When I was younger, I was certain that I was going to be a journalist. I'm not sure if it was my desire to stir the pot, or my desire to tell the untold stories- I wanted to expose it all. While their is virtue in digging to find the story, to share someone's experience, it was never enough. I didn't want to stop there. Deep down, I realized that what I wanted was to help people- to reach out my hand for theirs and walk alongside them. I wanted to be a friend, a mentor, a sounding board. Working on the 2008 campaign where we targeted vulnerable populations not only for voter registration, but for employment, I again found joy in learning the value of an individual's story. Working with at-risk youth at an after-school program, I learned the value of a family's story- of the relationships among brothers and sisters, aunts and nieces and nephews, foster parents and family friends.

Serving with AmeriCorps, I have learned the value of a community's story- one made up of vignettes about a single person struggling to find employment, about a family with children who lost their housing voucher, about a married couple cycling through episodes of homelessness. The story that the community often tells, however, is not complete. It is billed as folklore about "the homeless."

Since I began as an AmeriCorps member, one things has always hit my ear with a certain amount of dissonance. The vibration never sounded right- it always had a ring of judgment to it. "The Homeless." I've spent a good part of my personal life re-evaluated the use of labels- positive, negative and neutral- as a destructive practice. When I say a person is homeless... I'm defining them by their housing status. They are no longer a person who is experiencing homelessness... they ARE homeless. I find this odd. I don't define myself by my housing status. People don't pass me on the street and whisper to their friends, "hey, look at that person over there- she must be housed. Let's not feel obligated to give her anything, or feel the need to cross the street to avoid her." I am not defined by my housing status- so why are others?

To me, the people that we all serve are in need of housing. They are not defined by homelessness- they are simply experiencing it. I am not saying this to diminish the severity of the experience, or the need. I'm saying this to diminish the harshness of judgment placed upon someone in that situation. Everyone who walks through my office is a person first- and that's how I feel each and every one should be treated and referenced.

Much good has come of my tenure here at My Brother’s Keeper. The few colleagues that I have are delightful, and working alongside them has helped mitigate the stress of volunteering at a homeless shelter in such a city as Flint. It also helps, of course, that we’re all from here, which is the source of our unfeigned rapport.

I can honestly say that nothing particularly staggering, within the organization itself, has (as of yet) transpired—or rather, I should say, nothing that outright defied my expectations has yet happened. In fact, nothing uncomfortably surprising has happened during any of my involvement in any of the areas of the organization where one might think such things would happen: not working with the parolees of the transitional house, not with the clients of the emergency shelter, and especially not the regular volunteer quasi-staff of the lunch program (i.e. soup kitchen). The aforementioned have all been the consolation of my experience, especially a few of the residents of the transitional house. I’ve been placed in a privileged position to learn about issues with which I had been only vaguely acquainted, and would have remained so if it weren’t for my enlistment in the Americorps. And for that, I am immensely grateful.

However, the bane of my experience mostly derives from some of my involvement with some of the volunteers themselves. [Let me emphasize—some!]. I was agitated, e.g., by the gentleman who thundered his colossal diesel truck into our parking lot one Saturday—agitated, not by the truck itself, nor even by the obnoxiously emphatic bumper sticker on the rear window stating, peremptorily, “Extremely right-wing.” Rather, what agitated me were his statements, as he walked in the side entrance, carrying a cardboard bookshelf, about the city in which our shelter is located, namely, Flint. He said—roughly quoting here—“I can’t believe what these people have done with this place after so much has been given to them,” as he desperately sought an affirmation from his discernibly blushing companion. By “this place” (let’s not inquire into what he meant by “these people”) he meant not the shelter itself—though perhaps he was withholding his judgments in that regard—but the city. He then proceeded to set a stack of gun and rifle magazines on the shelf of the room his church had adopted. I promptly removed them. [Explanatory side note: with the assistance of the DMVA, we’ve been slowly and painstakingly developing a program for homeless veterans, schedule to commence imminently. This program involves an adopt-a-room option, much like the State’s “adopt-a-highway” program but with people and rooms,  where groups or individuals can…well…adopt a room and the person(s) residing therein.]

Well clearly, this gentleman failed to comprehend how little has in fact been done, and how little is being done, for the city of Flint. Alas, Flint is not Detroit, and helping Flint is not quite as glamorous as helping Detroit. We don’t, after all, get the benevolent hipster population Detroit gets; and let’s just say gentrification hasn’t become a problem yet, and probably won’t ever even be one. Either way, his statements (not all of which are being quoted) were inaccurate and, of course, personally offensive. It displayed certain of his assumptions quite perspicuously, which might have also been manifest in other of the aforementioned facts. 

