Fieldwork+Day+-+Nov+15+-+Homelessness

Pictures of our trip to [|CCH]

The CCH staff includes people who were once homeless themselves. Drea lived in a homeless shelter for several years during high school, and while she was an excellent student, her public school forced her to change schools because the shelter was not located in the school's district. Now, she said, there is a federal statute that prohibits that practice.

Jim Field led us through the important differences between direct service, advocacy, and organizing. We listened with varying levels of attention.



Drea explained how important it is to get homeless people to learn how to advocate for themselves.

Jim explained some of the principles of organizing. He pointed out that the goal of organizing is to win. But in order to win, you have to start with where people are. You are not trying to convert people or change their moral outlook - you have to accept their values in order to work with them. He asked us to think about the difference between irritation and agitation: both of them stir people up, but irritation just gets people mad at you. If you agitate people, they don't want to get mad, they want to get moving, they want to get even. I ventured that while irritation rubs people the wrong way, agitation rubs them the right way.



Charles is one of the staff members who often speaks to groups about homelessness. Hannah is the organizer of the speakers bureau. Charles told us about his ten years of homelessness - for the first eight years, he didn't consider himself homeless because there was always a couch or a spare room at a friend's or a relative's. He characterized himself as "mismanaging" his life, alienating all those near to him at the same time that drugs confused his ability to see clearly and accurately what is going on. Hannah told us about a therapeutic program in Illinois that supports the homeless in making life changes. She asked us to consider working with the coalition to support legislation to fund this program at a higher level in the next budget.