Helping the Homeless

Part A1)- Helping the Homeless

2)-Helping the Homeless
3)-Hieu, Shoua, Faith, Mai, Ivy, and Tiffany.
4)-Email address: ethnic96homeless@yahoo.com
Website: http://ethnic96homeless.weebly.com/
5) Our purpose is to develop and enhance our knowledge on the underlying issues of
homelessness and to use existing resources and organizations to help the homelessness within
our community.
Part BDESCRIPTION: CAUSES/ IMPACTS/ PERSISTENCE
Homelessness is a tough issue to get rid of because homelessness is hard to define; therefore
causing the government to have difficulties in creating policies that will manage this problem.
To be homeless is to be without shelter and sleeping in an area not meant for human habitation,
for example: the streets, and on a park bench. To be chronically homeless according to the
Federal definition is to either (1) an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling
condition who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, OR (2) an unaccompanied
individual with a disabling condition who has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the
past three years (HUD). Many believe who are homeless are too lazy to obtain a job that will
support them; however majority of the homeless are in their state because of drug addictions,
mental illness, economic/social factors, lack of affordable housing and lack of family support;
not because theyre lazy and irresponsible. According to the National Student Campaign Against
Hunger and Homelessness, there are more than 3.5 million people in the United States that go
homeless each year; 35% are families with children, 23% are U.S. military veterans, 25% are
children under 18, 30% suffering from domestic violence and 20-25% suffer from mental illness
(NSCAHH).
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE/ MODELS OF SUCCESS
As described earlier, those who are homeless are not simply homeless because they are lazy. The
homeless should not have to deal with their condition alone because the homeless are part of our
community and as long as they are present this issue is a problem that the community as a whole
should take part in the helping. Donating and providing basic needs is the base of what can be
done to help the homeless, but the larger community can also become involved with the writing
of policies and the creating of programs that aid the homeless. These policies and programs

could be aimed to helping the homeless receive basic shelter, health coverage, as well as helping
them obtain jobs as a start to recovery.
The St. Johns Program for Real Change and Salvation Army are great examples of programs that
support what needs to be done to help the homeless and also set examples for what fuels our
project.
St. Johns - This program is a non-profit in Sacramento. Their goal is to support the homeless
women & children and teach them how to be independent and positive contributors to our
community. They provide job training skills as well as housing and see that those they help
recover successfully. They have also included their many success stories on their website,
saintjohnsprogram.org
Salvation Army This program is supported by the millions of community members who
participate nationwide. They provide financial resources such as food boxes, rental assistance
and utility bill assistance to the homeless or those in need.
These two programs/organizations set an example for us because they are non-profit and rely on
the assistance of community members. We got the idea and support from the Salvation Army to
collect and donate necessities and we got the motivation to create this project from genuine
interest in helping the homeless.

OUR GOAL
As a coalition we have done much research on the topic of homelessness and understand that
homelessness is not something that can just be fixed. We are unable to write these policies and
simply give everyone who is homeless a home and with the restricted time of this project we are
limited to only doing what we can for the homeless; although we are not able to create a project
that will have a strong impact right away, we are able to aid the homeless by providing basic
needs that help make their everyday life easier. We will be collecting and donating clothes,
hygienic products such as soap, toothbrushes/toothpaste, ready-made food (canned food, easy
cook foods) and comforting items such as blankets, and pillows. By doing this we aim to address
the issue of lack of awareness for the homeless in the community. This project will not be
successful without the community and without this project, the community will be less
knowledgeable on homelessness. We hope to bring awareness to homelessness, encourage the
community not to just donate to for the time being but as well as donating to other organizations
in the future.

Part C- COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Some organizations that we found are The Salvation Army; St. Johns Shelter Program for
Women and Children, Loaves and Fishes, Student Organization Association Leadership (SOAL),
and My Sisters House. The Sacramento Salvation Army provides financial resources such as
food boxes, rental assistance, and utility bill assistance to the homeless. Most of the items are
limited to certain people because there are too many people and not enough goods to the
homeless. St. Johns Shelter Program for Women and Children is a local non-profit shelter to
help support homeless women and children. It offers 24 hour comprehensive shelters and a 90
day program to homeless women and children. This program also focuses on teaching women
and children to be independent and have positive outcomes to the community. Loaves and Fishes
is a program that provides food for the homeless. It also allows and accepts students or those
who wants to volunteer or take part with their program. SOAL is an organization on campus that
usually host events for students to participate. By working with them, we will have access to
getting more help from other students.
Part D- PROJECT SYNOPSIS
People talk about how they always want to put an end to homelessness. Yet, it isnt as easy as it
looks. Some ways that people had tried to help out homeless people is by giving out money to
homeless people, or donating food and clothes to shelters. Our project synopsis will be a mixture
of service and education. For our project, our main goal is to help and bring awareness to our
campus. The purpose for our goal is to make sure that students and people in our community
will be more in depth of what homelessness really is. For example, many people will think that
homelessness is caused by the lack of school or lack of jobs. However, some of the main causes
to homelessness are the lack of family support, drug addictions, or mental illness. If the
community learns more about what homelessness really is, the community can seek out to find
counselors to homeless people where they can make improvements in their lives. Therefore the
homeless wont have to go around depending on others to give them money. Aside of informing
students and the community, we can also take action to help homeless people.
College campuses have the most places where more people are willing to volunteer and make a
difference. We hope that many students will participate in this event. The way how we will
accomplish our goal is by setting a date on campus for students to participate in our project.
Since homeless people have many needs, this event will have students bring donations to campus
where we can donate it to the Salvation Army or St. Johns Homeless Shelter. The day where
we decide to actually start promoting our homeless drive will be on the first week of April.
Flyers will be made, posted, and given to students on campus. Therefore, they will have at least
two weeks to prepare a list of what is needed for the donation. When we do receive all of our
donations, the week of April 20th will be the day where we will donate our donations. We will
drive to the Salvation Army or St. Johns to make our donations.

Timeline for Project Concept Ethnic 96

Homelessness
1

Gathering research and information

Discuss within our group what it is we want to do within the community

Agree upon a project concept

Project Concept: Gathering donations on-campus, then donating them to a local shelter

Contact S&OL to configure out about making it an LI event

Contact Local shelters, about donation/volunteer process

Decide upon a date for LI event

Make final decision of shelter were donating to

Finalize LI event

10 Create flyers, distribute them, first week after spring break

11 Collect donations
12 Distribute Donations to local shelter!!
Part EOur estimated budget that we think well need for this project will probably be $200 at
maximum. Part of the money will be used on buying boxes/baskets to store the donations that we
will soon be collecting. We will also use part of the money on flyers and passing it around
campus.