Today we started our day around 8:20 when we walked down to
the Montrose stop of the brown line to begin our journey to Chicago’s Coalition
for the Homeless. Surprisingly, we made it there without getting lost or losing
anyone. At the Coalition, we met with a couple of representatives of the
Speaker’s Bureau who sat down and told us their story of how they got involved
with the Coalition. First, we spoke with Sonovia. Sonovia told us her story of
how she was once incarcerated, but found hope and support in the Coalition
after she left the system. She spoke to us about how mental illness really
affects many homeless people and gave us advice on how we could personally help. She urged us to look past the stigma of
homelessness, and get to know the person. She said that a simple, “Hello, how
are you”, could go a long way. Then we spoke with Kendra, who told us her
riches to rags story of how she ended up homeless. I liked her story because it
was so different from Sonovia’s story. It really showed how many different
people can be affected by homelessness. Kendra spoke about how the Chicago
school system was a hindrance to the success of her children. She told us her
story of how difficult the school system was after she became homeless. This
was the foundation for our outreach today. Lastly, we spoke to Julie about her
battle with raising children at a young age. She spoke about her challenges
with the Chicago hospitals and moving house to house with small children. Julie
also suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and she told us about how that affected
her throughout her journey. Today was a great start to my alternative break
experience and I’m excited for what tomorrow has to offer.
“If you
haven’t met the devil at some point on the road, you were probably right there walking
by his side.” One of our speakers today, Kendra, was a mortician, but she lost
her job after being injured. This quote was something her grandmother had told
her when she said she thought she could not make it through anymore. She told
us about her experience with plummeting from being able to provide for herself
more than well as a mortician, to hurting her back and being cast out on her
own. She emphasized the fact that she knew where government programs were, but
she was not able to benefit from them because they would not provide services
to someone with a car or a small amount of money in her bank account. Out of
desperation, she ended up moving back in with the father of her child. She
expected it to work out well, but one night he to strangle her. She could not
rely on the police because he was a sheriff in the town. However, she ended up
filing a restraining order and winning. Now her children are in school and she
is working with Chicago’s Coalition for the Homeless and community outreach.
Stories
such as this show me that the stereotype of what a “homeless” person is
unwarranted, and the stigma is without ground. It is frightening that we create
an “us and them” situation with the homeless; it boxes them out and makes them
seem less than human. Often, it really is impossible to just pull yourself up
from your bootstraps and you need assistance. It is hard to do so when they are
looked at as a group and not as individuals such as Kendra. There was an
overwhelming feeling of power and resilience emanating from all three speakers.
These are two words not often associated with homelessness.
After
hearing the personal stories, we split into two groups. Both groups handed out
flyers in different parts of Chicago, and my group was in front of the
Department of Human Services. On the front, the flyers said “Need Help With
Public School Fees?” and detailed the rights of families/students on the
inside. They had the contact information of Chicago’s Coalition for the Homeless
on the back so that individuals would have a place to call if they needed more
information. I think that people were pretty receptive overall, and it was
worth our time if even one family was able to keep their child in school after
learning about their rights. However, I saw how much remains to be done. The three speakers we had worked so hard to
get where they got to, I almost feel like we owe it to people like this to use
our own privilege in order to make our system more receptive of those who can
not afford their own homes.
Raye & Shalom
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