"Breaking the silence and reclaiming our voices" is a program that
is trying to raise money for homeless children and families.
To break silence people need to talk, trust, listen, and ask questions.
The program is 75 minutes long and keenly moving.
There is a video of a child named rich who is homeless. He was beaten
up and abused for being homeless. His only friends were the stuffed
animals he carried around all the time with him. Rich was afraid to make
friends because he thought that they would leave him. He also had
reoccurring nightmares about running to find a home and on the way someone
would beat him up.
Gretchen Nordly, works for one of the American Red Cross Homeless
Shelters. She works at the shelter located in Bucks County, Pa. The shelter
was build in 1995 and opened in 1997. This particular shelter is open
24 hours a day.
There is a waiting list to get into the bucks county shelter. You must
call their hotline. When you call the hotline they will ask you if you
are a male or female and if you have children. The males have their own
dorms that will hold up to 20 of them. The other dorm is the family
dorm, it can hold up to 55 people.
Once the shelter has established what sex you are and if you have
children they ask you some intake questions. Then they will assign a case
worker to help you get on your feet and out of the streets.
90% of people that are homeless is because their lack of skill and
education. In the shelter there is an education coordinator. He/she goes to
schools to find local school programs for the children. No one knows
that they are homeless except, the principal and the teachers. On the way
to school they are the first ones to be picked up in the morning and
the last to be dropped off. That way no one knows where exactly they
live.
At the shelter the men, women, and children are required to save all
their money. The shelter will provide everything they need except
cigarettes.
Bedtime at the shelter is 8pm. During Fridays and Saturdays its 9p.m.
Everyone in the shelter is up at 7a.m. and they serve breakfast at
7:30a.m.
The shelter has up to 20 volunteers on a weekly basis. Including,
young, old, and teens.
Most of the funding for the shelter is donations. The government may
also fund.
There was also another program they spoke about, it was called
Libertay.
Connie, the executive director came and spoke with us about her
program. It is a program just for women and mothers who have a drug and/or
alcohol addiction. Libertay opened in 1997. Libertay all started out in
1973, with women who had alcohol problems. Libertay has a 1.2 million
budget.
It is found that addictions like these will lead to unemployment and
homelessness. Usually young women will get pregnant at an early age and
cut off all options and hope for a better life.
There are certain things that the mothers have to do. The mothers have
to play with their child everyday for at least a half hour.
They also supply therapeutic treatment and educational programs.
Libertay also provides a half way house in Morrisville just for men.
Students come to Libertay to volunteer to drive the women and children
places they need to go. There are also people who come in to teach
women for their G.E.D.
"Were all strapped to a bumper of a disaster car called the
legislator," Connie stated.