The Joy of Service

Posted on June 20, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also published on The Huffington Post.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.
– Rabindranath Tagore

“Service.” The word alone can conjure up a daunting feeling of being responsible for doing something we might not like or want to do. Perhaps, the thought of having to do “community service” is overwhelming. Please read on, you may be surprised.

The word “service” has many uses. Dictionary.com finds that “service” can be used as a noun, “an act of helpful activity;” it can be used as an adjective, “of service, useful;” it can be used as a verb, “to make fit for use;” and it’s even employed in idioms, “at someone’s service” and “be of service.” And, of course, we use the word “service” to describe those people who defend this country in “military service.”

Where can we serve? We can serve in our own family by simply sharing our love. We can serve those in our own neighborhoods through acts of kindness and compassion. We can serve individually or together at every level of our culture. Obviously, all of us, regardless of age, can serve.

Is service helpful? Service is always helpful. Through service, by definition, we help. However, scientific research studies also have shown that when we serve our immune systems can actually get stronger. Who wouldn’t want a stronger immune system?

Further, when we serve, we exercise our better inclinations and attitudes. We know that “practice makes perfect.” So, as we serve, it becomes more natural for us to serve. Through repetition, service becomes more familiar and easier to do. In very short order, service can become a habit, a way of life.

Can you imagine what the world would look like if we all had the “service habit?” Compassionate acts would be everywhere. Rather than greed, we might exhibit understanding and kindness as the first response many of us have to life situations.

Perhaps most profoundly, whether we are conscious of this or not, every act of service has a spiritual quality. It is through service that we acknowledge through action that we are brothers and sisters to one another and that we share a common home, planet Earth.

I believe that this spiritual quality is expressed within each of us as joy. It is this joy that Rabindranath Tagore refers to in the above quote. I call this “the joy response.”

Please test your “joy response” by taking the following steps:

1. Reflect on your present mood. Notice if you are happy, sad or bored.

2. Do something to help another person or a cause.

3. Reflect on your mood after your service. I’m betting you will be feeling joy. You may even be smiling.

If you have never felt “the joy response,” I can tell you that this automatic reaction within each of us is a pure expression of love. Because we automatically give ourselves “the joy response,” we really don’t need to get a “Thank you” from those to whom we do service. Through “the joy response,” we give ourselves our own thanks!

Perhaps, I can provide an example of “the joy response.” Occasionally, a young person who is working with our organization, Children Helping Poor and Homeless People (www.chphp.com), has shared their feelings that arose when they shared food with a homeless person, but to their dismay, the homeless person did not say, “Thank you” for the gift of food.

“That’s an easy one to explain,” I say.

I ask the young person whether he or she lived in a home, if they slept in a bed and if they had a television.

“Yes, yes and yes,” they respond.

“So, let me understand,” I would say. “You have a home, a bed and a television while the homeless person probably has none of these things. And you expect the homeless person to thank you for the hamburger.”

“Hmm. But wait,” I continue, “how did you feel when you gave the hamburger to the homeless person?”

Without exception, the young person always says, “I felt great!”

That’s the “joy response.” That’s the “Thank you” that we give ourselves for an act of service. You see, we’re always thanked for our service.

A Sign of the Times: Homeless Veterans

Posted on June 10, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also published on The Huffington Post.

We’ve all seen a homeless man on a street corner holding a cardboard sign that read something like, “Homeless Veteran… Can You Help?” We might have asked ourselves, “Could that sign be true?” The answer is yes!

How many homeless veterans are there? Who are these homeless veterans? How can a person who has served our country become homeless?

While we know from the US Census 2000 Veteran Data that there are 26,549,704 veterans living in the US and Puerto Rico , we do not know the exact number of U.S. veterans who are now homeless. Estimates of the total number of homeless veterans differ greatly.

For example, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that 154,000 veterans are homeless each night, while over 300,000 veterans are homeless at some time during the course of a year.

However, in 1996, The Urban Institute (UI) with the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC) determined that of the 2.3 million to 3.5 million people who are homeless during the year in the United States, 23% or 529,000 to 840,000 of them are homeless veterans.

