Blog: 18 2-Hour Meeting Answer #3

1. What is the best way to help homeless youth break the cycle of homelessness?
2. In order for homeless youth to break the cycle of homelessness, I believe they should have a strong significant role model who has good character
3.

• It just takes one person to believe in a child in order for them to succeed
• Parents are a child's first role model. Children who have parents who show good morale such as never giving up, always do good to others, etc. almost always follow in their parent's footsteps
• If a parent seems do not meet these standards, children should not be completely alone either, they should have someone in their life to show that they care, and have faith that the child can turn their life around or make their situation better than it is

4. http://www.bigsnyc.org/a-history.php

5. I plan to study more cases of the "Big Brother, Big Sister" organization

Blog 17: Fourth Interview Questions

1. What is the best way to help homeless youth end the cycle of homelessness?
2. What do you believe are the main factors that lead children to become homeless?
3. What organizations are available to homeless youth to help them get back on their feet?
4. Why do you believe that children who have been on the street, but are able to get off of it for a period of time, have a higher or lower chance of living on the street again?
5. How effective do you believe transitional living programs are?
6. Please tell me of any stories of homeless youth who have undergone transitional living programs?
7. Why do you believe the homeless youth who undergo these transitional living programs either regress back to living on the streets, or are able to stay off of them?
8. What is your opinion on homeless youth attending counseling sessions? Why?
9. How do you believe homeless children are affected by having some form of shelter while they are living on the streets, regardless of the shelter's stability, durability, etc? Why?
10.  If a homeless child is placed in an environment where children who are not homeless are present (such as a school) how do you believe this will affect the homeless child?
11. Why do you believe that some people may say that there are some cases of children who would actually be better off living on the streets than trying to get off of them? What is your personal opinion about this statement?
12. How important do you believe it is for homeless youth to be in school?
13. What benefits can homeless youth gain from being in school?
14. How can we help homeless youth be less truant to school?
15. If a homeless child has missed school and social interactions due to moving around a lot, how hard do you believe it is to integrate the child back into school?
16. What special programs or organizations specifically geared towards helping homeless youth succeed in school do you know of? How do these programs help these children?
17. What struggles do you think homeless youth face in school as opposed to those who are not homeless?
18. How do you feel about homeless youth wanting to get off the street on their own (without enlisting the help of others to do so)?
19. How do you believe we can motivate homeless youth to want to get off the streets?
20. What do you believe is the number one thing homeless youth, or people who were once homeless youth, NOT do in order to not regress to living on the streets?

Blog 16: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #2

1. What is the best way to help homeless youth end the cycle of homelessness?

2. Educating the children/ teaching them a specific trade will be my second answer to my EQ.

3.

• At public schools, due to the NECAC Act, homeless children can now have a variety of different resources available to them such as free lunches, therapists, and specialists in mental disorders
• They will be able to make more money to provide for themselves due to earning a degree (high school degree, bachelor degree, etc.)
• It exposes them to opportunities and the world beyond homelessness

4. Unknown. "Increasing Access to Higher Education for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth: Information for Colleges and Universities." N.p., n.d. Web.

5. I plan to continue my study of answer 2 by researching more articles on homeless children who have gone to college, or have gotten job.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. For my second independent component, I plan on hosting art classes and events for the children at URM. The activities will have different themes such as: Who is your hero? What is your favorite memory? What do you want to be when you grow up? etc. I also have an idea of getting other people who know particular trades to volunteer their time to teach it to the children (kind of like a free talent of the masters). I then want to convert the MPR into a gallery of all the kids' artworks and stories, to show to anyone who wants to see. (Ivy Jordan also suggested she'd help me with the creation of the gallery).

2. This will meet the 30 hours of required work because I will not only be volunteering at URM more, but I will also have to do a lot of planning and assembling for the gallery.

3. This relates to my working EQ because my next answer to my EQ was going to be education/ teaching the children a specific trade, so that way they can have a strong educational foundation or skill that will keep them from having to return to the streets again.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

• Literal
• I, Angel Campos, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work
• Main source used: http://www.dosomething.org/teensforjeans
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvyNhJ5LSQ5AdFNaeVpTa3NBNl9RT3FMV0VQNXNGZGc#gid=0
• For my independent component, the Teens for Jeans campaign, I first started by communicating with my TFJ team- Lauren D., Clara A., Victoria Y., and Alissa M. I held a meeting with the team on Jan. 10 to discuss the basic goal of the campaign and what materials we would need. I then assigned Lauren to be in charge of the senior donations, Clara to be in charge of the juniors, Victoria to be in charge of the sophomores, and Alissa to be in charge of the freshmen. I then asked them to each bring a box to collect their donations in and place them in the history class of the the grade level they were in charge of. Once that was established we all signed up on the website listed above and we then received a banner to hang in the school (I had to turn it over to ASB for approval, which Jordan says it has received this past Tuesday, but has unfortunately been misplaced. Jordan has a good idea of where it is though). Next I met with ASB to pitch them the idea of the campaign, which got approved as well. I then proceeded to make flyers for the campaign to better explain the idea of the campaign since there seemed to be some confusion with the name. (Sorry!) Victoria also made vibrant posters.Today I also folded and counted the jeans to see where we are, and so far we have 15, but that's only with the Juniors and Seniors combined, I am awaiting the results of the Freshmen and Sophomores tomorrow.
• Interpretive






