A pic

Here's a pic of some of my co-workers.

Cause of Homelessness
K presented homelessness as usually having a personal root. Caused by addiction and mental health problems. That sucks. Where’s the hope in that? How can we prevent people from being born or developing mental health issues? I would rather it be issues of affordable housing, gentrification, public policy and common societal practices. I know how to address those. With those we can do more than just clean up. There is hope of an end to the problem. There is work to be done to address the root of the problem. Of course, not every one agrees with K, including the National Coalition for the Homeless. At least I don’t think. One of the their staff members will hopefully be coming to speak to the program staff hear about the causes of homelessness. It’s amazing that this isn’t something that is rolling in my head; a constant question every time I meet a participant. When addressing the immediate needs of a participant, a question of how they came to be in the position they are in is unnecessary intrusiveness.
Posted at 17:16 #

Thoughts on privilege
L talked about casework as using our positions of privilege to work the system for the unprivileged. Something about it seems bad. I don’t want to use the thing I’m not supposed to have. But . . . whom I kidding. I use it (my privilege) all the time. Its not like going to college, which uses my privilege, presents any moral problems for me. So why should using for case work? Realistically speaking, if I wasn’t using it for people that come into SM I would probably do what I have always done and use it for myself.
Posted at 17:08 #

Beginning house and work life
My life in D.C. seems to be more solitary. At least for now. House-mates are not around much or not interested in making a new friend right before they leave. I am incredibly gracious for the social outreach they have already given to me, by inviting me to go to events they are going to and giving good opportunities to meet communities of people, but can understand that this is a gift they don’t get much reward out of. I’m not sure if I like or dislike this mostly solitary life. It certainly is relaxing. Time to make bread (although it costs more for the raw ingredients than it would to buy a cheap loaf), to watch movies, read the post. But surely this isn’t what I really want. It doesn’t fit into my idea of what my life should look like.

But this (isolation) is only part of my life. There’s this whole “being a case-worker” part of it too. I talked with K this afternoon about whether Samaritan Ministries was trying to solve the problem of homelessness as well as help the homeless. I’m not really sure what her answer was (kind of difficult question to answer simply), but it alludes back to my uneasiness with something about Samaritan Ministries. But then, I tend to be critical of most organizations and these people seem sincere, they know what they’re doing and they’re realistic. And I know they can’t do everything. Maybe it ties into my feeling of disconnect from “the homeless experience” or some of the basic images that make up the homeless picture. I would like to visit other organizations to see their approach and also understand some basic questions such as what makes homelessness so bad. And why does it keep happening? I suppose (and I hope) these are eternal questions for a case worker. It’s the kind of questions I was fortunate to have the chance to get at while on SST in Cambodia because I had the cover of a school project. I’m embarrassed to ask them because the answers would be obvious to those I ask and the very act of asking the question may seem to say that there isn’t a good answer. I could make some guesses to the answers of these fundamental questions, but I would like to hear from the appropriate authorities: those for whom the answer and the question is a part of their life.
Posted at 16:20 #

An Introduction
[www.samaritanministry.org...] -- This summer, I am doing an internship with Samaritan Ministry in Washington, D.C. Samaritan Ministry is a 'self-help' style resource center for homeless people. It operates the 'next step program' where participants identify long term goals for themselves and then smaller 'next steps' to acheiving those goals. As a case-worker I will help them identify these goals and provide any resources I have or know about to help them acheive these goals. I also follow up on participants to make sure things are going well. Whelp, that's it for my intro. more to come soon.
Posted at 20:09 #