Regardless of the exact number of homeless veterans, there are two definitions that must be met in order for former military personnel to be classified as homeless veteran. First, a person must first qualify as a veteran for purposes of Title 38 benefits as one who has served in the active military, naval, or air service and was not dishonorably discharged.

Second, a person must meet the definition of “homeless individual” as established by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act:

(1) an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate  nighttime residence; and
(2) an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is  -

(A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter  designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing  for the mentally ill);
(B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for  individuals intended to be institutionalized; or
(C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily  used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

Who is a homeless veteran? Homeless veterans have one or more of the following characteristics:

• nearly 95% of homeless veterans are male, while 5% are female

• 45% of homeless Veterans have some kind of mental illness

• over 70% of homeless veterans suffer from alcohol or drug abuse

• 47% served in the Vietnam War

• 53% served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom, or the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America.

• 67% served in the military for more than three years

• 33% served in a war zone

While it is unfortunate that anyone becomes homeless, veterans are more likely to become homeless than civilians. Why is this? No one knows for sure.

Researchers have found that military service is not a sole factor causing homelessness. Rather, studies suggest that military service can be a factor that can lead to personal experiences that can lead directly to homelessness.

For example, in “A Model of Homelessness Among Male Veterans of the Vietnam War Generation” from The American Journal of Psychiatry, authors, Robert Rosenheck and Alan Fontana pointed out that two military factors, combat exposure and participation in atrocities, contribute to “four post-military variables:

(1) low levels of social support upon returning home,

(2) psychiatric disorders (not including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),

(3) substance abuse disorders, and

(4) being unmarried (including separation and divorce)

Thus, the study determines that it is these “four post-military variables” that can directly lead to homelessness for many veterans.

Combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has been found not to have a direct relationship with homelessness. Further, it has also been found that homeless combat veterans were no more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than combat veterans who were not homeless.

Homeless veterans also face the same factors that challenge homeless civilians, including the shortage of affordable housing, unavailable employment opportunities and substance abuse.

What is being done to help homeless veterans?

Since 1987, the VA has been the only federal agency providing hands-on assistance directly to homeless people. However, over the course of a year, the VA only reaches 33% or 100,000 of homeless veterans. Thus, 200,000 veterans must seek assistance from local government agencies and service organizations in their communities.

The U.S. Department of Labor Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program awards grants to grantees that provide case management approaches to link the veterans to training and employment opportunities.

Homeless veterans may find additional assistance through programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

On February 17th, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Action 2009 which included $1.5 billion for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) through which grantees can provide services to prevent and house homeless people.

As we await the implementation of HPRP, possibly the most effective programs for homeless veterans at this moment are the 250 community-based, nonprofit, “veterans helping veterans” groups.”

Battered Into Homelessness

Posted on May 18, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also published on The Huffington Post.

Domestic violence perpetrated upon women is a leading cause of homelessness for women and their children. In fact, the National Network to End Domestic Violence in its current online article, “Housing: Issue Overview”, states “the interrelated nature of domestic violence and homelessness is undeniable.”

In the NCH Fact Sheet #7, published in 2008, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) described the circumstances, which I list numerically below, that lead many battered women and their children into homelessness:

When a woman leaves an abusive relationship, she often has nowhere to go. This is particularly true of women with few resources.

Lack of affordable housing and long waiting lists for assisted housing mean that many women and their children are forced to choose between abuse at home or life on the streets.

Moreover, shelters are frequently filled to capacity and must turn away battered women and their children. An estimate 29% of requests for shelter by homeless families were denied in 2006 due to lack of resources (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2006).

In “Housing: Issue Overview,” the NNEDV describes the all-to-common scenario facing battered women who seek to leave their abusers:

Victims of domestic violence struggle to find permanent housing after fleeing abusive relationships. Many have left in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and now must entirely rebuild their lives. As long-term housing options become scarcer, battered women are staying longer in emergency domestic violence shelters. As a result, shelters are frequently full and must turn families away.

