Microtheme

Microtheme

            Whenever I pass by a homeless asking for donations, I give them money. Sure, no one truly knows if they will make good use of it but that choice isn’t up to me. One time, I was walking with friends and we passed by a homeless man and I was the only one who gave him money. Afterwards, my friends argued with me that the homeless man was just going to use it to buy drugs or alcohol and that if he wants money, he should just get a job. I told them that it isn’t easy to get a job being homeless. I realized that many people don’t consider the homeless’ possible situations. Why aren’t people educated on the difficulty of getting a job while being homeless?

             Many people are not educated enough on how difficult it is for the homeless to get jobs. Because of this, it does not raise people’s attention or desire to help the homeless. A reason why I give money to homeless is because possibly, they do not have a place to shower so if they get a job interview, often times they don’t have clothes for it and smell unpleasant. Because of this, they are denied the job position.

            If we can begin to think more seriously about why homeless don’t have a job, and consider their possible situation, we may be able to find it in the kindness of our hearts and see things from their perspective.

Obama Foundation Training

This past Saturday, I attended the Obama Foundation Training. I had to apply before hand and I got accepted to attend. This training was an all day thing from 8am-8pm. At the training we learned about narrative storytelling, community organizing, radical empathy, and alignment of values to action. At the end, there was a surprise visit from the former President Obama! We were all freaking out and I even got to shake his hand. 

One thing that relates to this class is the narrative storytelling. An organization called Narrative4, were one of the organizations that came in to do a workshop. We had been set into groups and my group joined another group. We went to another room where we all sat in a circle and were randomly assigned a partner. We had to sit face to face with the partner and exchange a story that impacted our lives. When your partner was telling the story, you had to stay silent and only listen. Until they were finished, you can then comment and ask questions. After both partners shared their stories, we went into the circle with the entire group. We had to present the story of our partner to the group in first person as if we were the other person. This gave us a chance to be in their shoes.

There were so many great activities and workshops that taught me so much. Because of this, I am hosting an event in Joliet in November similar to the Obama Foundation Training. It was an over all great experience and I am motivated more than ever before to turn my ideas into actions.