Introduction
Homelessness has come to draw a lot of attention and concern for the government, policy makers and other social service providers in present day United States of America (U.S.A). The homeless population has continued to expand over the years drawing close to 2 million people feared for this ordeal. A great part of this population happens to be school going youths together with their parents. Homelessness is adversely affecting the lives of these youth and their families in dissimilar ways. The video “Hard Times Generation: Homeless Kids” brings on board the plight of some of these youths living in the United states who are living in poverty and are homeless. Using a critical evaluation of the video, this paper seeks to explore further on the plight of homelessness in the United States of America.
How is it impacting students?
Homelessness is affecting students’ lives in the United States to a very great extent. Notably, homelessness is negatively impacting on the socialization and learning process of the affected students. Initially, their learning is greatly affected translating to their poor performance. This owes to a number of conditions these students have to go through in their daily lives. Most of these students for instance hardly get enough food to eat. This greatly affects their concentration levels in classes. Additionally, such students do not have an ideal environment for study out of school. From the video, most of these students together with their families are usually compelled to either live in motels or vans. These facilities may not have adequate lighting and space for them to conduct their studies. These hardships in the learning process usually compel some students to drop out of school in the long run. Secondly, the socialization of these students is usually interfered at school. Such students usually feel embarrassed of their situation and therefore refrain from freely interacting with others in school.
What are your thoughts on how we can support these youth and their families?
I think that it is the moral obligation of all people living in America to assist in finding a solution to the problem of homelessness. First, neighbours of homeless families should have the courtesy of providing a helping hand when their counter parts fall prey of such a problem. They can provide temporary accommodation and at least a meal for these families. Secondly, I think that schools could be better agencies in addressing the needs of homeless youths. Services can be set up in schools to meet the social, academic and psychological needs of homeless students. Schools can for example can provide breakfast to such students who might have gone to bed hungry in order to boost their concentration. Showers and dressing facilities like toothbrushes and hair brushes can also be availed in schools. Lastly, schools can consider setting up a nap room to help students who lack enough sleep at night.
How does homelessness impact schools?
The problem of homelessness has provided dissimilar and new challenges to schools in the U.S. Most schools have been compelled to incur more cost to initiate programs that support the needs of homeless students. A number of schools for instance, provide free lunch to these students. More school buses routes have also been established to drop homeless students to their diverse localities. With the increasing number of homeless students each day, this is proving to be a great cost challenge to these schools. In addition the overall individual school’s performance is usually compromised, depending on the number of homeless students and teachers enrolled owing to poor attendance issues.
Are you aware of any changes in your local area regarding homelessness?
Recently, a church has established a Christian mission and homeless shelter in my local home area. This shelter provides basic help to families faced with the problem. These include temporarily availing them with basic needs as they advocate for their rights at the local authorities at the same time. Additionally, most residents in my home areas have taken up a responsibility of supporting the homeless either socially or materially.
Monarch Schools programs - What is it about this program that makes it so successful?
Monarch School is an exclusive partnership between the public and private sector. Notably, the County Office of Education of San Diego partnered with the nonprofit scheme of the Monarch School. This project entails a variety of programs intended to address the needs of homeless youths. The program avails food, medication and clothing services to them. Additionally, enhancement and support programs like counseling, therapy and family assistance are also offered. This program has proved to be more successful in addressing the needs of homeless families because it is a holistic program. Consequently, the program addresses the physical social and psychological needs of this population.
Could a program like this be duplicated nationwide? Why or why not?
I feel that despite the success of this program, it cannot be duplicated nationwide. This is because it requires a lot of financial resources to address the needs of homeless families holistically. Following this, other cheaper mechanisms can be adopted instead.