The NCH Fact Sheet #7 sets forth the relationship between domestic violence and homelessness as found in state and local studies:

In Minnesota, one in every three homeless women was homeless due to domestic violence in 2003. 46% of homeless women said that they had previously stayed in abusive relationships because they had nowhere else to go. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2004)

In Missouri, 27% of the sheltered homeless population are victims of domestic violence. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2004)

In San Diego, a survey done by San Diego’s Regional Task Force on the Homeless found that 50% of homeless women are domestic violence victims. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2004)

A recent study in Massachusetts reports that 92% of homeless women had experienced severe physical or sexual assault at some point in their life. 63% were victims of violence by an intimate partner. (NAEH Fact Checker, 2007)

Within the “2008 Hunger and Homelessness Survey” released by U.S. Conference of Mayors, twenty-two of the twenty-five cities participating in the study “reported that, on average, 15% of homeless persons were victims of domestic violence.” The City of Trenton, New Jersey reported that 65% of people experiencing homelessness there were domestic violence victims, the highest percentage of any city reporting in this study (Appendix G-2).

I have to agree with the NNEDV’s conclusion in its “Housing: Issue Overview” that it “is not because homeless women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, rather experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault often forces women and children into homelessness.”

Three Steps To Ending Homelessness

Posted on April 25, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also published on The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-schanes/three-steps-to-ending-hom_b_190878.html

It is possible to end homelessness. How? There are three steps to ending homelessness. These steps can be approached individually or at the same time.

Step One: Open public toilets 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with showers and laundry facilities.

Having worked with people in the streets for over twenty years, the reason for public facilities seems obvious to me, but perhaps it is not obvious to everyone: human dignity.

Housed people generally have access to toilets and showers, sometimes even bathtubs, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Bathing is a cleansing, refreshing, often even therapeutic experience. Further, housed people either have their own laundry facilities or can afford the cleaning costs at a local laundromat. Wearing clean, fresh clothing is essential for good hygiene and can improve a person’s emotional state.

Giving homeless people access to public toilets and showers with laundry facilities shows respect for and helps with restoration of their human dignity. Having lost nearly every worldly possession, homeless men, women and children are still human beings and have, just like housed people, their basic human needs. A homeless person is often left searching for a public toilet and an available shower. He or she may not have the funds to spend at a laundromat.

Of course, shelter programs have toilets and showers, and often laundry facilities, that are available to homeless people in their program. There may also be a day drop-in center in some cities where a homeless person can use the bathroom, get a shower and sometimes even do his or her laundry. And, many of our public beaches have public toilets and sometimes cold-water showers that are available during the day and that usually close at dusk.

However, are there any public facilities available to homeless people at night? Laundromats? Showers? Are there even public toilets?

Is it logical to complain about public urination and public defecation when there are no public toilets available?

Step Two: Support transitional housing with social services where individuals, couples and families can live.

Most homeless shelters are temporary facilities where people can live for twenty to thirty days. Only a few shelters in every city permit people to stay more than one year. The concept behind temporary shelters is that these shelters are just that – temporary places where a person or family can live in a stable, supportive environment during a time of crisis. Often these shelters help the residents connect with government programs in their area.

The concept of transitional housing with social services for the residents has been adopted by nonprofits in some cities in the United States. Transitional housing is usually available for a term of one year or more so that the people involved have a substantial period of time within which to make the transition from the crisis that they were in to the new life that they are making for themselves.

Ideally, the social services provided to residents of transitional housing would include job finding, apartment finding, psychological support, as well as dental and medical referrals.

Step Three: Turn a closed military base into a self-sufficient village where homeless men, women and children could reside.

Finding affordable housing is the ultimate challenge facing a homeless person. However, using a closed military base as the setting for a self-sufficient village created with the assistance of nonprofit organizations would solve this challenge for homeless people.

In this self-sufficient village, there could be buildings with apartments for individuals, couples and families; an orphanage for the care of “unaccompanied youth;” buildings for the treatment of people with single medical diagnosis and multiple medical diagnoses; cottage industries; and organic farming. The children, and adults if they so chose, could study in existing schools in their area.

