Making a Difference Indeed: Beyond Community Service

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Making a Difference Indeed: Beyond Community Service

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Moreover, focusing too diligently on the statistics, results in

political chasms widening and fueling the great American need to

prove we are right. Trust me; while we continue to argue our

points of reference we are missing the opportunity to help

someone who genuinely needs it.

Additional Article Information:

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1580 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: Fri Apr 15 05:05:03 EDT 2005

Written By: Rhonda Hackett, PsyD, MBA

Copyright: 2005

Contact Email: mailto:rghackett@...

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Making a Difference Indeed: Beyond Community Service

Copyright © 2005 Rhonda Hackett, PsyD, MBA

Advocate for the Homeless

http://thephantomwriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Rhonda_Hackett,_PsyD,_MB\

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W. Bush’s re-election has riled many so-called liberals to

ascend their soap-boxes and shout to the world the indignities

that the poor and middle class will continue to suffer as his war

politics and lack of social regard and awareness assuredly

characterize the next four years with unknown, yet predictably,

negative repercussions for eons to come. Indeed, there is no

shortage of vocal pundits from the left reminding us everyday of

how dire the situation is and will be for the American Every-Man.

In the past, I have listened and most proudly lent my own liberal

voice to the left mass; regarding doing so as an inherent

attribute, yes duty, of my liberalness. Where has all the yelling

and shouting gotten us? No further, it seems, than W’s shady

economic policies and absolute, undeniable disregard for millions

of hard-working Americans.

Make no mistake - to pilfer the words of the leader of the so-

called free world - American people are in dire straights. There

is no need to re-state the statistics – if you don’t know how

many homeless people there are in America, for example, or have

any idea how many children still go to bed hungry in our great

land, you can very easily find out. My fellow liberals would be

happy to recite the incredibly bleak statistics. It seems knowing

the numbers and being attuned to the statistical bleakness, does

nothing, however, to effect ‘new’ action, much less change.

Moreover, focusing too diligently on the statistics, results in

political chasms widening and fueling the great American need to

prove we are right. If you are a staunch liberal, try telling an

equally staunch conservative that most homeless people are not

mere bums with addictions who deserve their lot in life; your

counterpart will be able to rattle off numerous examples of her

‘truth’, telling you of the 30 year old black drug addict who

tried to steel her wallet; while you will be inclined to shout

over her with your own experience of the young white family who

ended up on the streets because of mounting medical bills. I

realize I am committing a great sin by generalizing political

viewpoints; however my point is this; if all any of us ever does

is shout over each other, the so-called bum will still be an

eyesore and nuisance to the person who regards him as such, while

the young family who is new to the streets stays put in their

humble un-abode.

After embarking upon a personal journey of sorts, thrust upon me

after the untimely death of my dear father a few years back, I

decided to stop my shouting, opting instead to act. Accepting

that I will never convince my neighbors that homeless people have

real and undeserved problems, for example, has freed me to

dedicate myself to face the thousands of homeless people in my

community. In my youth I would have considered it a great and

necessary victory to enlighten my neighbors to the errors of

their ways. Today, however, I understand the inadequacy of such a

victory. After all, I would have considered my job complete when

they rolled to my side, when in reality neither me nor my

neighbor, would have done much of anything to help even a single

homeless person.

Trust me; while we continue to argue our points of reference we

are missing the opportunity to help someone who genuinely needs

it. Whether you want to help, and do so by allowing yourself to

be boxed in by the confines of helping through volunteering or

writing a check to charity; or not, and continue to be blind to

the plight of countless people around you; need increases and one

way or another impacts you and yours. Letting yourself off the

proverbial hook because you volunteer at a local soup kitchen

every Thursday night - don’t get me wrong this is a commendable

and needed effort -, or refusing to be hooked to help those who

supposedly should help themselves are equally false and

inadequate approaches. Neither affects the real, broad-reaching,

societal paradigm shift that is desperately needed for any of our

great social travesties, such as hunger and homelessness, to be

finally understood and significantly diminished. As long as we

insist on both equally stagnant constructs our worse fears come

true.