• Since my topic is homeless youth I decided to run this campaign at school, because while the jeans collected may be donated to homeless men and women as well, their focus is donating them to homeless youth-since they are collecting the jeans from other youth. I am still in charge of the committee (since it ends Feb. 8), which involves meetings with my team, organizing/folding/collecting jeans, meeting with ASB, talking to the history teachers, and creating flyers. The entire preparation and execution of the campaign extends over a month which represents my 30 hours.  
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• Applied
• It made me realize that homeless youth need resources more than money, which is something they greatly lack due to their condition of not being in "mainstream living conditions". For example, once I signed up for the campaign I started researching as to why the campaign called for jeans only and learned it was because jeans were the most requested item from the homeless because they need something durable. Also, the homeless only have about 1-2 pairs of jeans a year, which made me realize how much of an effort will need to be made in order to transition homeless youth into mainstream living conditions- which can range anywhere from having enough food to eat to just having enough jeans to last them through a week.

Blog 13: Rough Draft 30 Minute Presentation

30 Minute Lesson Plan
Name:	Angel Campos			Date:1/17/13			House:	West
Essential Question: What is the best way to help street children assimilate to maintstream living conditions?				Objectives: To teach audience the importance rudamentary shelter can be when it comes to childrens' development.
Category		Guide
Introduction		Hello West House, my name is Angel Campos and today I will be teaching you abou the difference a stable shelter can make in a child's life.
Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)		Beginning: Has anyone ever seen a homeless child stationed on the side of the street? (If so) What kind of shelter were they using for protection, if they were using any at all? End: Based on the information taught, why do you believe having rudamentary shelter is important?
Body (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)		• Literal: 1. Street children most often make unsafe shelters with their surroundings. 2.These shelters  make them suseptible to physical harm, and don't protect them as much as they should. 3. There are much safer alternaties available, which could help a child develop better. • Interpretive: 1. Many people may have younger siblings/family members. 2. We live in the Los Angeles area, the capital of homelessness in the US. • Applied: This topic helps me in the future by really understanding what devestating effects a child can go through simply by having bad/no shelter. It helps me with the end result of my senior project, because it really gives my mentorship more meaning, by working in a shelter, and it also gives me a sense of direction as to what I want to choose as my final answer for my EQ.
Visuals		1. Powerpoint 2. Pictures of children who live in makeshift shelters vs. those who do not (yet are still homeless e.i. shelter children)
Activity (Describe the independent activity to reinforce this lesson)		• Making Space: • How it will be done: I will bring a plethora of materials that one would typically find on the street and some that would be more ideal for a safe shelter, in groups, students will have to construct a makeshift shelter in which they deem durable by the information taught in x amount of time • What materials will be used: tarp, trash bags, mesh, coat hangers, wooden planks, blankets, etc..
Three Important Sources		Three Important Sources 1. My experience at URM, I would consider this a valuable source because when I work with the children in the shelter they are so much more cared for and protected than those I see on the street. 2. http://www.layouth.com/a-world-apart-i-lived-on-skid-row/ This is a first hand account of a minor living on skid row without proper shelter. 3. first5la.org this website greatly talks about what its like for children from 0-5 living in LA
Conclusion		Thank you west house for listening and participating in my presentation on why shelter is so critical to a child's development.

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

1. What is the best way to help street children assimilate into mainstream living conditions?
2.Who or what do you think is the main factor that leads to a child becoming homeless?
 3.What advantages/ disadvantages do you believe homeless youth have in comparison to children who are not homeless?
4. What is your definition of successful?
5. (Follow up to question 3) What do you believe are some essential factors a child needs to be introduced to in order to be successful?
6. Do you believe homeless children have a higher or lower chance of becoming homeless again when they are adults, if they are able to break the cycle of homelessness?
7. At the Union Rescue Mission, have you seen a decrease or increase in the amount of children living there in the past 5 years?
8. How do you believe the city of Los Angeles plays a role on homeless children, in comparison to those who live in other cities?
9. How important do you believe a child's relationship with their parent is in correlation to homelessness?
10. Can you tell me of any cases in which you personally have had children come out successful after being homeless?