I met with my mentor, Loretta, on Monday and she gave me articles to read and referred some other organizations to talk with. From our discussion, I figured out that I want to focus on helping younger people. Loretta explained how after 21 people are considered chronically homeless. I don't know if I am going to be able to create a potluck but I have contacted some other associations to connect with. Loretta also invited me (plus one) to volunteer at the Manna Soup Kitchen with her youth group. I will be attending that tonight with Grace. From talking with the director of the soup kitchen, I was advised not to straight up interview the people there but just start a conversation and go with the flow of it.
This is a map that they have at the soup kitchen showing where people can stay and not. It was an interesting experience volunteering there because there were a mixture of different people there. Some were really friendly, some not--just a lot of different personalities. It was cool to see a community [the homeless] come together and see them joking around with each other and whatnot. Something that really hit deep was a father and daughter I saw. She was no older than eight, had a messy hair cut, but she was adorable. Her father was really kind and caring for her but that's definitely a heart wrenching moment seeing someone that really could've been any of us at that age grow up relying on a soup kitchen.
I'm going to keep trying to communicate with the youth center here to see what other opportunities there are to get involved with here.
I'm going to keep trying to communicate with the youth center here to see what other opportunities there are to get involved with here.