The stories are as varied as the people, but certainly one cannot lump every homeless person into a bundle and say they "want to be" in this condition (Conference of Mayors, 2009). My assignement for Thanksgiving Day was filling coffee and Kool-Aid. This was perfect because it forced me to interact and get to know some of the clients in a different way. This was a real paradigm shift, and something that took me out of my comfort zone and provided a new personal achievement for me. I found the clients, for the most part to be engaging, interesting, and polite. They were so genuinely grateful that I was taken aback by the sheer emotionality of the situation.

Because of this Holiday experience, I continued on with the shelter a minimum of two days per week. I quickly found that one of the issues that seemed to be holding many of the individuals back was their lack of literacy skills. So, with the help of one of the monitors, we set up a twice a week reading session. Within a few months we had several successes. Some...

While many times it was frightening and out of my comfort zone, I am so very glad for the experiences.
REFERENCES

Housing and Urban Development, Dept. (2010). "Chronic Homelessness." HUD.GOV.

Cited in: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/chronic.cfm

U.S. Conference of Mayors. (December 2009). "Hunger and Homelessness."

USMAYORS.ORG. Cited in:

http://usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/USCMHungercompleteWEB2009.pdf