Cape Cod 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the 18^th of March 2012, the Cape Cod team of the Cornell Alternative Spring Breaks program left sunny Ithaca to embark on a trip that provoked their thought on the effect of homelessness. As usual, being forced to enjoy each other’s companies for seven hours helped to improve the team dynamics more than any of ice breakers that we hard during the weekly team meetings.

Upon our arrival in Cape Cod, we decided to take a tour before our week started. We went to one of its famous beach, sea food restaurant, and other local places by mistake. During our reflection meeting (which we had at the end of each day together with an hour journal entry period) that evening, some of the team participants noted that observation that “it seems that people who live in a dispersed, individualistic community like Cape Cod might easily forget about issues such as homelessness that affect its local residents. The entire team was ready and excited to link the curriculums from their weekly meetings to the Cape Cod community that they have found themselves stuck in for the rest of the week. They were all ready to get a first hand perspective of how people dealt with the issue of homelessness.

Wearing the right attires, breakfast in hand, and armed with principles of service learning, we started each day with a twenty minute debriefing session at the Housing Assistance Coorporation (HAC) office in Hyannis. At the start of the week, the team met people from different programs that are under HAC’s umbrella. They were all surprised to see how happy each one of the employees were considering the heart breaking stories that they hear throughout the day. They learned more about the importance of housing and the purpose of HAC from the employees than I was able to relate to them during our weekly meetings before the trip. Other than learning more about the imaginative project that we were going to bring to reality, the team found the interview and photography workshops helpful as they prepared to interview the clients and take photos that were used in the project. This trip would not have been as eye opening as it was without the involvement of the people whose lives are changed by the issue of homelessness.

The students met with clients (homeless people) from two of HAC’s shelters, Carriage house and village of Cataumet shelters. It was from this exposure to the clients and their relationship with their children that asked the students to take on the challenge of being more engaged with issue of homelessness and the community that they were in. After talking to the clients, the tucked away the preconceived notions that they had of HAC’s clients and quickly realized that they were no different from “regular people,” they just had different stories. Before talking about how the rest of the week went, I want give a brief description of what the exhibit “Houseless, not Homeless” was about.

Although Cape Cod usually brings to mind images of vacationing and relaxing summers, the community’s dependence on the tourism industry has led to the creation of seasonal jobs, the effects of which are exacerbated by the weak economy. As the disparity between people’s monthly income and rent payments worsen, many are forced to move out of their apartments or houses with their family. People who find themselves asking for help at the homeless shelters provided by the Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC) do come from all walks of life.

Of those who end up at the Village at Cataumet, a shelter HAC provides for families, each family has its own story, framed by the portraits. Some are victims of domestic violence, and others need a temporary crutch before they could start walking on their own again. Regardless of their backgrounds, all of them have goals and have professed their hopes and dreams of finding a job again and moving into their own personal space.

Nevertheless, the mothers in the families steadfastly declare that despite their current situation of homelessness, their happiness depends largely on the happiness of their children. Their children, in turn, lend their parents the motivation to become independent and increase the quality of their living situation. This family dynamic in homeless shelters does not differ from those with homes. From a glance or even careful observation, there are no revealing physical or emotional features that define an adult or a child as homeless. Children from the Village at Cataumet and Angel House, a shelter for single mothers and their children, participated in this mural project to present to the public that homelessness does not distinguish one child from another. Aside from the 11 participants, there are 250 more homeless children on Cape Cod who will remain nameless to the public. They are as hyper, spunky, and ambitious as all the other children on the cape.

The term homelessness has acquired an unfavorable connotation with the way that media has portrayed it to the general public. However, in line with the saying “Home is where the heart is,” the families who have been affected by homelessness still are inspired by the family bonds that remain strong. The quality of what is called “home” is not defined by how sizable the house is, even though owning houses and apartments may be something that everyone aspires to. Lacking a sense of ownership of a personal space should not reflect negatively on the individuals themselves, since “home” is intrinsic not to any physical space, but only to the intimacy between parents and their children.

The exhibit that is described in the few sentences above asked for the trip participants to work as a team, practice risk and conflict management, and be persistent to the achievement of the project goals despite the time constraints that presented themselves. After taking a step back to look at the product our hard work and after realizing how much each participant has learned from this experience, I want to applaud the entire team for a job well done.

Thursday, the 23^rd of March 2012 was our last day and night in Cape Cod. During reflection period that evening, the participants were asked to describe their week in one word and they responded by noting that their week was unexpected, overcoming, different, indescribable, ataraxy and fun. They all stated different things that they will be bringing back to Cornell but one thing that they all agreed on was the sharing of the knowledge that anyone can be homeless at any point in time, it doesn’t have an age group or social economic status preference. One day a person’s life can be going by smoothly and the next day that same person can find themselves homeless.

We will all like to thank the Housing Assistance Coorporation  and the Cornell Alternative Spring Break program for giving us the opportunity to get this experience and give something back to the community that we all keep taking from.

