Empowering the Homeless in Charlotte

Art Education Service-Learning Project in Charlotte

Pamela Harris Lawton (2010) was encouraged by a colleague at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte to create a community art service-learning project that would bring art students and the homeless together through a hands-on creative activity. This activity was the creation of individual quilt squares that were eventually sewn together to make a large community quilt. In order to make this project possible, Lawton collaborated with the Urban Ministry Center (UMC) in Charlotte, an interfaith organization providing meals, showers, and counseling services to the disenfranchised living within the community. Most of the people served by the UMC are homeless and low-income residents of the community. The collaboration between Lawton, the art education department where she taught, and the UMC provided a way to bring art students, UMC staff and volunteers, and the homeless together for the service-learning project. The service-learning project was used to develop a better understanding of homeless' perceptions of being homeless and of the community in which they resided (Lawton, 2010). The goals were to encourage art educators and art students to use their skills in community outreach activities and to broaden a student's perception of art education through promotion of life-long learning in community settings. The social justice goal was to increase exposure to the homeless population, in order to dispel myths and stereotypes, and increase a sense of empowerment in all involved.

A possible reason for Lawton (2010) choosing to use a quilt project as the art activity is because each individual square eventually incorporated into the quit could be completed during the 9 am to 12 pm art education period. The location was a table set up across from the UMC building, providing convenient access for the homeless as they arrived for the midday meal. The simplicity of the activity would also allow ample time for conversations to take place, as educators and students learned about homelessness and being homeless from the homeless. Finally, the cost of materials would be minimal, an important consideration.

Based on the information cited by Lawton (2010), a community-based art education service-learning project can be used to emphasize the more traditional goals of art instructions, promote social justice education, and encourage art students to critically examine important contemporary social issues, such as homelessness and disenfranchisement. Accordingly, experiential learning and narrative forms of communication can play an important role by helping art educators and students learn the personal histories of community members, empower the marginalized through engagement, and form meaningful connections with the marginalized. Lawton (2010) then discussed the five phases of classroom and community integration developed by Gillis. The first phase involves students engaging in self-reflection to help identify their own biases and beliefs about homelessness and the homeless, while the second phase requires students to reflect on the sources of these biases. During the third phase, students investigate the truth that may lie within their biases and beliefs about the homeless and homelessness by digging into the research and documentary literature. The fourth phase involves examining beliefs and assumptions by engaging with the community through an art education service-learning project. Although Lawton (2010) fails to mention the fifth phase, a reasonable assumption would be to gather the information thus gleamed and reflect upon it. This may include publishing accounts of what was learned.

When I came across the mention of soccer by Lawton (2010) as one of the activities hosted by UMC, it was easy to see how someone with my major, sports management, could make valuable contributions to marginalized groups and the community as a whole. For example, professional sports teams could be contacted to elicit interest in sponsoring and meeting with the homeless. Other contributions could be made by arranging for donations of old, but serviceable sports equipment. Coaches and players could be invited to help homeless to learn a sport, thereby helping to foster feelings of accomplishment, empowerment, and social value. However, the opportunities for experiential learning and engaging in narrative forms of communication would seem to be more limited during sports activities compared to an art activity. For this reason, art education may be the better discipline for a service-learning project.