Trip #1: Urban Immersion Exercise (2015-16, T3)

We are officially into Trimester 3 of the 2015-16 school year, so we now have a new group of seniors beginning the course. If you need a refresher on what this blog is, jump back to our first post.

On Thursday, March 17, students traveled to Lakeview to undertake an urban immersion exercise, centered on Clark & Belmont. This activity is inspired by The Night Ministry, who have found that homeless teens use this neighborhood and intersection as a frequent meeting point and try to fend for themselves from there.

Students had the following information:

Your group will imagine that you together are one homeless teenager – you are roving around Lakeview by yourself, with only the clothes on your bag and $5 in your pocket (without knowing where your next money is coming from). Keep in mind that homeless people often have worn-out clothes, hygiene challenges, and dilemmas over breaking vs. following the laws.

Starting from this meeting point (Clark & Belmont), your group will explore an area of Lakeview (your adult will follow behind you and let you know if you need to turn around). You have 45 minutes to answer the following questions that face homeless teens every day:

1. Where/what am I going to eat?
2. Where am I going to go to the bathroom?
3. Where/how am I going to warm up?
4. Where/how am I going to sleep? 
5. Also, as you explore Lakeview, look around and take in the neighborhood: why do you think it is an attractive environment for homeless teenagers?

Representing our class this week on our blog, here are the thoughts of Andrew Pendergast and Gabe LaBoy...

Andrew Pendergast

During this trip we learned about homeless teenagers in Lakeview. This happens everywhere, but in the Chicago Lakeview area, the Clark and Belmont stop is where most teens will go to meet. The area is pretty modern and friendly. It is a welcoming community.

In the case of money, we are talking about teenagers that have nowhere to go because maybe they ran away or got kicked out for other reasons. They are excluded because they have nowhere to go, so they have to find a way to survive with the resources around them. During all of this, teens struggle to find places to eat and drink and just survive in general. This community of people are very welcoming because some of the teens are part of the LGBTQ community and so is the Lakeview neighborhood.

In this situation, I believe that the related Catholic Social Teaching theme would be Call to Family, Community, and Participation. In this theme, it talks about how we push marginalized people away so that we look good. This theme says that public goods should be maintained by all. If people actually followed this then it would give homeless people a chance to live lives that would be more comfortable. Also, it says that Christ calls us to uphold the family as the domestic church and the basis for fostering community and active participation in society. By following this, we are upholding the teaching that we should participate in society while giving people chances to learn and grow.

For me this experience has opened my eyes and it makes me feel sad that people are going though this all the time. One of my best friends was homeless and gay, and we became buddies. I feel that this issue is always overlooked because no one really understands the impacts that it has. Even while volunteering at different places in Chicago, you can see poor teens everywhere suffering. I feel that even though I’m not Christian, I believe that Jesus would have called us to act with love and faith to help those who are less fortunate to be able to make something of themselves and be satisfied.

As for taking action, you could do many things. You could volunteer at shelters or even fundraise. We could easily make sandwiches and food for the homeless teens so that way they have a meal to eat because even the smallest things will go along way. Like the story with Jesus and the loaves of bread and the fish, if we give back to the community, there is always great benefits. You are helping people who have been marginalized and need help to make sure that they can have a comfortable life.

Overall, this experience was great to be able to see the things that God calls us to do in action. I am very happy to have been able to participate and be able to be part of something that will change my viewpoint on these current situations so I can try to be helpful to others.

