Homelessness is an important issue that needs to be
addressed. Approximately 38 million people in our nation, 13.9 million of them
children, live below the poverty line. As a result, homelessness is on the rise
just about everywhere in the country. On average 3.5 MILLION AMERICANS
including 1.35 MILLION CHILDREN experience homelessness in a given year.
Approximately 800,000 individuals experience homelessness each night across the
country, with about 12,000 in Ohio and 6,000 in Kentucky. Bringing attention to
the plight of the homeless fosters a greater understanding and creates
solidarity.
One way that schools and organizations can participate in
Homeless Awareness Month is by hosting a Shantytown.
The City-Wide Shantytown project began
several years ago in an effort to bring attention to hunger & homelessness
issues in our community. For years, many public and private high schools
had hosted individual Shantytown events throughout the school
year. In 2008, Andy Freeze (Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the
Homeless) and Steve Elliott (Mayerson Foundation Service-Learning
Program) thought perhaps they could increase the numbers of
schools by collaborating on one common weekend or week. Through student
meetings, sharing of resources, use of GCCH’s Speakers Bureau and agency
connections we have over thirty high schools and colleges in Greater Cincinnati
and Northern Kentucky raising awareness of the struggles facing our
homeless neighbors. GCCH has expanded Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week into
an entire month to increase its presence in the Greater Cincinnati Area and to
give different schools and organizations many opportunities to
participate.
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