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The causes and effects of poverty
The causes and effects of poverty
The causes and effects of poverty
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America's Underpriviliged Throughout the fall semester I did community service at a thrift shop and soup kitchen in Lawrence. There I experienced things I have never encountered before in my life. These experiences have taught me a lot, and have truly made me look at America's underprivileged, in a new light. The hours I put in at the food pantry had a greater affect on me than the thrift shop. On October 16, 1999 another classmate and I were brought to the food pantry in the middle of a poor section of Lawrence. We were brought inside and I was instructed to serve salad, bread, and pickles. My heart really went out to the unfortunate people when they started coming up to me. I felt extremely bad for them. There were people of all ages. Parents with their children, wearing dirt stained clothing filled with holes that did not even fit them. A good amount of the people I had to deal with were Hispanic and very few of them were able to speak English. It was very difficult to communicate with them. The little faces of the innocent children made me really feel for them. I knew these children had insecure families and were looked at as though they were fortunate to be getting food. These young kids seemed to be very appreciative that they were able to get some food in their starving bellies. There was one incident that will always stick with me. There was a mother with her two sons and daughter that had gotten in line to get their food. The two boys must have been around six years old and eleven years old. The girl was probably about nine years of age. The mother had gone first and got all her food and sat down. Then the little girl and her older brother went. The little six-year-old had dirt stains and tares all over his gray sweat pants. His innocent face said nothing to me. He stood there staring at me in the eye with a sad look. I asked him if he wanted to have some salad and he shook his head from side to side implicating no. Then I asked if he would like to have some bread and he again shook his head from side to side.
The concept of the "working poor" has gained prominence in the post-welfare reform era. As welfare rolls shrunk, the focus shifted from the dependent poor to the working poor. It was obvious that without substantial outside support, even families with full-time low-wage workers were still earning less than the official poverty line. And while American society purports that anyone can prosper if they work hard enough, it became apparent that with inadequate opportunity or bad luck, a growing number of families could not attain the American dream, or even break the cycle of poverty. The new challenge for American social policy is to help the working poor lift themselves out of poverty. That's why progressives who supported ending welfare as we know it have set a new goal -- the government should "make work pay" so that no one who works full time is poor.
My senior year of high school alone, I completed over 160 hours of community service. Being a full-time student and a part-time worker, unfortunately does not allow for much spare time, but whenever I do have a chance, I always volunteer through my youth group in church. One of my biggest goals in life is being able to give back to the community on a much bigger scale. Ultimately, I hope to even go full circle and give scholarships to Hispanic student like me.
From the various things I did to fulfill my required service hours, the most meaningful service I completed was through a program called Buddy Baseball. The Rockford park district in the summer organizes this program for the disabled children in the area so that they are able to participate in a sport. The park district runs this program to try and help the disabled children feel as though they have a more typical childhood. The kids have the opportunity to experience being on a team and playing with their friends without the aid of their parents, which the kids seldom get to experience. Because of this, I believe that this service best exemplifies the theme of the option for the poor and vulnerable.
Well, I have served my community every day on Thanksgiving for about 20 hours. Since 2012-2016, I have been helping out a community called Thanksgiving Community Dinner which it's a community that donates food to anyone who wants Thanksgiving meals. Well basically, I been volunteering out on serving food, waitering for people, washing dishes, and delivering food for them on the go. Every year during the morning of the community service, I always learn something new at that community which was really fun. For me to be able to helped people make me feel better about myself and to that community.
We, Aimee Johnson and Jessie Virnig, along with Amy Wilson and Shawn Klimek, decided to try to give the homeless a little hope. The week before Christmas we went door to door and collected food for the local homeless shelter. We decided to focus on collecting food because around the Christmas season, a lot of emphasis is put on toy drives and people sometimes overlook the fact that the homeless still need to eat. In order to broaden our research, we decided to collect food from more than one group of people. We went to an average middle class neighborhood and to a college dormitory. Before we went out into the neighborhood and dorms, we prepared a thank you letter to give to everyone explaining to them who we were, to tell them that we were collecting food for the homeles...
During high school and my first couple of months of college, I have volunteered quite a bit. I have fed the homeless, helped out at Habitat for Humanity, and cleaned the streets of Memphis, Tennessee. Doing community service and volunteering has helped me related to people and their struggles much more. It has made me realize how blessed and fortunate I actually am compared to other people. Helping and providing for people who do not have enough clothes to wear or feeding those who do not know when they are getting their next meal humbles me, because I could have been in their position easily. That is why helping the homeless and helping the less fortunate is so important to me. Helping someone who cannot help themselves is very rewarding,
I was part of a Girl Scout troop. Every year we would travel to an interesting place and take part in a community service project. In May of 2016, I, a warmhearted person, went with my Girl Scout troop to New York City. My kind Girl Scout leader, Miss Melinda, came up with the idea of helping the homeless when we traveled to New York. As a result, I was buoyant. I have always wanted to help the homeless, but I did not know how. When we were helping, I came across a friendly homeless man who changed my life forever. I was sympathetic. The choice of my leader’s decision made me joyful.
