As a student at West Virginia University, Morgantown is a place you have to get used to.
The college town is a lot different from most of our hometowns and we slowly become familiar with the city's odd hours, the intricate study halls and its busy traffic.
However, something we've also become well adapted to (though, we may not admit it) is the appearance of homeless people in the community.
After my three years here, these citizens have become familiar faces, though I haven't given enough of my time to become more familiar with them.
My goal is not only to urge others to reach out to those who are poverty stricken, but to better allow society to perceive them as who they are: real people, with personalities and a story, and hopefully: a desire for a better life.
I’ve heard it all before: “I don’t feel sorry for them – they’ve chosen that lifestyle,” “Not my problem,” or “Why don’t they just get a job?”
Though I don’t judge anyone negatively for not understanding or relating to situations they’ve never been in – I do want people to view those who are less fortunate in a different light and stop to ask themselves these questions:
How did they wind up here?
What has happened in their lives that they are now living on the streets?
Where is their family?
Do they have anyone who cares for them?
What would I do if I was in their shoes?
There are many compassionate people in the world – and many in this community. However, it’s hard for people to find the initiative to support a cause they don’t know much about and to help others they don’t really know.
This blog’s main focus is to urge the community to be more observant of their surroundings and introduce them to organizations they can support, like the local Bartlett House, and to give advice on how to help others if you feel like you don’t have much to give financially (like the majority of struggling students living on loans and paying rent, like myself.)
Just because we’re college students struggling ourselves doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference. Just remember – it could always, always be worse.
Such an important topic to explore and educate more people about. I like the particular angle you're planning to explore, as well, in terms of highlighting resources and organizations locally that are working to address the needs of homeless people in Morgantown. I'm wondering, too, if you might be planning to connect to/link to our blogs that are exploring the homeless issue in other cities and towns or even blogs that more broadly address the causes and consequences of homelessness in the United States. What might those more overarching examinations of the issue of homelessness stand to gain from your local-level focus, and what might your local-level focus stand to gain from that more overarching exploration of the topic?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm curious about your choice of the word "epidemic." What, to you, does that particular word mean? What conditions locally give you the sense that Morgantown faces an "epidemic" in terms of homelessness? Is it a word that others do use to describe the local situation, or is it a word that you want people to begin using? And what are the consequences of using this term instead of, say, "the homeless problem"? What's the nature of an epidemic? Who's responsible for the outbreak of epidemics? Who's responsible for controlling or resolving epidemics?