Arthur I. Blaustein, an incredible human being whom I both admire

and respect, rightfully encourages people to respond to the many

ills in our society by answering the call to community service.

He frequently reminds the choir of the benefits that such service

undoubtedly brings, not only to those you help but to your own

life experience as well. His many predictions of social unease

following Bush’s re-election are even more poignant in these days

following the unveiling of our administration’s latest budget. We

knew the cuts to social programs including health care and food

stamps were coming. Just as I am outraged by the cuts, others are

delighted to see a move toward something that looks like welfare

reform. All the while our outrage and delight fester, there is at

least one hungry child in your back yard who is going to bed not

only with a painfully empty stomach, but freezing cold as well.

Accept or shirk responsibility for that child, his reality is not

changing, and neither is yours.

It is time for Mr. Blaustein, me, and others like or unlike us,

to propel some thinking outside the ‘make a difference’ box.

Trying to force people to answer the call to volunteer in any of

our great non-profit organizations or to open their pocket books

is no where near enough of a demand to fix the societal ills that

haunt and impact all of us regardless of our level of awareness

or lot in life. Americans are volunteering and donating in record

numbers yet many and varied needs outpace those commendable

efforts. So, what is the answer?

First and foremost, educate and find out for yourself who needs

help in your community. While you were writing that check for

Tsunami relief there were people in your community needing help –

you don’t know about them because either you have not gone

looking or you reject readily available statistics. Don’t take

anyone else’s word for it. Acquire your own information through

your own channels (I accept that you may not want to take my word

for it that a great majority of homeless people I work with hold

down full-time jobs); prove yourself and your notions about them

or any other alleged group suffering in your community as right

or wrong.

Once you find and accept that someone whom you agree needs help,

either put yourself in the ‘make a difference’ box – volunteer,

write checks to charity, and you will absolutely make a

difference; or go outside the box – have a conversation with your

boss about what you learned and begin the process of involving

your company in this quest; invite the person/group you want to

help to your school, church, job and ask them to tell you about

their reality – genuinely listening to what they have to say will

enrich your self-education beyond description and will get the

ball rolling in the direction of the real and desperate change we

all agree is needed.

It’s the latter challenge I accepted years ago. Focusing on

Denver’s homeless population in particular, I forced myself to

know their plight. Beyond hunger, shelter, etc I learned

thousands were desperate for some focus on their health. It’s not

what you think – they weren’t looking for free health care – I,

too was surprised. In fact, clinical care was not the most

obvious concern of theirs at all. Quite simply, they wanted

readily available health education and disease prevention

information in the meantime of continued fights and negations

that have come to be synonymous with figuring out the health care

dilemma. Finding a community entity, in this case a responsive

non-profit organization, to listen to my story and vision to make

a difference with this newly discovered and understood problem,

proved a lot less challenging than I first believed. Two plus

years later, through funding and support of said non-profit, more

than 40,000 contacts have been made with Denver’s homeless during

which they learn critical health information (e.g. taking care of

your feet while living on the streets; paying attention to

nutrition while eating in soup kitchens; preventing frostbite;

and much more).

To my critics, I know – this effort does not end homelessness;

but it has brought light to a problem that before was buried

under our many assumptions of what it is that homeless people

need or want; it has also forced an organization to delve outside

its status quo. Hearing from ‘’ a 37 year old homeless man

that this was the first winter in his more than 5 on the streets

that he has not dealt with frostbite, and from the non-profit’s

CEO that she had no idea this type of program was not already in

place while wondering what else can be done, is all the proof I

need that this effort indeed makes a difference, and will propel

an even greater one to be made in the future.

Liberal, conservative, or in the middle? It does not matter. We

are all capable of and on some level driven to help others. Make

your efforts count and debunk our status quo.

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Rhonda Hackett, PsyD, MBA

(303) 986-3571

mailto:rghackett@...

Dr. Rhonda Hackett is an advocate working to right social

wrongs. She writes a regular column for the Denver Homeless

Voice Newspaper and lives in the Denver Metro area.