learned. People who are homeless aren’t necessarily being picky for the hell of it but rather because it could be important for them to feel like they still have a choice in life. Much of their lives seem to be determined by things outside of themselves and so how their food is presented to them is one of the things that make them feel as if they have some choice and control over what happens to them. This was a very significant concept for me to understand, because I felt as if they were being ungrateful when really there was some larger understanding behind their behavior. Ray also was able to inform me of the main reasons for which people become homeless. Many people who are homeless are mentally ill and also in many cases people simply don’t have any form of identification and therefore cannot get a stable job and are stuck doing odd jobs which don’t allow them to make ends meet. From the experience, it also seemed as if the homeless population consisted mostly of men, but that may have only been the case for the DRM.
A very interesting and informative part of volunteering at the DRM was the stories that Ray told of the different men he encountered at the shelter. In one story he told of a man and his two children who were homeless. The father had broken into an old station wagon where he and his children slept at night while he also kept watch from the front seat. This man was unable to get a job because he didn’t have any form of identification. This man also made a game out of homelessness for his children by telling his son that they were going to act like the pioneers and sleep outside for the night. This part of the story reminded me of a scene in The Pursuit of Happyness where Chris Gardner tells his son that they are cavemen and have to find a cave for the night which ends up being the men’s bathroom of a subway station. From this story I also found that it contradicted the belief that people can get out of homelessness by obtaining a job. Many homeless people don’t have the documentation or identification which will allow them to even obtain a job. I didn’t really consider the problem of documentation in relation to homelessness at first and this experience enlightened me. I learned a lot from this experience and would do it again in a heartbeat.