Gabe LaBoy

My group and I were asked to put ourselves in the place of homeless teens; we had to find a place to eat, sleep, stay warm, and use the bathroom. My group consisted of a few other students and myself. We first started out by figuring out what homeless teens liked the Lakeview area. The area around there and within Lakeview is safer than the other parts of the city around there. We also made predictions on the type of kids that might be homeless teens that might be around there, and we guessed that a lot are probably LGBTQ and feel safer in a community where people accepted it more than others. But this so much bigger than just our city or state or country; this is on a global scale. There are millions of homeless teens all over the world, and I think they want to find a place they know can handle a lot of their needs all in one. I don't know why there are so many teens that are homeless, and it is really sad to think about because I guess there can be a host of reasons why someone can be homeless. That's the scary part - that this can happen to anyone at anytime and it shows you that anything can happen in life.
Being homeless you have a need for food, water, and shelter, so things like phones and going to the movies fade away. It comes down to surviving, to getting things you need, and Lakeview has a lot of money coming in to it where it is easier to ask more people for it. On the other hand, because there is a lot of money coming into the 44th Ward, others are trying to push homeless people out of Lakeview and put them on the lakefront so the people in the neighborhood don't have to see homeless kids everywhere. But there are places trying to help these kids out, like shelters and the church and even the public library.

In the Gospel of Matthew (25:35-36). Jesus says that we need to support the poor and homeless. He says that the way we treat the homeless should be the same as how you treat Him. Jesus tells you to always to help out everyone that needs it, and that doesn't always happen in this day and age.

This activity showed me how hard it is to be homeless. You have to worry about everything around you. I don't know how anyone can survive in this situation, and I feel bad for everyone that has to do it. I do not think I could do it. It would be very hard for anyone to become homeless. I understand what it feels like to be marginalized because of being a minority myself. but at the same time, I could never think of how I would make in that position. I personally feel like as a society we should do more to help kids and anyone that is homeless and I would stand with anyone that does. As a response I feel like there should be more shelter and places for people to get jobs and people to stay and live.

The people should be more aware of the things going on. People may see homeless on the streets and feel bad, but they don't see the people trying to make a difference out there. Anyone can help with donations, service, and volunteering. I can say this activity has made me look forward to going out and helping people out on our future field trips. That's how we help them - we show that we care and are here to help share time and compassion because sometimes that's just what someone needs.

Note: Minor grammar/style edits have been made to each post not affecting the content or perspective of these students.

Trip #8: Misericordia

On Wednesday, February 17, students from our class spent the afternoon at the Misericordia campus on the north side of Chicago. Students were split up into different assignments around campus, ranging from laundry to bakery to art classes to office work and more. Students partnered with clients and residents from Misericordia to participate in these activities for the day. (Note: this post will not include pictures due to privacy restrictions.) Here are some thoughts from Aileen Juarez and Mariam Mekha on their experience...

Aileen Juarez

Last Wednesday, our class took a trip to Misericordia. The campus was beautiful pulling up, some of us commenting it looked like a small Catholic college campus or a preppy school. The inside was bright and vibrant, with lots of sunlight coming through all the glass. One woman pulled us into a banquet hall and told us how they operated - money coming from the bakery, activities and programs inside the building, apartments nearby for the mentally ill to live in, and how they received education until 22. I was assigned an art room where they were all painting small wood ornaments. The teacher at first seemed a bit hostile with the patients there but I saw that they enjoyed it, giggling at every one of her light-hearted insults. She was not easy on them - one patient dropped a vase and sat idly just remarking sorry. "Sorry for what? You're going to clean that up, C'mon go, I'm not your maid, sir." Entering the room, I was welcomed with "Hello, I'm the teacher, this is-" "Hi! I'm ALICE*!" "ALICE SIT DOWN!," the teacher responded. It was rather funny, for the entire time the teacher tried explaining what she did and what I was to do, Alice kept attempting to approach me to introduce herself, only to get yelled at by the teacher to go sit down.

