Homelessness Nobel Prize Peace Prize

Homelessness Nobel Prize Peace Prize recipient and catholic nun and missionary bestowed her message of kindness and love via some basic advice reminder, to "smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other." It is with Mother Theresa's advice that society should transfer on to the homeless population domestically as well as in the international sense.

There are a myriad of actions and frameworks of thought that can be instilled into the general public that could improve the overall outlook on the homeless population and ultimately, the public could harness that knowledge and compassion into improving the plight that homeless people experience. Foremost, it is imperative that as San Franciscans, Americans and as human beings that the outlook of the homeless population is altered, so that eventually it will help implement different actions to help the homeless population.

Jan Gurley asserts in her article, "Homelessness kills, but we can save lives," that society has experienced a great deal of "compassionate fatigue" when it comes to the homeless population- that "the feeling that there's nothing new about the intractable problem homelessness" leaves people just tired of being so compassionate. As human beings, there needs to be an effort to gain new information about the homeless population in this country.

Gurley goes onto say that there are many reasons that society should care including the humanitarian and economic factors as well as the power to prevent the vicious cycle of homelessness into the future. The economic factor is one of the more interesting components that can be harnessed to change the outlook that society has on homelessness. In modern day society, where the economic woes of our nation have seemingly impacted everyone in some capacity, it would helpful to capitalize on that impact and educate people about homelessness.

Gurley also explain in her article that "dying on the streets is not cheap," mostly because of the health implications that they face usually exhaust healthcare resources in "sporadic, high-cost ways." If people were aware of this, would they be more inclined to prevent homelessness all together? Upon initial glance, it seems that homelessness does not affect anyone or anything but the individual that is out on the street but, as Gurley has explored, homelessness's impact does proliferate far beyond the streets and into our pockets.

In addition, the Fact Sheet for College Students from the National Coalition from the Homeless also provides more instances in which homelessness impacts society as a whole including, the funding several government programs like Section 8/Public housing, HUD Homeless Assistance Grants and health care for the homeless. With this information, it could arm the public into taking more action into preventing homelessness in order to ultimately improve their own economic health. Although the humanitarian component is quite strong, it is, as Gurley says, fatigued when it comes to homelessness.

Hopefully, by appealing to a facet of people's lives that has an impact on them and by educating them on how homelessness impacts their lives through economic means, they would take more measures to prevent homelessness and attempt to address the issue. In addition to the campus actions that the National Coalition for the Homeless has provided, it seems that educating society as a whole on homelessness might be a way to appeal to them to prevent the cycle of homelessness all together.

The more information that the public is aware of the more the compassionate fatigue may transform into people doing something to prevent homelessness all together. For example, education programs can be instilled in communities where homelessness is rampant in order to improve individual's marketable skills. For example, there are programs in which people can tutor women for the GED, as obviously without education, it is difficult for people to go further in the job market.

In addition to a basic academic education, there needs to be a program that teaches homeless people the importance of daily activities including hygiene and etiquette, valuable skills that may have been lost while their time was spent on the streets or in shelters. The life skills may help them sustain themselves so they can stay off the streets and in more comfortable lives. In addition,.