National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week November 14 - 20, 2010

[theHandpuppet]

When you're cold, hungry and homeless, the "holiday season" may seem more a Dickensian nightmare. Even as the number of needy increase, charitable donations are down. Please contact your local advocates for the homeless and hungry to find out how you can help, or visit the following site for ideas:
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/projects/awareness/index.html

Many thanks to the DUers here, such as Bobbolink, who have kept the issue of hunger and homelessness at the forefront of the discussion here.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. So glad someone posted this, I was about to myself....

Huge K&R, and thank you, theHandpuppet!!!

:hi:

[ThomCat]

2. More of us than many of you may think have been homeless at some point

so please think about people who are homeless. See the people around you who are homeless. Occasionally, please stop and think that you might not be all that far above being homeless yourself, and only by good fortune.

Help anyone you know who had become homeless. Help anyone who is at risk of falling into homelessness. Fine that little bit of extra money to help pay that utility bill for someone, or buy that extra bag of groceries, or keep that cell phone turned on for another month. It might be a small thing to you, but a huge help to someone who needs help.

Do you have your own washer and dryer? Offering to do laundry occasionally for someone who has no place but expensive laundromats can be a huge help!

Do you have a nearly empty shed in your back yard that locks? Would you consider emptying it and letting a friend who is homeless store stuff in it so that stuff doesn't get lost or stolen?

If you know someone who is homeless, or close to being homeless, stay in touch! And don't be shy about coming up with creative solutions. Do whatever you can, and whatever you have to do, so that both you and your friend can survive.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Very, very well said. Thank you...

:hi:

[Forkboy]

4. K&R

:kick:

[OneGrassRoot]

5. Great link. I've followed this gentleman's work for a while:

It's time to move beyond the stereotypes and stop looking away. It's time to open our eyes.

"If you had three wishes, what would they be?" Mark Horvath asks Angela who was living under a bridge in Atlanta. She cautiously responds saying "Good question. I'm not sure." These empty answers are not entirely uncommon.

Johnny, a Vietnam Veteran, sells local newspapers in Nashville to make ends meet. After having his camper van impounded Johnny slept in his wheelchair under a bridge. The video interview below, along with other social media efforts, helped raise the $345 necessary to get his "home" back.

<snip>

Open Our Eyes is an additional effort to create awareness. A compilation of eye-opening excerpts from 35 of the homeless people Mark has interviewed since 2008, their gritty and unedited stories join the perspectives of many of us in the nonprofit, technology & social media industries on homelessness, how Mark has influenced our lives, and how taking action is changing the world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-rudat/open-our-eyes_b_781033.html

[midnight]

6. K&R. The only war that should be waged is the one on poverty.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. ...

[leftstreet]

8. K&R

[OneGrassRoot]

9. kick n/t

[Odin2005]

10. K&R!

[Scruffy1]

11. Thanks

[Dappleganger]

12. One monthly bus pass. A year-long's PO box. Pre-paid cell phone minutes.

A trip to a hair salon for a good haircut.

One small thing to give a homeless person a bit of humanity and a chance to find a job. They need an address, a contact phone number, a way to get to an interview and to look right for it.

[theHandpuppet]

16. Great suggestions!

:thumbsup:

[ThomCat]

17. An address is a HUGE help. A place to get mail!

Definitely important.

[KillCapitalism]

13. I don't have anything to give, but I'll volunteer this week.

They always need some volunteers at the soup kitchen near me. I work there every thanksgiving anyway.

[MrScorpio]

14. One week is not enough

We need a new social contract

[OneGrassRoot]

15. Amen. n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. I'll second that.

[bobbolink]

20. "We need a new social contract" Indeed! Universal right to housing!

Somehow, that never gets mentioned in a list of what homeless people need.

What *I* would like to see is for people to organize demonstrations, like tent cities that are not for homeless people, but for housed people to experience being homeless, and not to beg for money or food, but to hand out information to people passing by, so that more people become aware of the true facts.

Only in that way will we begin to house people, and thus change our social contract.

[bobbolink]

19. Thank you, Handpuppet! I appreciate you posting this, and I appreciate the mention.

As you know, I often get targeted because I am so determined to keep homelessness in sight on DU. It hurts, and is appreciated when folks come to my defense at those times.

I haven't posted on the Awareness Week because I don't want to get into discussions about charity. While there are times when it really helps to come to the aid of a person, what we homeless people really need and want is not charity, but to have a home to live in! Unless and until progressives begin to take it seriously to make sure all our housed, nothing is going to change, no matter how much you volunteer, and that is simply not acceptable.

The big reason it is not changing is because there aren't enough people who UNDERSTAND the reality and truth of homelessness. Until we take it seriously to get that awareness in front of people, we won't have enough people with the awareness to really make a difference.

I am getting feedback from my powerpoint project that people are learnign a lot from it, and had no idea how much they didn't understand! So, what I ask people to do is to familiarize yourselves with the actual information. There is resistance to that, which I don't understand, but it is the only way we are going to end homelessness.

What I consider the best information is put out by WRAP, in their report called Without Housing. I noticed that right now it doesn't seem to connect to the report.. they may be updating it. Here is the website:
http://www.wraphome.org/index.php/campaigns/without-housing

Please, read through the report, and become very conversant with the facts, and help us to combat the myths that even progressives spout. If we can get enough people to really understand the facts, and to care enough, we can then begin to push the progressive media to do reports on it, which will then help to make it a movement.

As for me, the help I would appreciate is artwork to illustrate my powerpoint, and someone willing to help take my information in it and pull together a Homelessness 101 sheet. This would be a great start to change the abysmal disinformation running rampant in this country. It may not sound as sexy as giving to a shelter, but in the long run it will help a lot more people in a lot more productive ways.

Thanks again for the post... there are colleges who observe this!

[OneGrassRoot]

21. Early Monday Morning Kick. :) n/t

[JNelson6563]

22. K&R

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. Kicking

[Catherina]

24. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. Another kick for visibility and a link to

my thoughts in a similar thread recently posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=9504285#9507074

[OneGrassRoot]

26. Kick. n/t