At first, this self-sufficient village could be led by a community council composed of the representatives of the organizing nonprofits who would train the residents to replace themselves on the council. The residents could then vote to fill the seats of the community council with their own representatives.

“Not in my backyard” is a primary objection made by housed people to having any homeless support center created in their neighborhood. This objection is overcome by using a closed military base to provide a place that would actually welcome homeless people and where homeless people would enjoy residing.

I look forward to your comments.

Thank you, Christine

Homelessness By The Numbers

Posted on April 10, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also published on The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-schanes/homelessness-by-the-numbe_b_184332.html

Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen a person who you thought was homeless. I can see that all hands are up!

I’ll be 61 years old this week and when I was young, the situation was not as it is now. In my youth, the vast majority of people who were homeless were men. There were very few women and even less children who were homeless.

In the old days, we called those homeless men words like, “hobos” or worse. We envisioned them “riding the rails,” jumping on and off railroad freight cars and living a life that they chose, free of cares and woes. At that time, the homeless life was romanticized and movies were made, such as “Emperor of the North” staring Lee Marvin, which depicted homeless men enjoying life to the fullest without any reflection on their possible responsibilities to society.

Today, this is not the picture of homelessness. In my experience, I have found:

• 40% of the people who are homeless are women and children. There are no happy movies about their lifestyles, in fact, barely anyone is talking about their plight. And, certainly, these women and children have not chosen to be homeless. As if things could not get worse, the number of women and children who are becoming homeless is increasing.

• 25% of today’s homeless people are people who have served in war, generally the Vietnam War. I thought this number would be decreasing, but with the Iraqi War veterans returning with little or no care for their mental and physical health, it’s going to remain at the 25% level for quite some time. The Department of Defense has found that 17% of returning Iraqi War veterans are returning with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD (formerly called “battle fatigue”) is a condition that may exist for its victims from 30 to 40 years.

• 35% of the people I’ve found to be homeless today are men who have had a devastating negative experience of some kind.

Where has the free lifestyle of homelessness gone? I suggest that view that there was ever a free lifestyle that people chose to live by being homeless was a myth. It never happened. But, the myth provided a good storyline for movies.

What happened in sixty years? Who are homeless people? Why are they living outside? Why don’t they have homes? Oh my God, what happened?

In 2007, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released their report, “Homelessness Counts” citing:

• 672,000 people were homeless each night in the United States (population over 300 million).

• 3.5 million people are homeless throughout the year in the United States.

• Nearly 160,000 people are homeless in the State of California (total population 36 million).

In their report, “2007 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count”, the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority (LAHSA) found that in Los Angeles County (population over 10 million), California there are:

• Over 10,000 children and teens who are homeless every night.

• Nearly 74,000 homeless men, women and children each night in the County.

• Over 141,000 people experienced homelessness in Los Angeles over the course of 2006.

In “2006 Short-Term Housing Directory of Los Angeles County,” Shelter Partnership determined that there are just over 17,000 shelter beds in all of the homeless shelters for the 74,000 people who are homeless every night. Obviously, people are living “outside” because there is no room in the “inn.”

What are the causes of homelessness?

The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) published a number of causes for homelessness in their fact sheet in June of 2008:

• Increasing poverty caused by eroding employment opportunities and declining public assistance.

The NCH noted that “[h]omelessness and poverty are inextricably linked” because when resources are limited, people often lose their housing. It adds, “Being poor means being an illness, an accident or a paycheck away from living on the streets.”

• Lack of affordable housing.

• Lack of affordable health care.

• Domestic violence.

• Mental illness.

• Addiction disorders.

In 2000, The National Alliance to End Homelessness published, “A Plan, Not A Dream: How to End Homelessness” which gives a very brief explanation of how homelessness developed: “While the seeds of homelessness were planted in the 1960s and 1970s with deinstitutionalization of mentally ill people and loss of affordable housing stock, widespread homelessness did not emerge until the 1980s.”

It lists several factors that affected the increase in homelessness:

• Lack of affordable housing.

