Students Fighting Homelessness

No community is perfect. We live in a society that actively encourages the average individual to act to cause the change they wish to see. However, this is far from the reality. We live under a municipal government tangled in bureaucratic molasses, which ends up drowning out the voice of the individual. Arguably, this effect is reduced in a school setting, as a ruling body dedicated to a much smaller demographic, the student body, would allow for many more to be heard. Less people obviously means an easier path to make a difference, compounded by the fact that the playing field is low stakes compared to city government. Nevertheless, the obstacle of age has proven to be a stunting mechanism that prevents students from actually making effective change. Students have the capacity to generate just as efficient and innovative ideas as adults, and are often more qualified to do so when it comes to reforming the very environment they work in every day. The time has come where students have to stop settling for bake sales and poster campaigns and allowing administration to dampen our thoughts and solutions.

Over the past few months we have been developing our club: Students Fighting Homelessness. Students Fighting Homelessness is an ongoing project where members of the club work together to research the causes of and actively fight homelessness, as well as galvanize support from the Grace student body and the community at large. We work primarily at school to research, and delve into the history behind the affair. Equally as significant however, is our active work. We have already begun to establish constructive dialogue with a homeless shelter run and aided by The First Presbyterian Church, in the Fall and Winter of 2017 we will take trips to the First Presbyterian to both work in the shelter and get a “hands-on” experience of “fighting homelessness”. Members of our club will learn a wide array of skills by expanding out of their comfort zone through dialogue with organizations outside the Grace Community. They will also receive an exposure to charity  and be given the opportunity to perform meaningful and impactful service work.

This club is for the students. It is to empower the students to take action, and set the precedent at this school so that future students can change their environment for the better. Homelessness is a conspicuous issue, but there are countless others that are just as pressing. Whatever the topic, we believe it is the student’s right to be able to address it. The limit of their solution stems only from their ability to solve.

General Information About Our Club:

Where: LL1 (Room right in front of the vending machines)

When: Wednesday’s, 10:10 to 10:40