I volunteered for Feed My Starving Children, an organizations that provides food for children in countries that are going through poverty and famine. My job was to help package the food. While volunteering, I met some new people who played an important role in the organization. I learned hunger is a big problem that affects many children, families, and communities. I feel like my action was valuable to the community as I helped provide food for families. This service project has opened my eyes to issues that are happening around the world and how many communities need help. After volunteering, I began to be encouraged to be more actively engaged in the community.
I went to the grocery store and got cases of water, bags of bread, and stuff to make the sandwiches. I had finished preparing the bags and each had granola bars, fruit, ham and cheese sandwiches, water, toothpaste, and other hygiene products. My dad and I had arrived outside the homeless shelter and were ready to pass the bags out as we saw the swarm of people. Hundreds maybe even thousands of people gathered sitting in what little shade there was. I knew we had a homeless problem, but not to this extent and the bags I had made were going to make little to no difference on the vast amount of people that had been sitting outside. I was a little disappointed at first to be completely honest because I was not prepared for that many people. If I would have known there would have been so many people I would have made more bags. We drove around the block planning on what we were going to do and saw some tents set up. My dad and I were curious as to what they were, so we got out the car and saw that these people had been giving people food and I walked up to them and asked if there was any way I could help them. These people in the tents were actually an organization called Open Arms Outreach and a few girls scouts. They gladly let us help and we brought a few cases of water and the bags I had made and helped pass them out. The organization Open Arms Outreach
I was involved in service it was in mosque they made packages and we went on the street help the homeless people gave them food,
Many service projects have had an impact on my life, but the significant one is the time that our group put together Blessing Bags. The Blessing Bags were bags put together for homeless people. This project had an impact on my life because at one point in time, my family struggled. We did not have a stable home and we had to continue movie because of the living expenses. It is very difficult to buy many products that are needed for personal hygiene, especially if someone does not have a stable home. There are many people that live in the streets and it breaks my heart. Whenever I see homeless people, I give them what I can. Although my family did not become homeless, I could not imagine living in the streets without any food, clothing, or products
I also had the privilege of helping with the Meals on Wheels non profit organization. My grandfather used to be a Meals on Wheels recipient and he would share with me how he enjoyed looking forward to their company and a hot meal daily. I volunteered because I wanted to give back and help someone else’s loved one in the same way. It was very rewarding delivering hot meals to people who didn’t have the means of getting one as well as being there for them to talk to. Overall, it was a very humbling experience, it made me realize just how blessed I am and how much I take for granted daily.
I volunteered at East Parkside Nursing Home through my church 's mentoring program. At first, I was somewhat uncomfortable volunteering at a nursing home because my great-grandfather, among many others, was mistreated in a nursing home. But, as the day went on and we engaged in activities with the residents, I eventually calmed down and got into the smooth of things. We had one-on-one contact with the seniors, and we learned about their lives and families. One of the seniors was a veteran who fought in the Vietnam War and he told all of the volunteers a few short war stories. For several residents, their families rarely visited them, so they genuinely appreciated the volunteers spending time with them. Later, we made holiday cards and sang Christmas carols for the senior citizens. They seemed so elated and pleased, which made me feel so fulfilled that I could make someone 's day by doing something so
Volunteering has really opened my eyes to many different difficulties that some people face. Having served the majority of my community service time at Goodwill, I have seen and experienced a broad range of people from a wide variety of circumstances: financial difficulties, poor living conditions, or bad misfortune. Having witnessed these people’s backgrounds, it made me more appreciative for the life that I have. I have learned, through all the different people who shop there, that not everyone has the luxury of being able to shop anywhere they want. The stingy smell and dust-covered items are not the most appealing, but some people rely on stores like Goodwill to offer reduced prices on goods, and me being there to help with this process is very rewarding. This made me think about all the times when I complained about not getting the name brand items, when, looking back, were all amazing things to be able to own. I may see the people I help directly in the store, but I do not even notice all the people I help indirectly through Goodwill’s use of profits to help people in need. When I read about the stories of some of the people who Goodwill helped, it makes me feel very good inside, knowing I was part of the help. This makes me feel grateful that I am able to use my talents to help the
Service is a huge part of my life. In recent years I have been able to go to Oklahoma for one week, where I lived in community helping the Cherokee nation. I worked on improving someone’s school, learning the history of a culture, and connecting in other ways like playing stickball. Stickball is like lacrosse but it is played with two smaller sticks. I have also participated in Cradles to Crayons. This project is a little closer to home the Oklahoma but just as rewarding. At Cradles to Crayons I