• Income from employment and benefits not keeping pace with costs of available housing.

• Social trends, including illegal drugs, single parent households and “thinning support networks.”

What is being done about ending homelessness?

On March 24, 2009, President Obama stated in his news conference that homelessness is unacceptable: “Part of a change in attitudes that I want to see here in Washington and all across the country is a belief that it is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.”

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) commented on their website, nlchp.com, in “News,” dated March 25, 2009, that “Homeless is indeed unacceptable. But the President’s clear statement of this obvious fact is remarkable.”

In “News,” NLCHP founder and executive director, Maria Foscarinis, stated, “This is the first time in recent memory that a president has made such a clear and unequivocal statement [about homelessness]”

The NLCHP, through “News,” further reminds us that in the early 1980’s President Ronald Reagan called homelessness “a lifestyle choice,” while “President George W. Bush made a commitment to end ‘chronic homelessness,’ – the most narrowly defined category – in ten years.”

In President Obama’s press conference on March 24th, Kevin Chappel commented “[A] recent report found that as a result of the economic downturn, 1 in 50 children are now homeless in America. With shelters at full capacity, tent cities are sprouting up across the country.”

He asked the President, “In passing the stimulus package, you said that help was on the way. But what would you say to these families, especially the children, who are sleeping under bridges and in tents across the country?”

President Obama replied, “Well, the first thing I’d say is that I’m heartbroken that any child in America is homeless. And the most important thing that I can do on their behalf is to make sure their parents have a job. And that’s why the recovery package said, as a first priority, how are we going to save or create 3.5 million jobs?”

In fact, the stimulus package of which President Obama speaks is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The funding for this Act is over 800 billion dollars of which 1.5 billion dollars is to be devoted to homelessness prevention and rehousing activities.

I look forward to your comments. Thanks, Christine

Food For Thought: The Charitable Giving Of Food

Posted on March 24, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also seen on The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-schanes/food-for-thought-the-char_b_178426.html

The charitable giving of food is giving food to a person without charging that person any money for the food. It is true compassion and can be life saving.

When we want to serve food to someone living outside, we consider a few things.

1. We “serve” food to homeless people, we “feed” animals. Many years ago, Michael, a homeless man, brought this point to my attention. He explained how it felt to homeless people when they heard that the people serving them were “a feeding program.” “That makes it sound like we’re animals in the zoo,” he said. “Could you please call your program something else?” he asked.

2. Every person we serve is our “guest.” This idea came from Koo Koo Roos who used to say, and I hope they still do, to their customers, “Next guest, please.” The concept of serving a guest helps us remember that we treat each person we serve with respect and kindness. And it is our goal to have enough of what we’re serving so that every guest gets the same item.

3. We serve everyone who asks us for food, whether we truly believe they are hungry or not. In rare circumstances someone who appears not to be homeless or in need, asks for food. We serve them just the same. Why? Because we understand that something may be missing in that person that perhaps the food that we are sharing can fill, at least for a time.

4. We can serve canned and packaged food in Los Angeles County, CA, anywhere and any time. In Los Angeles, there are no health rules and regulations dealing with the distribution of canned and packaged food. Please check to determine if there are any applicable rules and regulations about this in your locale.

5. Regarding canned and packaged food: we have to remember to follow the manufacturer’s recommended temperature and be sure that their containers are properly maintained with their original seal and without damage so that there is no contamination or spoiling of the contents.

6. When serving prepared foods, we follow the relevant health regulations put forth by the Los Angeles County Department of Health. Similar regulations may exist in every county in the United States. Again, check the rules and regulations about this in your locale.

7. When serving canned, packaged or prepared foods, we must be aware of any applicable laws/ordinances in our area regarding the charitable distribution of food.

Since the early 1990’s, some cities in the United States have passed laws/ordinances that dictate the conditions, including requiring permits, under which food can be distributed in that city.

