College Courses for the Homeless

Julie Batten is organizing this fundraiser.

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Mission:

To endow the chronically homeless with the opportunity to take accredited college level English courses that encourage them, through narrative discussion and personal essay, to see themselves as part of the larger collective and take quantifiable steps toward becoming a part of it.

Reasons why:

"It's all fine to say, 'Time will heal everything, this too shall pass away. People will forget'--and things like that when you are not involved, but when you are, there is no passage of time, people do not forget and you are in the middle of something that does not change." ~ John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Objectives:

1)To engage and acknowledge shelter residents as students through an accredited college level reading and writing course, to be used as catalyst for initiating positive change in life circumstance by addressing the larger issues of erroneous self-perception, lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem, especially as they relate to future employment, subsequent housing and social integration.

2) To encourage academic institutions to make teaching to at-risk groups part of their curriculum and increase their civic engagement by investing in programming that brings college students to the front lines of social injustice at area shelters.

Need:

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts is continuing to rise.
According to numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, there were 19,029 people in Massachusetts counted as experiencing homelessness during the January 2013 point-in-time counts conducted by the HUD Continua of Care across the state. Massachusetts saw the 5th highest increase in homelessness among all states between 2012-2013, according to the point-in-time (PIT) figures. As of November 25, 2014, there were approximately 4,800 families with children and pregnant women in Massachusetts’ Emergency Assistance (EA) shelter program. 1,743 of these families with children were being sheltered in motels. This number does not count those families who are doubled up, living in unsafe conditions, or sleeping in their cars.

~ Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless

Successes:

~To date, 100% of the graduates of the accredited courses that have been taught since the spring of 2013 have moved into independent housing. Some are working, some are enrolled in college, all are drug-free and have found a purpose.
~Of the five students who completed the 15-week accredited Creative Writing course in the fall 2013 class, two went on to enroll in courses on campus in the Spring (one of whom will be finishing requirements by January 2015 for the Bachelor’s degree in biology that he began in 1992).
~Four of the five graduates of the fall course continued to come to the reading & discussion classes at the New England Center for Homeless Veterans through June 2014, where they acted as mentors to the newer participants.
~Grub Street, Inc., one of the nation’s leading creative writing centers, recently awarded three of the homeless students scholarships to continue their written work at the organization’s Boylston Street classrooms.
~The winner of the prize for best memoir in the GHSP/Consequence Writing Contest for Homeless Writers (the first of its kind) is also one of the five graduates of the fall 2013 course funded by the grant.
~One of the students from the accredited fall course was asked to speak on a panel at Mass General Hospital in March 2014 about his battle with cancer. He claims that the GHSP classes have helped him tell his story in front of an audience.
~Three of the students from the Creative Writing class attended the Joiner Institute’s Writer’s Workshop in June 2014, where one of the students from the fall class was invited to read a poem that was chosen for publication in the annual Warrior Writers Anthology.
~That same student has now taken on a leadership role with the Boston chapter of the Warrior Writers and leads a once-a-month writing workshop in Jamaica Plain.
~The Warrior Writer’s group, as a result of the connection made with the fall Creative Writing class via Batten, is now holding one of its two monthly meetings at the New England Center for Homeless Veteran.

Testimonials:

On Homelessness

"This is my third time being homeless...just the thought of being thrown out scares me into the straight and narrow. But I've been here five months and it's time to move on. These walls play tricks on my mind. I guess you could safely say that I am institutionalized. I've been doing the routine. I have become dependent in many ways on this place. Transitioning to an apartment is scary. This English class keeps my mind in check. I am grateful to it. It allows me to pass the time constructively. Yes, you can say it's therapeutic. Just writing this paper right now is therapeutic. It gives me room to write honestly and perhaps to see the virtue in life. 'It's a journey,' I heard one of the other students say. I feel like my journey stretches out in front of me into thousands of miles--I feel like I have covered maybe a few hundred so far."

~ Frank

* * *
"This class enabled me to speak my story to the scholarship committee at Berklee. Poetry isn't so very different than music; it all sings." Since beginning his year long participation in the reading & discussion group at the shelter, Spencer has applied and been accepted to the Berklee College of Music on full scholarship.

~Spencer

* * *

Alan completed the accredited college-level English course in December 2013; in June 2014, he wrote: "Today I read my first published poem on the lawn of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Imagine that."

~Alan

* * *

Michael arrived at the shelter after five days of gut-rocking heroin withdrawal. Clutching his duffle to him, the only thing left of his executive career and a personal life that starred two young daughters, he began to listen to the stories of those around him; today he is on staff at Lifebridge, still listening, helping others take the same walk back home...
"There was something deep down that was not right, and whatever we [collectively] do to cover that up, this [program] brought that out...it lets you tear everything down and begin to build a solid foundation for the rest of your life."

~Michael

* * *

Additional information:

2013 data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE), released in August 2014, estimates that 9,493 high school-aged students in public schools are experiencing homelessness on any given day in Massachusetts, including an estimated 4,085 unaccompanied high school students who are experiencing homelessness and not in the custody of their parent or legal guardian. ESE estimates that there are over 37,000 students of all ages experiencing homelessness who are enrolled in Massachusetts public schools.
The number of individuals experiencing homelessness has more than doubled since 1990.
On any given night in Massachusetts, the approximately 3,000 night shelter beds for individuals are usually full.

Fact: Sexual violence and homelessness often are interconnected.

~Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless

Impetus for realizing a change in this, the wealthiest country in the world (should you still need one):

"It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."

~John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Let's change that, eh?

With gratitude,

Julie Batten
Director of the Glass House Shelter Project