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Solidarity Sleep Out: Student Edition
Community service event benefits homeless youth.
Every year, more than two million young people are homeless in the United States and more than 5,000 lose their lives on the street.
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The statistics are alarming and Newark Academy students decided to do something about them.
NA students, faculty and staff held a Solidarity Sleep Out: Student Edition. The group signed up to sleep outdoors, raising money for Covenant House, an organization that helps homeless youth escape the streets. The goal was to raise $5,000 – the amount needed to make a bed available in a Covenant House location for half the year. The support poured in, eventually raising more than $21,000.
To make the best of the long, cold night outdoors, the group held team-building events and discussions with Covenant House representatives and read the profiles and stories of homeless young people.
The dialogue that began that night has continued. The Community Service theme for spring is homelessness, with a series of programs taking place all semester, related to homelessness and its causes.
Solidarity Sleep Out participants have also shared their thoughts on a blog dedicated to the Sleep Out, a forum for reflecting on the experience. Students and faculty have offered what they learned and how it shaped their perceptions of the homeless. Some reflections:
“I think the “us vs. them” complex is one of the most pervasive mentalities, and one of the most detrimental to the forward progress of reducing the rate of homelessness. People don’t often consider that homelessness, while it disproportionately affects certain populations more than others, can happen to anyone.”
“I compared what I did after the Sleep Out to what homeless people must do. While I slouched around my house for an entire day after a night of little sleep, homeless people must arise from wherever they slept and face a generally unsympathetic world from an already disadvantaged position.”
“I learned a lot about homelessness that I didn’t even know I didn’t know. Three examples: 1) Caregiving (caring for sick family members and/or for oneself) is major cause of homelessness in people of all ages. I never even thought of that. 2) Homeless folks might go into a liquor store to buy food because they are not welcomed in a traditional store. 3) A major cause of teen homelessness is the fact that people “age out” of the foster care system at 18.”
“My friends made my night … Unfortunately, homeless youths on the streets don’t really get to benefit from the comfort of a friend. I suppose that that made me all the more appreciative of Covenant House, in trying to provide people my age with some shelter and guidance. The Solidarity Sleep Out is an amazing event in its own right … but the presence of friends is what made me realize the importance of the difference between solitary and solidarity.”
An independent school for students in grades 6-12