After receiving a smock and deciding where to have me work, the teacher thought I would be better off working with Alice since she was waving her hands frantically in the air to have me sit with her. We colored in wooden ornaments, Alice coloring them in and me decorating them. Soon we were joined by another patient, who was a little shy but very artistic. Alice chatted on about her trip to Florida, how much she loved the color green, and the fun stuff she did with her mom over christmas. The other patient (her name has currently slipped my mind) explained to me how much she loved Mandala art and wanted to learn to draw them and how she was having relationship troubles. They both loved talking, talking about anything really. Alice told me multiple times that her mother bought her a green jacket, at one point with her telling me her mom got her a jacket and me replying, "and was it green Alice?" "How did you know?" "You told me ten minutes ago!" The entire time, other patients were walking about the room, looking at what everyone was doing and trying to get a look at me. At one point, I grew bored of waiting for more green ornaments to decorate, so I started sketching on the paper towel we were painting over. I was drawing a face with dramatic eyes when one patient came up behind me and exclaimed, "Wow! You're really good! Teacher, come look!" The teacher came by and so did a few other patients to take a look. They were all amazed with a mediocre drawing until the other client I was working with got really excited. "That's it! I want to learn that, that's what I was talking about!" A few others joined in and wanted to learn too, so the teacher began ordering them to bring sketch books the following day. I suppose I began a sketching class? Either way, it was time to clean up and my client became preoccupied with making sure her cups were clean. I cleaned my area and headed out. 

Coming in and seeing all those people in the room at first made me nervous. I am really bad at small talk but they didn't seem to mind. They just came up to me and let me know something random about them or asked me random questions. They just loved having me there. It was impressive seeing the way they treated them there. The staff was nice to them, yet they weren't afraid to be blunt with them or make them do things on their own. They were very social, and not too different, just slightly slower, and a little forgetful. These people though, are the most friendly people there are. They were very well mannered and continued telling me thank you for spending time with them. 

I love these people for what they go through and how they handle the situation. They get treated differently - they're laughed at, ridiculed, never taken seriously, and yet they continue smiling and laughing with no problem. They feel pain, and most will tell you they don't like when people do certain things to them, but they quickly forget about it and focus on you, whoever they're with. These people need to be protected. These people need to be told what is not ok, not appropriate, and what to do when other people mistreat them. This was a beautiful environment for them. They were very social with each other and staff, keeping conversation way longer than I could ever hope for. Other reasons I like this place a lot is because I have my own mentally challenged family member. My brother has slight autism and I would like him to be as social and happy as these people. 

I would like to return to Misericordia to help with the art program. I would like to aid in a sketch class if that becomes its own program and bring my little brother here to help and socialize. There was so much energy in the room and so much going on at once. This is a great place. They were all so vibrant. I would like to go into this work some point in college as volunteer work if I could.

Mariam Mekha

The experience I had visiting Misericordia was amazing in my opinion. This program gives a disabled people a chance to learn a wonderful experience till they are 22 years old. This program got me to meet with one of the students. He is one of the amazing artist, showing great detail with his drawing. We got to talk about art, and the little bit of our backgrounds. One of the cool things is he is vary excited about school, and it surprised me at how positive his energy was.

Misericordia gathers people to spend time with others, and it is good so that families know that they are in safe place for the day plus they are learning something valuable such as art, poetry, or cooking. The guy I talked to told me that he lives in this community, but some of his other friends do not have to. They could just come every day like school or college. Either way, the program provides food, a place to talk, read, or play games if you want. Also, they provide garden activities for students who want to walk around. They also provide for other people to take care of them in case if anything happens.

"And his disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is the day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'" (John 9:2-7) People asked Jesus about the disabled people being sinners and why they are disabled, and Jesus said they are not sinners. I like this story because people once thought that if you are disabled, then something must be wrong with you, but God shows all of us on earth that each one of us have a story to tell and to share with others.

The experience I had while working with the class and other people was great for making new friends as well as making me see people's true colors. I learned a lot of amazing things about this program. It helped me a lot to get to know what amazing and talented people they are. It showed me that we are no different than anyone. In fact, my client and his friends made me feel safe to talk to them and share part of me with them. It is sad to see that today many people think and act like kids are unintelligent, and I wish we could do something about it. Maybe we could just ask each person to make time to help by doing something - it does not have to be a major thing but just a small thing like what my class had done, that would make our world better.

Note: Minor grammar/style edits have been made to each post not affecting the content or perspective of these students.

* Names have been changed or redacted.