Why did you decide to spend your last week of winter break at a homeless shelter in Boston?
Kaitlin: “I’ve never been to Boston and I’ve never really worked at a homeless shelter… I thought it would be a great opportunity because I like to socialize with people so I thought just sitting down and talking with people would be a great experience. Plus, none of us even knows each other to begin with; we threw 10 kids in two cars, and drove twenty hours across the country. We’ve all become friends by the end of the week though, and we’ve become friends with everyone here. We’re actually really sad that we’re leaving.”
What kinds of volunteer projects have you worked on in the past?
Rachel: “In high school I was in Key Club. We served community meals in the food pantry, raised a lot of money for organizations, did clean ups, food drives, those kinds of things. There wasn’t much working with people who were disadvantaged…we were still helping them but a lot more indirectly. I’ve gone on mission trips to build houses…that was still cool but [you don’t impact] the same amount of people, maybe one family.”
What did you learn from this experience?
Evan: “It’s easy to walk down the street and see someone and think ‘Oh, they’re homeless, they should just flip a switch and go get a job.’ Seeing this here, it’s really obvious that sometimes choices aren’t available to people…when they’re here they might not have the skills or the resources to get on their feet, to build their resume. Services here give them options, give them choices. You have to realize that things like this are necessary to help people who don’t have many options.”
None of you has ever volunteered in shelters or with people who use substances before. Do you think that after this experience you will get involved at home?
Rachel: “Yes! We had a conversation last night about how we can start our own homeless shelter.”
Jackie: “There’s one [shelter] we were talking about. It’s on the Harvard campus [and it’s run by students]. With the trip we have to do an educational programming component, but even if we didn’t have to do that we were all talking about volunteering at a shelter in Madison. We know that there are obviously not enough shelters.”
How will this experience impact the way you view homelessness in Madison?
Kayla: “I know when we go back home it’s going to be hard because there’s an area in Madison where a lot of homeless people panhandle. It’s going to be hard because we know what they’re going through but we still don’t know them. Even here, there are some people who are definitely not friendly and don’t want to have anything to do with us. It’s hard to change your whole outlook because you really have to volunteer at a homeless shelter in Madison; maybe if they come in you’ll get to know them but you can’t [assume that you already know them].”
For more information about these programs, visit:
CASPAR, Inc.
http://www.casparinc.org/MasterPage.aspx/sectionid/1/pageid/1
Alternative Break Programs
www.alternativebreaks.org
www.crossculturalsolutions.org