Mason community aims to raise homelessness awareness

Andre Colter talks to Mason students about homelessness (photo courtesy of Nicole Lewis).

In an effort to close the gap between classroom and community, members of the Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau came to George Mason University to talk about their personal experiences with homelessness.

Lauren Cattaneo, Ph.D, who teaches Community Engagement for Social Change at Mason, said inviting the speakers to her Nov. 6 class helped her students better understand poverty as a social issue.

“There is no substitute for hearing from someone else’s experiences,” Cattaneo said. “It helps deepen students’ understanding that these aren’t just individual’s problems.”

Steve Thomas and Andre Colter each spoke about how they became homeless, what it felt like, and how they overcame it. Both Thomas and Colter said their drug use was a major contributing factor to their career losses and eventual homelessness.

While Cattaneo understands that students can sometimes understand homelessness through reading about it, she aims to connect her students with real-world poverty by bringing emotions into the foreground. She believes this interpersonal presentation is what makes the Speaker’s Bureau so effective.

Senior Anne Edwards is enrolled in Cattaneo’s class and was present at the panel. Edwards said hearing the experiences of former homeless men were more powerful than reading about it.

“Listening to them, watching as they held back tears, allowed me to connect with them better than any book could,” Edwards said. “It is significant to note their apparent, outstanding intelligence and extremely thought-out values. Poverty and homelessness does not necessarily equate to lack of knowledge.”

The Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau is a program of the National Coalition for the Homeless that is made up of homeless and formerly homeless people who strive to educate about homelessness and what can be done to resolve it, according to their website.

The GMU Campus Ministry Association, like the Speaker’s Bureau, is striving to educate the public about homelessness. Their Hunger and Homelessness Action Week started Nov. 10 and runs until Nov. 16. In addition to better educating the Mason community about homelessness, their goal is to encourage participation in the events of the week and make a commitment to ongoing service to the hungry and homeless, according to their Facebook page. Following is a list of the Hunger and Homelessness Action Week events:

Nov. 10 – Praise Rally and Canned Food Drive at 7 p.m. in the Johnson Center Bistro.

Nov. 11 – Brown Bag Sunday from 12-5 p.m. at Bellarmine Chapel.
CROP Hunger Walk at 2 p.m. at Vienna Town Green.

Nov. 12 – Food Drive from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in GMU’s North Plaza.

Nov. 13 – Freedom Drive for School Supplies and Clothing from noon to 2 p.m. in GMU’s North Plaza.
Bag Lunch Making at 6 p.m. in the Johnson Center Bistro.

Nov. 14 – Swipe for Hunger from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in GMU’s North Plaza.
Stop Hunger Now Meal Packaging at 7 p.m. in Dewberry Hall.
Sleep Out from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Thursday in GMU’s North Plaza.

Nov. 15 – Homelessness Speaker Series at 6:30 p.m. in Enterprise Room 80.             Interdenominational Prayer Service at 7:15 p.m. in Enterprise Room 80.

Nov. 16 – Food and Coat Drive from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in GMU’s North Plaza.