On November 15, 2007, in their report, “Feeding Intolerance: Prohibitions on Sharing Food with People Experiencing Homelessness,” the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless, found that “many cities have adopted a new tactic – one that targets…individual citizens and groups who attempt to share food with them.” For the full report, please visit: http://www.nlchp.org/content/pubs/Feeding_Intolerance.07.pdf

In my next article, I hope to address some of the myths associated with the charitable giving of food.

Please let me know what you think about the charitable giving of food. I look forward to your comments. Thanks!

How To Serve A Homeless Person: Guide To Gift Bags

Posted on March 9, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also seen on The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-schanes/how-to-serve-a-homeless-p_b_173248.html

We can help a homeless person by serving him/her food, a blanket and/or necessary items. It’s a pretty simple and wonderful thing to do.

In this article, I would like to propose a way to share items with homeless people. This distribution method of serving an unhoused person has worked for Children Helping Poor and Homeless People volunteers for over twenty-two years. I will discuss “the charitable giving of food” in detail in a later article.

Let’s start from the beginning – we’d like to share something with a homeless person/people, but what should we share and how can we do share it?

First, we ask ourselves, what would we like to share with those in need. Not sure? On our website, www.chphp.com, there is a “Can You Help?” button which, once clicked on, will reveal a number of suggestions of how to help.

One of our favorite projects is to assemble one or more Gift Bags, also known as, Survival Kits or Toiletry Bags. The goal of this project is to fill a bag(s) with new hotel/motel size toiletries and then give them to homeless people.

Although any bag or container can be used, we suggest using gallon zip lock bags for a number of reasons: they are big enough to fit a lot of items; a homeless person can reuse the bag; and because the top of the bag can be securely closed, the car/transportation vehicle is safe from spillage.

Having selected Gift Bags as our project, we can then think about the toiletry items we want to include in each Gift Bag. This is a very important part of this project because we are raising our own awareness. We can let our minds wonder and imagine what personal items a homeless person could use. We might even ask ourselves what personal items we would want if we were homeless.

For more ideas of personal items to include in the Gift Bag, we can refer to a list of just some of these items on our website, www.chphp.com and click on the ” “Can You Help?” button.

We can then make a list of these toiletry items and share this list with our extended family, classroom, school and others to raise awareness and to generate more personal items. We can also purchase toiletries at reasonable prices at discount stores such as The 99 Cent Store or Big Lots.

After our collection is complete, we can sort these wonderful toiletries into piles of similar items, such as a pile of combs, a pile of toothbrushes and a pile of toothpaste.

Then, we put one or several of each item into each bag. This assembly process is great fun and can be done by young people and adults alike.

After our Gift Bags are assembled, we can bring them to homeless people we’ve seen in any area, place or park. For example, in Los Angeles County, we frequently distribute to people in need on the Santa Monica Promenade or at Venice Beach.

We follow several guidelines when we share/distribute anything to anyone:

1. We always serve in a group with two or more adults. We are a team. We always stay together.

2. We always serve others in a well-lit area.

3. We always use our common sense. For example, we don’t like to be awakened when we are sleeping, so we don’t wake a homeless person up to serve him/her anything. We can put the item(s) nearby without disturbing the sleeping person.

4. The homeless children, women and men are our guests. How do we treat a guest? With kindness and respect.

5. We use special words when serving another person. We say, “Excuse me, Sir or Madam, do you know anyone who could use this ____________ ? Fill in the blank, which in this case, is a Gift Bag filled with toiletries.

We have found that the person we are asking will usually respond in one of three ways,

1. 1% of the time he/she will say, “No, I don’t.”
Our response: “Thank you, have a nice day!”

2. 1% of the time he/she will say, “Yes, there is a person who could use it right over there.”
Our response: “Thank you, have a nice day!”

3. 98% of the time he/she will say, “Yes, I could!”
Our response: “Wow, that’s great! Here you are. Have a nice day!”

That’s it.

Creating Gift Bags is a lot of fun, but I can assure you that the distribution, this sharing, is the very best part.

I hope that you will consider direct service. It’s good for all of us.

