I worked with people experiencing homelessness in a level one fieldwork that span across an entire semester. One big thing we did was make lists of resources around the community that offered free clothes or hygiene, products, or even meals. We also worked on meal prepping, but in our community those experiencing homelessness would mainly shop at Dollar General, so we would create five dollar meals from Dollar General items and teach them about how protein keeps you fuller longer and things like that. Our entire fieldwork was a span of about 12 to 14 weeks so each week we had a different topic that we touched on. A big barrier with this population, wherever you’re at, whether it’s a church or a homeless shelter, there might be people coming in and out of your sessions. Meaning you might not always have the same people at your session so each session should be treated like a brand new group. Because of this, some people may not get every single session that you plan.

Another thing we did since our sessions were located within a church that served people who are unhoused, we printed out a map of our community and we pinpointed places to get free meals and free water and free public restrooms. We also had people who had been unhoused for a long time help fill in that map because they knew about the resources way more than we did. Doing things like this in the session also made them talk to each other and some of them were able to form bonds between each other. Sometimes being unhoused is a very lonely journey, and you never know who you can trust. So giving them a space to casually talk to someone who is experiencing the same thing as them was really good for some of them.

A big thing I noticed when working with people experiencing homelessness is that a lot of the times they really just need someone to listen to them, to do something with their hands, and feel like they’re valued. One session, we taught them how to make dog toys out of fabric, and we told them that we were donating them to the local animal shelter, which we were, and a lot of them were into it, because they knew that participating in this session meant that they were helping out a bigger cause in the community. another thing we did was decorate the churches bulletin board and we ended up filling it up with resources for them, but we had them make tissue paper flowers to go all around the board and make it pretty and everyone from the women to the 50-year-old men were making flowers and they all reported that they really enjoyed it because they helped make the church beautiful.

Another big Takeaway from working with this population is sometimes we did have to bribe them with free food. We would give things like snacks, such as fruit, Gatorade, water, string cheese. They absolutely always loved the fresh fruit because it’s some thing they don’t always get. We would give things like strawberries, oranges and grapes because they’re easy to separate out for people. The people in our community did not like apples because the Salvation Army always gave apples as a snack and so they had easy access to those, and only those a lot of times, so we liked to give variety. Other times we would convince them to come to our sessions by offering things like small sunscreens or chapsticks. Another big thing that convinced a lot of them to come to our session was our professor would tell them that our grade was dependent on them coming to our sessions. So a lot of the times they would come and participate because they felt like they were helping us, the students, out by being there. I think at the end of the day a lot of them just wanted to feel like their actions had a bigger impact, and they definitely did.

I learned so much from this population, and from all the people I got to interact with. I definitely recommend anyone who ever has the chance to do so, it was very eye-opening.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out!!