1. EQ:What is the best way to help homeless youth break the cycle of homelessness?
- Best Answer: The best way for homeless youth break the cycle of homelessness is to have find them a positive role model that will mentor them into adulthood because a life mentor will teach them how to truly become self sufficient and not regress back to living on the streets.
2. Well, due to my family being on the brink of homelessness, my perspective on the homeless changed a lot and I realized that not all homeless people are just lazy and want to freeload off the government, most of them have true horrors in their past that they didn't deal with properly because they didn't know how to or the economic downfall severely impacted them. My heart really went out the youth suffering from homelessness because they are the least equipped to deal with their situation and it saddened me greatly to think there were children younger than me sleeping on the streets at night. I then realized I wanted my senior project to be centralized on the ways homeless youth could get off the streets and never have to live there again. One of my possible answers was donating items that could ensure their survival and help them attain jobs (such as professional clothes, and hygiene products). By donating these items, a huge cost would be eliminated from homeless youths' budget, and they would have a higher chance of attaining a job. My second answer was to have homeless youth stay in school and attain a degree, because if they did so they would be exposed to stability and have a chance at a higher paying job. My third answer, however, was to have a positive life mentor, because it is not gaurenteed that if they stay in school and get a good job they will spend their money on a house (they could spend it on drugs and stay homeless), but according to
http://www.volunteerguide.org/hours/service-projects/mentoring a child with a life mentor is, "
46% less likely to begin using drugs, 27% less likely to begin using alcohol, and 50% less likely to skip school. This decreases drug-related suspensions, drug-related crime, and the number of babies born drug-affected." Since these are all the main reasons as to why children end up homeless, I believed this would be the most effective way to stop them from living on the streets, or helps them the most to get off of them.
3. The first problem I faced was my first independent component did not reach the full 30 hours, but I am resolving this issue by launching a blanket drive to make up for my remaining hours. The second problem I faced was that I did not feel like my first answer really helped answer my EQ so I changed it from acquiring shelter to donations.
4. My first most important source is Kandice Taylor (the 4th floor coordinator of URM, Women and Children) because she helped me with my third interview which really solidified my ideas of what my third and fourth answers should be. She really enlightened me about why education is so important, not only because you get a higher paying job, but also because it provides stability in a homeless youth's life which is something I had never thought of before. My most important printed source was the National Coalition for the Homeless because they provided so many statistics of why homeless youth are homeless such as demographics, family life, mental stability, etc. This foundation showed me the root of homeless youths' homelessness, which in turn led me to come up with solutions.
5. My product is I have learned new ways to help get homeless youth off the streets and plan to continue to participate in these ways even after I leave Ipoly. For example, I have recently signed up with an organization called Stand Up for Kids in Orange County, which is an organization that counsels homeless youth and helps get them on the track to getting off the streets (I wish I wouldv'e found them earlier) and I plan on volunteering here until I leave for college (unfortunately this organization is not in San Francisco).One of the ways I have learned to get homeless youth off the streets is through my mentorship. While I would work in the kitchen, I would have conversations with many of the other homeless living in the shelter, and they would tell me their life stories of how they ended up where they are today. They also would tell me of ways to help the youth in the shelter or of ways the shelter already does so. Due to my experiences at the URM I have a much greater level of respect and compassion for homeless people of all ages, not just the youth.
