Homelessness Awareness Week 2010

Something grounding amidst holiday madness

November 15, 2010, 02:27 AM By Kat McGuire

For many people, the holiday season is a time for not only enjoying life’s bounty with friends and family, but also for sharing with less fortunate members of our communities. Appropriately, National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week falls the week before Thanksgiving — Nov. 14-20 — inviting Americans to take action toward eliminating a problem that afflicts even our country’s most affluent areas.Here in ultra-expensive San Mateo county, the possibility of homelessness is a grim reality even for hard-working families. Thankfully, our county’s shelters, food banks and social service agencies provide a safety net for our neighbors in need. Many of these agencies rely on community support to function, and the holidays provide a great opportunity to get involved.

Here are a few suggestions as to how you might make a difference in the fight against poverty, inequality, hunger and homelessness this holiday season. While the importance of monetary donations during this time of economic hardship should not be minimized, you might consider the following as additional ways to increase your solidarity with those in need.

• Check out the National Coalition for the Homeless website, www.nationalhomeless.org. There you will find ideas for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week such as organizing a solidarity fast, a fundraising event, or a reading and discussion group.

• Try visiting shelters for different types of people. Although for many, the word “homeless” elicits images of solitary street people battling addictions or mental illness, the reality of San Mateo County’s homeless population couldn’t be more diverse. While the aforementioned description does apply to a portion of our county’s homeless residents, another large group is comprised of families fallen upon hard times. A job loss, family break-up or apartment fire are everyday occurrences that can push an average, self-sufficient family into homelessness. Simply enlarging our understanding of who is homeless is an important step toward confronting this problem.

• Volunteer as a mentor for youth — especially if you’re a man. The wait list for male mentors through agencies such as Friends For Youth or Big Brothers, Big Sisters can be as long as a year. Countless at-risk boys could benefit from individualized attention from a positive male role model.

• Remember that the most helpful tasks are sometimes the most boring. While volunteering to play with kids at your local shelter might be more fun, what might actually benefit the cash-strapped agency the most is your grunt labor, organizing the food pantry or filing paperwork.

• Feel intimidated by your lack of direct service experience? Don’t be. Most social service agencies will find creative ways to put your skills to use, whatever they might be. Do you have a background in accounting? If so, you might offer to teach low-income clients personal finance skills. Are you a great writer? Offer to help clients struggling to find work revamp their resumes.

• Build ongoing relationships with your local service agencies and shelters. Although many agencies find themselves inundated with donations and volunteers around the holidays, this support typically trickles off after the New Year. Volunteering regularly at the same agency will help you build relationships with staff and clients, provide you with a better understanding of the agency, and increase your overall helpfulness as, over time, you learn skills and tasks needed by the agency.

Observing National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week by taking just one of these actions helps move us all in the direction of a more just and equitable society. And you never know — you may find the time you spend volunteering at your local food bank or shelter to be the perfect respite from the usual commercial, frenetic pace of the holidays.

Kat McGuire is a case manager at Shelter Network of San Mateo County. She is a candidate for a master’s in social welfare, management and planning concentration at the University of California at Berkeley.

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?type=opinions&title=Something%20grounding%20amidst%20holiday%20madness&id=146062