From Theory to Action

When I returned home from #RealCollege last Monday night, I was ignited and overwhelmed all at once. The enormity of the issues facing our students was never clearer, and it was hard to know where to begin. As I mentioned in an earlier article (A Call to Action), the reality of homelessness in Philadelphia was moving, and I came home wanting to do something. After hearing Mark Horvath of Invisible People say that the greatest barrier to solving homelessness was our inability to relate to it, I decided to take his advice and go out and see if I could do a little to help and meet people as people. I made up some woefully inadequate introduction kits pictured here. 

It was just two pairs of socks and some granola bars I hoped would break the ice, and I could see what else people might need and perhaps even preach the gospel of the poverty informed education we are trying so hard to offer. Mandy, my associate dean, who had been so moved the weekend before, wanted to come too, so we waited until Friday. Right before lunch time, we threw a few baggies in my messenger bag (aka man purse) and her bag as well and set off to the neighborhood around the college.

We started out at the park across from our Administrative Center, which has had a number of people in it all summer but is emptier now as the weather is changing. On this day, we could only see two people. There was a man sleeping next to a wheelchair and about 20 feet away there was a young woman. We didn't want to wake anyone up, so we approached the young woman, and I quickly realized we had no real plan. "Hi, are you staying out here?" is what came out of my mouth... She responded "No, I'm just waiting for a friend," which was clearly not true. Now I began to see this exchange through her eyes and realized what I saw as two very nice adults looking to help could be seen very differently for a young woman alone in a park. Mandy could sense the awkwardness as well and jumped in and asked if the young woman was a student at Western and told her we worked at the college. She also assured her we were not selling anything or handing out bibles. That didn't seem to ease her anxiety either, and in hindsight might have sounded like we were telling her she couldn't be there... At this point, I knew we needed to move on, but I wanted to reassure her. I said, "My name is Chad, this is my friend Mandy, and we are just seeing what we can do to help people." She let down her guard a little and told us her name was Maddie, but as we walked away, she quickly got up and walked across the street to the public library. It was hard to believe we had done anything but frighten her. It was not an auspicious beginning.

After a less than successful encounter with Maddie, we walked on and engaged in some gallows humor about how bad we were at this, but we resolved to keep trying. Our discomfort seemed mild in comparison to the people we were meeting. A couple blocks away we came across a young man sitting in a sleeping bag next to a bicycle. I still didn't have a good opener, so I went with "Hi, how are you" this time. Fortunately, he was very friendly and outgoing and said hi back. I offered my socks and granola bar package, and he enthusiastically accepted. I introduced myself and he said his name was Brandon. Mandy asked him what else he thought he might need, and he said he wasn't interested in money, but if we could ever help him with a good bike lock it would help him protect his bike. The idea of him having to sleep with one eye open to protect that very important asset has stuck with me. I asked Brandon a little about how he had ended up outdoors, and he shared he didn't want to stay at the Salvation Army currently and felt like he had what he needed where he was. I asked if he had ever considered coming to school, and to my surprise, he said he was a student at Western. When I asked what he was studying, he said he was just "brushing up" right now but was thinking about the paralegal program. As he said brushing up, I realized I had seen him before, and he was a student in my department. This was real college indeed...

As we were talking with Brandon, we were quickly approached by a couple from further down the block. The man introduced himself as "Joe Johnson from Wisconsin", and his partner introduced herself as Lynn. Joe was a frenetic character and took a bag of socks and immediately put on a clean pair. Lynn was more reticent and said the socks probably wouldn't fit in her shoes because they were thick athletic socks. We made a note to have some bags with socks for women the next time out. When we asked what else they might need, Lynn mentioned a cup of coffee cost $.94 and Joe said he could use a couple dollars too. We were glad to help out. As we got to know each other, Lynn shared she had been on the streets for three years. I asked what they did as the weather got colder, and they mentioned that the warming center would open November 1st for overnights and when I asked what they would do during the winter days, they said "survive." Lynn shared she had 4 children she didn't see very often, and it was very hard to get off the streets once you were on them. She said she struggled with alcoholism for much of her life as well. Mandy may believe in education as the path out of poverty more than anyone I know, and she jumped right in to asking Lynn if she had considered coming back to school. Lynn said she wasn't really thinking about it, but had considered going back for a GED maybe. Our college is 3 blocks from where Lynn was staying, and she didn't know anything about it. Mandy told her classes were free, the building is warm, and we provide snacks for guests. Her interest perked up and I hope we see her soon. What an audacious act of courage it would be to pursue her GED. Wouldn't it be our moral imperative to do everything we could to make that happen? And if nothing else, she knows there is a place in town where she could be warm, get a little something to eat, and people would believe she has a future. I wish I'd been brave enough to ask these three to let me take a picture, but I didn't that day. I hope to see them again and take one if they will let me. I can't help but just hope they are safe. I drove by their spot yesterday, and they weren't there, so I don't know how permanent it is.

So, it was an interesting morning with a pretty bumpy start and a finish that showed us the humanity of people in our community. Poverty informed practice says relationships matter, contexts matter, and community matters. If we are serious about trying to help people change their economic reality and the arc of their future stories, it seems we must start by simply engaging. It was an emotional morning, and the things we could bring to them seemed so woefully inadequate, and our own lives seem so privileged and a little ridiculous in comparison. Lynn thanked us for stopping to talk and said many people act like they aren't even there. It was embarrassing to think I had walked past people just 5 days earlier in another city. It is hard to know what to do or where to start, but eye contact and some socks at least started a conversation with some people who had names and life stories, and maybe just a little more hope after our time together.