Now, we here at MBK do not discriminate according to political or, even, social views—who knows what mine even are! Nor did we in this case. The volunteers must be treated with the same dignity, compassion and respect that we demand, uncompromisingly, be extended to the homeless population of our city and county. Though such treatment of volunteers most often comes with ease, occasionally one must summon the nobler parts of one’s soul in order to maintain such treatment towards certain others. But I’ve learned that such equitable and unconditional treatment of people requires a certain blindness to the particular defects of the individuals involved. This has assured me that others must have in the past exhibited such blindness toward my own particular defects. Nevertheless, I’ve learned, through the dismay of a few unfortunate encounters, that in this business one can be neither self-righteous, i.e. one cannot regard their own character or personality as without defect, nor intolerant, i.e. one cannot even regard—or rather, entertain, whether privately or publicly (blogs excluded!)—the defects of others. But as Nietzsche once wrote (since we’re quoting him already), “Many a peacock hides its feathers—and calls that its pride” [BGE 4.73a] So I must remain particularly wary that I’m not intolerant in my tolerance, that is, that I don’t act intolerantly toward some in the name of my “tolerance” for others. 

SOS Presents Global Youth Service Day

Hello Everyone! My name is Corey Saylor. I am the LeaderCorps Representative for the Michigan AmeriCorps Campaign to End Homelessness. This is my second year serving in AmeriCorps.My service year thus far has been awesome! I feel very fortunate to serve with this campaign and it's members. I am also very fortunate for the opportunity to network with so many other great AmeriCorps programs and members through my LeaderCorps service.  

Currently, I serve at the South Oakland Shelter (SOS), which houses 30 men, women, and children year round. I like to call SOS the AmeriCorps powerhouse because currently we have 3 State members and 3 VISTA members serving this year. When Global Youth Service Day rolled around this year our little AmeriCorps powerhouse came together and organized the event. 

This was SOS' first year hosting Global Youth Service Day. This event took place over a two day span. It was created, planned and implemented by myself, Katie, Chaun- Xing, and our 3 VISTA members, Michaele, Erin, and Ashley. We also partnered with Gleaner’s National LeaderCorps member, James for the events planning and implementation. In organizing this event we reached out to the community to bring awareness to homelessness, include those with disabilities in service learning, and to involve youth ages 5-25 to participate in service learning.

On April 20, 2012, two local schools came together, in partnership with SOS’ Global Youth Service Day, and hosted their very first overnight “Box City”, as a way to raise awareness for homelessness. Over 30 students, grades fifth through twelfth, participated in the “Box City”.  Those students whom participated, collected card board boxes and arranged them in a city type fashion in a local middle school’s gymnasium. They then slept in their created city that night to try to understand and experience what a homeless individual may experience living on the streets. Students, parents, school staff, and community members brought hygiene donations to the gymnasium throughout the night. These items were all donated to SOS to benefit the clients the shelter serves. I presented to these students about homelessness and how they can help the homeless population. The students were very responsive to the presentation and shocked that so many people in their community are affected by homelessness.

On April 21, 2012, SOS’ AmeriCorps team welcomed Tamika, 50 volunteers ranging in age from 5 – 65 years old (some with disabilities), 2 media outlets, and the Southfield City Mayor. After the welcome introductions, volunteers split into project groups. Each group was led by an AmeriCorps member and was assigned tasks to accomplish for the day. In an 8 hour service day the Global Youth Service Day volunteers remodeled SOS’ playroom, health room, and educational room. They also installed a bike rack, repainted the parking lot lines, planted a flower garden, and assembled 100 health kits to be distributed to SOS clients. The items for the health kits were collected and fully donated by Oakland University’s Nursing Program students and St. Joseph’s hospital.

What these volunteers accomplished the third weekend of April is truly amazing. Yes, the physical changes made to the SOS building turned out to be remarkable; however, it is the changes that you cannot see that made all the difference. Volunteers of all ages, backgrounds, races, and capabilities came together that weekend to make a difference. In doing so they learned about how to better serve their community, how to work together, and how to be the change. At the end of each day I was approached by several volunteers asking how they could do more and eager to know when the next volunteer event was. 