Direct Service: How You Can Help Someone In Need

Posted on March 3, 2009 by cjschomelesslaw

Also seen on The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-schanes/direct-service-how-you-ca_b_171519.html

Do you ever wonder who could possibly help a homeless person? The answer is each of us can help. It’s called direct service – helping someone in need ourselves.

But how? There are many ways to help a person in need, including giving a homeless person a blanket. That’s how we started Children Helping Poor and Homeless People (www.chphp.com).

There is a law that prohibits sleeping on a beach in Los Angeles County at night. However, prior to 1988, this law did not apply to the area known as Venice Beach. So people without homes came to Venice Beach to sleep legally on the beach. Further, police officers would escort homeless people to Venice Beach so they had a legal place to sleep.

By the winter of 1987, there were hundreds of homeless people sleeping legally each night on Venice Beach. Each morning, some of these homeless people would leave the beach and walk by our home in Venice on their way to spend the day at a local park. The park had benches where the homeless people could sit, swings for their children and bathrooms that were open for public use free of charge.

At night, these homeless people would often walk past our home on their way back to the beach to sleep.

I must admit that I had fears about the homeless strangers who passed by my home on what seemed like a daily basis. I also had genuine concerns about their welfare when I saw homeless children, women and men without clothing appropriate for the weather. I was particularly moved when I saw a pregnant woman without shoes walking on the cold sidewalk.

I told my best friend, Augustine, that I didn’t know what I should do about the homeless people walking by my home.

Augustine responded, “Well, give them a blanket.”

“Okay, I’ll bring a blanket to The Salvation Army.”

“No,” said Augustine, a little louder this time, “Give them a blanket.”

“Okay, I’ll bring a blanket to Goodwill,” I said, a little worried about where this conversation was going.

“No, said Augustine, obviously for the last time, “give THEM a blanket.”

“Oh.”

Upon arriving home, I found an extra yellow blanket, got back into my car and drove until I saw a homeless man walking down the sidewalk.

Parking, but leaving the car door ajar, I took the blanket and approached the homeless man.

“Excuse me sir,” I said timidly, “Would you like this blanket?”

The man made no response.

Over the years, we have found that when sharing items with homeless people, it was more respectful to say, “Excuse me, do you know anyone who could use this blanket?” But this was the first time we performed direct service so we just did our best.

I really did not know what to say next. So, I repeated myself, but this time I spoke more loudly, “Excuse me sir, would you like this blanket?”

There was still no response from the man.

So, I extended the blanket toward the man and his arms came up to accept the blanket.

Going back to my car, I was half way across the street when the homeless man called out,

“Thank you! God bless you, Sister.”

“You’re welcome, Sir. God bless you.”

I was very surprised at how good I felt.

At home, I found my children, Chrissy, 8 years old, and Patrick, 6 years old, sitting at the kitchen table with some of their neighborhood friends.

Excitedly, I told them how great I felt because I had just given a blanket directly to a homeless man.

Chrissy looked up and said, “Well, Mom, we could do that.”

Patrick nodded his head in agreement.

I had to agree with my children that they could indeed give a blanket to a homeless person, just like I had done. Their friends wanted to help, too.

The friends all ran to their own homes and soon came back with blankets for homeless people. After getting the permission of their parents, I took the friends, my children and fifteen blankets to the beach.

It took under five minutes to give away the fifteen blankets to grateful homeless people. Chrissy, Patrick and their friends were so happy that they were able to give the blankets directly to people in need. On the way home, the children discussed what they had learned:

“It really was fun to help those people!”

“I didn’t know what it was going to be like. I met really nice people.”

“They’re just like us.”

From that first blanket distribution, Children Helping Poor and Homeless People became a nationally recognized, educational outreach program conducted by children and teens with adult advisors that encourages direct service.

I am very interested in hearing about your experience of direct service. Have you had any? And be sure to include how you felt before you helped someone directly and how you felt after you helped someone directly! You might ask yourself – did my feelings, or the feelings of my child/family about homeless people change in any way after I/we helped someone directly?

On behalf of the homeless person/people you have helped, I thank you.

EZ ID Program // Center for Justice and Social Compassion

Nos Amis/Our Friends, Inc.

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