First Day Project: Post 2

Me (smiling at the camera) volunteering at First Day with my classmates. 

Whittier First Day works to get the community involved in its effort to help the homeless. Many of the people in the community First Day reaches out to are those who attend Whittier High School or Whittier College. In doing this not only is First Day getting a part of the community to work beside them but they are also educating younger generations about the homeless. It allows a gateway for younger generations to meet homeless people working to move their way up in life rather than leave them with the typical stereotype of helpless homeless people, which can later serve as a reminder that when you come across a homeless person there is more to them than the fact that they are homeless. The experience also paves way for them to think of ways in which they may continue to contribute to the cause, whether that would be to educate others or participate in future events/fundraisers.  

An example of a project projected by First Day that involved young community members actually made it in an article done by the Whittier Daily News in 2011. The project aimed to find homeless people on the streets in order to offer to provide them services. Approximately 60 people participated in the project. Those who participated were representatives from churches, the Whittier Chamber of Commerce, Whittier High School students, and Whittier College students.           

The homeless people that participants came across were asked to complete surveys. Of the 32 individuals that had been asked to complete a survey 28 agreed to do so.  "I thought it went extremely well," said Ted Knoll, executive director of Whittier Area First Day Coalition, which led the effort. “We’re getting a lot of people registered.”

According to Know the goal was to get people to answer questions for a survey that will help ensure the most vulnerable received services. The questions on the survey asked about medical conditions, sleeping locations, whether the person had done jail time, asked if they had served the U.S. military, about their education, how they make money, and asked if they were provided an apartment would they accept the terms and conditions that must be met in order to live there. The project’s participants gave out food bags and water to people they met. Those who agreed to do the survey were given a $5 Subway card.

“It’s a good cause,” Amanda Amiel, a student from Whittier College at the time, said. "With the economy the way it is, we have issues with homeless people. We need to take time out of our day to address the issue. This is one measure to do this."

In October 2013, I went with one of my classes to First Day to volunteer. The experience was fun and the people I had met at First Day were very kind and seemed very happy. Even though all I did was help sort clothes for the organization I felt very uplifted after my visit. When I saw that First Day was offering internships at the Career Fair my mind immediately flashed back to that day and I found myself applying for the position of a social media intern.

The people of First Day do a good job of creating a positive and uplifting environment. Ted Knoll once mentioned to me that he hoped to spread the mission of First Day not only to help include the homeless in the community, but to rebuild the sense of community overall.

This made me think about how there was once a time when everybody helped support one another but now it seems that the majority of people only look out for themselves. I myself never knew what it meant to live in a community, because the world I was raised in was a dangerous one filled with untrustworthy people. You could not just go up to somebody and offer them help because even if they looked like they desperately needed help they may just end up hurting you.

I think that maybe it is because we stopped helping each other, people started turning on each other. Most of the people that I have seen on the news that lost their minds and committed some sort of crime are almost always someone who was not given the assistance they needed. Some grew up mentally ill but either had parents that rejected to acknowledge it or rejected to get them the services they needed. Others may have felt neglected and decided the only way to make themselves known was to kill people and make some sort of statement.

Needless to say we cannot continue to ignore those around us that need our help. We need to reconnect with our moral values and restore the faith in humanity that many have lost. It is time that we follow organizations such as first Day with the intent to create something better.