To Learn & Inform

My name is Chuan-Xing Ho and I am currently serving as an AmeriCorps member at the South Oakland Shelter (SOS) in Lathrup Village, an area within Southfield of the Metro Detroit area. My experience thus far has been as varied as one could imagine. For example, serving in a small office necessitates the ability to wear many different hats depending upon the situation. Sometimes, I need to hunt down information for a client, at other times I need to provide a sympathetic ear, and on other occasions I need to reach into my bag of seemingly irrelevant tricks to teach clients new, but vital skills. While my efforts have primarily been focused on assisting clients to obtain housing, I have encountered many challenges which make the task at times feel daunting.

The most significant barrier to helping clients is the sheer lack of affordable housing. According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, for every 100 extremely low income households (0 – 30% of Metropolitan Area Median Family Income), there are only 30 affordable and available units. Thus, even if the person has a modest income, it is almost impossible to find a housing option that is affordable. Even with an affordable housing option, a client may not be willing or able to accept a possible housing option due to transportation restrictions and safety concerns. With such restrictions, independently finding housing which meets all the necessary criteria feels almost impossible. As a result, collaboration with everyone else at SOS is essential in order to find and utilize any resources available in order for housing to be obtained. In a recent case, one of our clients could no longer afford the apartment she was currently renting which required collaboration on multiple fronts from finding the accommodation, volunteer mover coordination, liaising with both old and new management companies, and making sure that the client was provided with counseling during the transition. Thus, finding an individual a housing option is perhaps the easiest part of transitioning them to affordable housing – economic, emotional, and other factors often act as additional barriers to obtaining and maintaining housing.

Although many of the barriers I encounter cannot be solved in a manner timely enough to benefit those I am currently serving, I have found that simply raising awareness about the situation to those I meet can provide short and long-term benefits. One part of advocacy is making people aware that they can aid the homeless population in ways beyond to passing out food or helping to provide shelter including. Another part is recruiting individuals who can offer workshops related to basic education, computer skills, job searching, resume preparation, or simply supporting day-to-day shelter operations. Of course, the issue in greatest need of advocacy and change is the supply of afford housing.

If overall housing costs were lower, if more landlords were willing to work with less financially secure tenants, and if there were more funds available to support those in need, the homeless population would certainly benefit and the costs associated with homelessness would shrink drastically. While improving the supply of affordable housing is beyond the scope of my service, I certainly hope that my direct service experience will make me a better advocate for the needs of such a severely underserved population. Furthermore, I am encouraged and hopeful during my daily efforts by seeing so much energy from everyone else at the South Oakland Shelter and knowing that I am part of an active, broader movement that will end homelessness.

"Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along." ~Hugh Allen

My name is Stacia Meerman, and I am a first year AmeriCorps member serving at Every Woman’s Place and Webster House Youth Services located in Muskegon Michigan. I have been serving at Every Woman’s Place and Webster House for about five months now. Every Woman’s Place is an organization that helps women, men, and families that have experienced domestic violence or sexual assault situations. Webster House Youth Services helps youth that are at risk of running away, homelessness, foster care, and youth that are involved in the court system.

My service position at Every Woman’s Place has given me the opportunity to wear many different hats; including working with the Transitional Supportive Housing Program, organizing the Youth Advisory Board, and assisting with Walk in Services. Taking part in different roles at this agency has given me the opportunity to gain more experience in my field and has encouraged me to further my education and hopefully receive my Masters degree in Social Work.

The Transitional Supportive Housing Program is a program for women with children who have left their abusive partners and need assistance with housing. There are many supportive services such as, financial assistance, transportation, family activities, housing advocacy and support groups. The women participating in this program are graduating out which is both very exciting for the survivors and the people who have been apart of their battles. Currently there are five active women in this program. With this being said, it has given me more time to participate in other aspects of the agency.

Some of the different activities I have been participating in are: domestic violence groups, Youth Advisory Board, Girls on the Run, and Cheers for Chocolate Event. The domestic violence groups are one of my favorite activities to participate in. It is a six week group for women that are referred by DHS/CPS/or self referral. Women in these groups are so strong and really provide a good support system for one another. Some women share their stories and some prefer just to listen. This is a very motivational part of each woman’s battle because it not only gives them information about abuse, it also gives them strength knowing that someone else left their abuser and they can do it as well!

One of my favorite posters reads: “If you want to be happy for 30 minutes, watch TV. If you want to be happy for 2 hours, go to a movie. If you want to be happy for life, learn to help others.” My service at Every Woman’s Place helping others has helped me shape the foundation of what I now consider important in life. I have found a new passion in working with survivors to become independent and hope to work with more survivors in the future.

