Project Homeless Connect<\/a>. It was my first time volunteering for it.<\/p>\nMy task: to walk a section of the city with three other volunteers and try to engage the homeless people we encountered, telling them about the project and encouraging them to go to the auditorium for assistance (hot meal, clothes, medical care, etc.). The weather was gorgeous today. We walked probably six miles — I was out there for four hours.<\/p>\n
It’s quite an experience to strike up a conversation with a homeless person. They are nearly invisible in our culture. We usually walk right by, only grazing them with a glance. <\/p>\n
First there’s the issue of how to determine who is homeless. Some people walking the streets in ratty clothing are not<\/em> bereft of a residence, and you want not to insult anyone. There is also the issue of how to approach a person. You never want to rouse a sleeping person. One reason is to avoid startling them and perhaps receiving an injury. Another reason (I think) is that when one is homeless, the last boundary that person has is the ability to close one’s eyes. To not wake a sleeping person is a way of respecting that person, of allowing them to have a little sanctuary in their exposed condition.<\/p>\nIt was a hit and miss experience. We attempted to talk to about two dozen people, and perhaps five or six of those listened and allowed us to give them directions to the center. If I do this project next time, I’ll volunteer to work in the auditorium assisting the other providers.<\/p>\n
It was a long day. I arrived home at 7:45. Husband made dinner, and I nearly fell asleep in my plate. And so this post ends here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I arose at 5 a.m. this morning, caught the train to San Francisco, and arrived at Bill Graham auditorium by 8:30 a.m. Today was the 9th occurrence of Project Homeless Connect. It was my first time volunteering for it. My task: to walk a section of the city with three other volunteers and try to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regional"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12333,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions\/12333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}