Tearing Down Walls!

After out daily volunteering with breakfast and midday meal at the Father McKenna Center, we drove to the National Coahiliton of the Homeless (NCH). Here, we met with John and Pam who have both experienced homelessness and are now working with NCH to advocate for the homeless. John started off simply by asking us what some common misconceptions about how a person becomes homeless are. Some responses were that they are lazy or that they do not want to seek help. It is easy for people to believe these misconceptions, and it is difficult to understand the truth of how homelessness occurs until you meet someone who is willing to share their experience with you. John and Pam shared their their stories of how they became homeless, and how they got themselves out of the extreme poverty that they were living in. They shared their insights about the emotional side of how it feels to be homeless, and how their dignity is taken away with each day living on the street. It is very impactful to learn from them how we can better approach and understand the people we meet on this trip so that we can speak to them as equals. Assuring them that their humanity is still intact and that they have as much dignity as we do is very meaningful to them and something simple that we can do to any homeless person we meet.

Allison Boyer


After meeting with John and Pam, we went on an outreach run. The previous day, we went to Walmart and bought mini shampoos, deodorants, fruit snacks, and granola bars and packed them into paper bags that said things like, "Enjoy with love", and "Have a great day". John took us down to a local park where we split off into groups and walked around handing out bags and talking to people experiencing homelessness. John advised us to not make assumptions and not make it obvious that we were strictly looking for homelessness individuals. When John shared his story with us, he expressed the importance of a name. Your name is what gives you dignity, integrity, personality, and individuality. He told us how important it is to ask for their name and use their name, because it might be the first time they've heard it in a long time. This really stuck with me because I never thought of a name as being something so vital before and this really put things into perspective. So when I was walking around I made a huge effort to repeat a person's name when I was talking to them. After we left the park, we walked a little further away and saw an unattended cart next to a few other belongings. We decided to leave a bag next to the cart for the person to come back to and while we were waiting to cross the street, we watched the woman find the bag next to her things and her face completely lit up. Myself and the rest of the group experienced a lot of emotions on this day both through the stories of John and Pam and through the outreach that we did in the community. It's difficult to imagine the multitude of the homeless population until you see it in person. Delivering bags and hearing first-hand what it's like to be homeless was an eye-opening experience that I'm sure none of us will ever forget.

Katie Gress