Onward, ho!

My name is Katelyn Sherman and I am serving for the Housing Services for Eaton County in
Charlotte, Michigan. My first assignment was Project Homeless Connect, which I began as soon as I started in October, and which is now finally being put to rest; the evaluation for the grant has been sent in, the grant application for next year's event has been completed, and the golden notebook of instructions, contacts, and advice is updated and ready for the next AmeriCorps worker in the office, if we can afford to have one.

I'm sitting in my second-floor, corner office on a rainy day and I'm sucking down coffee, trying to think of what to write. It's hard to tell a story about this project. I had never seen any of the attendees before and I will most likely never see them again that I will know of. I could describe the event, give some 26th, 2012, a Thursday, Eaton County agencies, businesses, churches, and volunteers gathered to offer a statistics or numbers, share what new services were made available to guests, and some of the positive reactions from participants. Is that what you want to hear about? Because if you have never heard of Project Homeless Connect, held annually in several counties, you might be interested to hear that on January 26th, a Thursday, Eaton County agencies, businesses, churches, and volunteers gathered for one day to offer a string of resources to those in our community who are homeless, low-income, and/or at-risk of becoming homeless. If not, oh well.

Since PHC, I have begun working with a Social Theory class at Olivet College on Monday mornings, as they rewrite the Ten Year Plan to End Homeless in Eaton County. As this is a new project for our nonprofit and for the AmeriCorps position, I'm particularly enjoying it; being able to be the liaison between a fresh group of younger adults and a crew of experienced agency workers is perfect for someone like me who seems to find a place somewhere in between the two levels. And until I find where my life eventually takes me, onward and upward!

“I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.” - Mother Teresa

My name is Lauren Hodson, and I am currently serving as an Americorps Member at Family Promise of Grand Rapids. Family Promise partners with families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless by helping them get back on their feet so they can create a stable lifestyle for their children. We focus on providing hospitality and keeping families together in a time of crisis. We also strive to be a source of hope and encouragement for families as they create an achievable vision and develop a strong foundation for self-sufficiency. 93% of the families we serve find permanent housing at the end of their stay in our shelter, and 91% of those families maintain that housing for at least a year. I feel very blessed to be serving at such an incredible agency with staff members who are so full of love and hope for the families who stay with us.

Before this year, I had already been significantly involved in various volunteer and employment roles where I was serving vulnerable populations, both the homeless and the severely mentally ill. Because of these past service experiences, I thought I was very well educated about homelessness before the start of this Americorps year. But, I have found myself startled by the prevalence of family homelessness in Michigan and surprised at how little I actually knew. I didn’t fully realize the extent of the problem, how easy it is for a family living at the poverty level to slip into homelessness, and what a huge impact this situation has on the children.

Here are some of the statistics of which I was not fully aware of:

• 53% of the entire homeless population is children and their families.
• Over 22,000 children were homeless in Michigan last year, 7,000 of these children are under the age of 5 years old, and over 2,000 of these children live in Kent County, where I live.
• 7 years old is the average age of a homeless child.
• The central intake office for any individual experiencing a housing crisis in Grand Rapids receives calls from 12 families EVERY SINGLE WEEK for which there is no space for them to receive shelter in all of Grand Rapids.

These statistics are heartbreaking, but they are even more heartbreaking when the statistics connect with the flesh - When I see a young single mom with two kids entering our shelter program after spending the last two nights in a Wal-Mart parking lot, trying to protect her kids and keep them warm by pushing them around in a shopping cart all night. It’s the story of a mom with two beautiful kids who has lost everything in a house fire, has no family supports, and is now homeless because she had no renters insurance. It’s these stories that light a fire in me to do my best work here at Family Promise. It’s these stories that remind me why I am not only committing myself to doing a year of service through Americorps, but why I am committing to a lifetime of doing my best to be an agent of compassion and justice in this world.

At times, it can be hard as an Americorps member – Usually we don’t have a ton of experience in the field and the realities of what we are faced with can be overwhelming. But, my hope for myself and everyone else in the program is that when we hear the stories that break our hearts, when we come up against difficult experiences, and we are unsure of our abilities to make a difference amongst such daunting societal problems, that we are able to keep the bigger picture in mind and remember why we signed up to do this work. We will not get rid of the issues, but we can make a difference in small ways every single day, and that is worth it.