Project to help our community

After a few weeks of discussion, debate, research, and calling local organizations, we finally selected our charitable organizations in which we wish to help in our community.  Our students will divide and conquer, working on three projects over the next month.  One group will prepare, cook, and serve dinner at Pathfinders; a local organization which helps children impacted by poverty and homelessness.  One group will create and deliver tie blankets to Milwaukee Women’s Shelter; which primarily serves abused women and children.  One group will work on collecting much needed winter supplies for Hope House; which helps many homeless veterans in our city.

 

As we have progressed our ideas past the idea stage, we have done so with a collaborative ideology in mind.  All students in their groups utilize the same Google Document, allowing for close collaboration within each group.  After each group finished, we shared our documentation with other groups, allowing for Positive, Specific, and Helpful feedback to occur.

Coming up with a cause

Our students are divided on what populations we wish to help.  The students have selected three main populations in Milwaukee in need of help: children, abuse victims, and veterans.  Right now, we are working in small groups to find out more information about each of these populations, as well as charities within the region dedicated to helping solve the problem of homelessness afflicting these populations.

 

If you have any suggestions, feel free to suggest to your child.

Classroom discussion

On Friday, our students utilized the platform of TodaysMeet (Twitter in an enclosed environment, open only to us) to have a discussion about homelessness and our viewpoints.  We have already begun our research and information collecting in relation to homelessness in the Milwaukee area.  What we are doing now is figuring out where we stand mentally when thinking about/interacting with homeless people.  Do we look the other way?  Feel uncomfortable?  Judge?

We wanted to better understand our feelings in a safe space.  Feel free to read our silent discussion transcript to better understand how your child/children think about the homeless community and what can we do to possibly change perceptions.

Studying Homelessness

As we dive into our main focus this year of homelessness and how we can help end this problem within our community, the students are being asked to read articles related to the topic.  Below is our expanding list of articles we are reading as we look to increase our knowledge on this matter.  If you have any relevant and current articles to suggest, please feel free to do so.

October 9:

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/opinion/in-milwaukee-a-developing-crisis-of-homelessness-b9995407z1-223701801.html/

https://www.milmission.org/understand

http://www.capuchincommunityservices.org/

 

October 16:

Interview: Formerly Homeless Veteran Takes Captivating Photos of Life on the Street

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/11/seattle-homelessness-backyard-tiny-home-block-project

https://kindnessblog.com/2014/07/04/stats-on-the-homeless-an-infographic/amp/