Over a century ago, Woodrow Wilson implored higher education to seek to answer the questions and challenges of our community and nation by sharing ownership of the issues that define the well-being of our society. More recently, President Barack Obama stated: “Our task, working together, is to constantly widen the circle of our concern”. Service to others has been an integral part of my life that I anticipate continuing through adulthood. A service project that I completed over the summer taught me about the resiliency of the human spirit and the importance of widening my circle.
I was researching ideas for my Eagle Scout project and wanted to make a meaningful impact on the youth in my community. The Somerset Home for Temporarily Displaced
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As the meeting was commencing, I heard someone call my name. I turned around and recognized a girl from my school. We are in different programs and met in the cafeteria. We had eaten lunch together on several occasions. She asked me excitedly if I was moving in. I was a bit shocked and stammered, "No, just working on a project". I left the building feeling uneasy that I had invaded her privacy and guilty that I was going back to a nice house with my parents. A mixture of sympathy and embarrassment washed over me. I had no idea my new friend was homeless. I thought back to a conversation that we had before spring break. I asked her where she would go if she could travel anywhere in the world. I had a list of places that I would love to see. She told me that she just wanted to be in a home in New Jersey. Her response seemed odd at the time, but it now made sense. We never spoke about our serendipitous meeting. I used to think that people who were homeless must be downtrodden with little hope. I admire my brave friend's smile, positive attitude towards life, and ambition to become a graphic artist.
My work with the Somerset Home has increased my understanding of the circumstances surrounding teenage homelessness. With caring and support, they can succeed both in school and in life. I read in their recent newsletter
I am glad to say that I will begin the installation of the brand new sign for the St. Margaret's Parish Center this weekend for my Eagle Scout Project. The new sign has just been finished, and I am in need of a few dedicated scouts to assist me in the installation. I am looking for between 8-12 scouts to help out this Saturday between 9:00 - 12:00 and 12:00 - 3:00. Bring shovels, wheelbarrows, post diggers, and of course work gloves and safety glasses. If all goes to plan, we should get through all of the work on Saturday, but we may need some people to help out on Monday aswell. Thanks to everybody for your support, and remember to sign up on the Troop Web Site so I know how much food to get! Thanks again, hope to see
The book “With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets” written by Marni Finkelstein refers to the homeless youth. This book describes the lifestyle of the teenagers with no home and explains with detail about what consist in their everyday lives in the streets of New York City. The purpose of this book is to explain to people who these kids are and to see life in their point of view. It explains the difference between street kids and the kids that live on the street. We need to understand that the kids that live on the streets have their own culture and their own way of surviving. Learning their point of view would be a great eye opening experience for everyone and to also understand their struggle. This book explains a study that was done to 50 street kids and life on the streets.
Being homeless presents many challenges for youth that they normally live day to day, unable to develop plans for forming a productive life structure. Since many homeless youth don’t have money so they start begging or selling drugs or start prostituting to earn money to cover their basic needs. The basic problem of homelessness is the human need for personal shelter,
I foresee a number of challenges that come with moving from a small town to a large city, especially during the college transition. One challenge I expect to be more troublesome will be that of having to manage my time effectively and efficiently with little to no interference from parental figures. This will no doubt be a daunting task as up until now parents do much of the planning with doctor’s appointments and making sure I balance fun and work. I believe that my experience planning for my Eagle Scout project will make the upheaval easier. I spent a decent portion of my summer planning to build a bridge from drawing designs, to purchasing supplies, to sending emails requesting help. Planning this project entirely on my own while still having
As a member of the Boy Scouts of America in Troop 181 I have established myself as a young leader and well rounded individual. I have been a part of countless service projects with my fellow Scouts since I was in first grade. Sticking with Scouting has been the most rewarding experience of my life. I climbed through the ranks and attained my Eagle Scout award when I was sixteen. The Eagle Scout service project I completed along side the multiple other volunteering excursions I have been a part of have taught me several core values that will cling tightly to me from here on. These service projects have given me a fantastic outlook on life. My Troop often visits with the local nursing home to carol, plant vegetables in their garden, decorate,
Youth who live on the streets are there for two main reasons either they chose to leave the home because of the living situation or they will leave home because they are kicked out or drugs and alcohol have led them onto the streets. 20% of the homeless population is youth and it is increasing every year because of the changes that our generation is going through and being affected by. The rates of suicide in homeless youth are 10.3 times larger then an average Canadian youth. (McKay, E. (2009). Independent Living Accounts: Leaving Homelessness in the Past.).
Youth homelessness in Australia has become a massive issue. Every over 105,00 people are homeless, which is shocking to me as I thought it would be becoming less as there should be more help out there. (Homelessness Australia, 2012 ). In 2001, there were a total of 9% homeless. According to the 2011 census, 42% of
One of the greatest things we can do in this life is to help others. I’ve found no greater joy, than when I have been able to lift another’s burden. One the proudest achievements of my life, was when I completed my Eagle Scout project. I was able to raise money and collect items to furnish an apartment for African refugees who recently emigrated to the U.S. After a couple of months of collecting and fund raising, I organized volunteers to set up the refugees’ apartment. I couldn’t have been more proud than when I saw the family’s smiling
“Homeless youth have a variety of issues affecting their ability to succeed in school. It is difficult for children who are hungry, scared, and living in either temporary 2 housing or inadequate housing to concentrate on the elements of school. Research indicates homeless youth are absent from school more often than students that have a fixed residency” (Weber & Lugg, 2008).
Throughout the United States, there are a large number of individuals that goes unnoticed. Hidden in right plain sight, but are overlooked. They can be our friends, family, classmates, or the person standing right next you to at this moment. There are young individuals who are facing the tremendous challenge of being homeless. They are overlooked by many in society. However, there have been countless individuals, groups, organizations dedicated to ending youth homelessness. However, they are confronted with challenges due to the lack of interest. The lack of interest found within society can contribute to barriers to ending youth homelessness.
In Judy Daniels’ article entitled "Humanistic Interventions for Homeless Students: Identifying and Reducing Barriers to Their Personal Development," the author is successful in describing real-life examples of the effects of homelessness on school-aged children. She starts out with the story of Angie, a high school student who lives in a tent with her mother and two siblings. After being caught for fighting with her classmates, Angie is sent to the counselor’s office where she confesses her frustration with her current living situation.
About 1.7 million youth in America will encounter homelessness each year (Tompsett, Domoff, & Toro, 2013). Homelessness within the youth population in America is a serious problem and there are many associated risks and hazards identified with being homeless as a youth. For this research youth has been established to be any person between the ages of 12 and 18; in the process of maturing through adolescent stages of growth (Oliveira & Burke, 2013, p. 154). Youth whom become homeless are at risk of developing a lifestyle or acculturation to street living. Researchers are exploring the causes of homelessness in the youth population and the consequences of homelessness.
In communities across the nation, homeless adolescents under the age of eighteen are surviving on the streets alone and afraid. The availability of homeless shelters, for this demographic, are few and far between. If the shelter is available to take in the homeless youth the facility is on average a mixture of ages and genders, mental health disorders, substance and drug abuse. The people who provide services to homeless adolescents,
The sample consisted of data from 426 individuals who were between the ages of 14 and 24 years old. The results indicated that 41 percent of the sample were consistently sheltered. These individuals often were in the younger age group, did not use drugs other than alcohol or marijuana, they were less involved in informal sector activities, they were able to go home, and were typically homeless for one year. Approximately 20 percent were inconsistently sheltered for a short term. These individuals were often able to go home and not have had to leave on one’s own accord. Roughly 39 percent were inconsistently sheltered for a long term. The findings suggested the importance of preventing homeless youth from spending nights in unsheltered locations. Future research is needed that recruits’ youth from the street setting in order to identify additional trajectories of homelessness. However, the timing of the assessments may have limited the number of trajectories that were identified and the study did not evaluate whether childhood neglect or abuse were predictors of youth remaining or returning to shelters (Tevendale, Comulada, & Lightfoot,
Shelter is a fundamental human need. Imagine not knowing a place called ‘home.’ You spend each night, uncertain of the weather, on a bench, which serves as your bed. As you wake up to chattering noises each morning, you worry about which public place will allow you to clean yourself up. When you get hungry, you go to a soup kitchen, beg people for change to eat a cheap meal, or search the nearest garbage can. For the rest of the day, you sit in busy areas hoping people will notice you and want to help out. You realize that you are not judged by who you are but what you are. The situation described above is the typical description for homelessness for about 600,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night (“State of Homelessness Report”). Some of them sleep in shelters, others on the streets; roughly one-quarter are children (Crane et al.). In order to understand and prevent the complex issue of homelessness, one must first learn about the various ways through which a person could end up without a roof over his or her head.