Last Chance…

The last day of our trip is here, but we still have not produced anything tangible! Today, we had just one day to put together an entire photography exhibit! We readied ourselves for a full day of work and jumped into it right away. I was super surprised at how organized everything was. People immediately began dividing up jobs, getting the frames ready, cutting out mounting material, preparing the quotes for printing, and printing the photos.
In just two hours, we already had the photos printed, the frames prepped, and the backing material ready. Like an assembly line or an efficient machine, we immediately began framing the photographs. While a team did this, another team was working on producing and printing the quotes and the intro panel. There was a buzz of activity and people went running back and forth, communicating problems and issues as the quotes were delivered and mounted onto the frame as well. Our HAC volunteer coordinator, who has served as our main contact and main director on the project, helped us by printing everything that we need and getting us the necessary supplies.

In four short hours, everything was ready to be mounted. We exhibited tremendous teamwork and efficiency in getting everything ready, and it was one further step to make this exhibit really come alive. As a group, we decided on how to arrange the placement of the photographs and where in HAC’s main conference room we could mount the photos. In another couple of hours, all the frames were up, all perfectly aligned and straightened, ready to be seen for our final presentation to HAC.
Our last activity of the day was presenting to HAC’s staff as well as numerous Cornell Alumni and benefactors our exhibit. The team shared our experiences as well as what we took away from the experience. Overall, it was a great conclusion to our week. We had produced a serious photography exhibit that will be shown throughout the Cape at various cultural centers and art galleries in order to promote HAC as well as remove the stigmas associated with homelessness. The team left the Cape feeling that we have made our own little contribution to the fight against homelessness and that it was overall, a great success! Go Cape Cod!!

The importance of personal space

Today we prepared to look at the amount of materials that we have collected and really go though them, understand the clients’ perspective, and really try to accurately portray both their personal space as well as their personalities and life stories. To start of the day, we had a design exercise where we each drew and presented out ideal exhibit. I left the requirements completely open so that we can really explore what is the best way that we may organize the photos and really showcase the shelter clients’ stories and persuade people both of the importance of these programs as well to give a face and a story to “homeless individuals.”

After the two teams shared their respective interviews, we came to realize several things. The personal space of the clients can be divided into separate categories that were physical, emotional, or relational. The most obvious concept of personal space is a defined physical boundary such as a room or a bed that belongs to one individual only. At the same time, some clients used various adjectives such as calm and happy to describe the feelings that make them feel safe and protected in their personal space. Some clients talked about religion and God as being crucial to their personal space, and some clients mentioned individuals such as their children or significant other that would be crucial to their personal space. We realized through this exercise that the potential of these images to impact the way people view homelessness is very significant. The exercise also demonstrated to us that the exhibit is meant to travel, and that being able to use the materially fluidly in any space and tell more stories and make more connection is an advantage that we can take.

Because of the physical constraints of the first exhibit, we decided to use around 4 -5 pictures per client, bringing the total to just under 40. We would organize the photos by client, and arrange them in a way that would best serve the primary message in their story. Quotes were taken from the interview to caption and further supplement the photos.

Deciding on this organization route, the team worked very hard as a collective to go through hundreds of photographs and tens of hours of audio recordings to select photos and take down important quotes. As a trip leader, I went back and forth to make sure everyone stayed on task. As the photo editor, I took requests for any changes to the photos and edited photos to best show the emotional quality that was important in these photos.

At the end of the day, we were able to select from the enormous amount of information and get ready for the actual printing and mounting activity tomorrow. We also realized that going through the recordings was like hearing the stories of the clients’ all over again, and we were able to appreciate even more of their stories and get even more attached to their lives and have their stories impact our own lives.

Getting down to business

We arrived today at our respective shelters and immediately began the interview process. We talked to the clients in a more formal, one on one setting today. Each team had their own method of approaching the interview process. Essentially, we were supposed to deliver a set of photos documenting the clients’ personal space as well as audio recordings of the interview. The questions we wanted to ask were how did they become homeless, what was their opinion of HAC, and what was their idea of personal space, both what they have right now in the shelter as well as what their idea image of personal space would be like. We gave the clients disposable cameras so they could take pictures themselves, and we also went around with digital cameras as the clients showed us their personal space.

The interview process went pretty smoothly for most of the clients. Like yesterday, they were very open to sharing their experiences and ideas. Unlike yesterday, however, the team was more confident in speaking up and asking the interview questions. What we found through the interviews was that homeless, for the most part, is simply an unfortunate byproduct of the way society and luck functions. None of the clients’ had intended to be homeless. Most have had families and homes at one point in their life, and even though drugs and other addictions may be a contributing factor in some clients’ lives, there were some clients who has successfully raised families and it was simple relationship disruptions like divorce or plans falling through that made them ended up on the streets.
We not only sympathized with the clients, the team was at times outraged and conflicted about the unpredictable courses life can take as well as the way people can treat each other so cruelly. We really felt the pain that they felt and at the same time, realized that whatever we were feeling, it was only a fraction of what the clients felt themselves because we couldn’t possibly really imagine what they’ve gone through. We were impressed at their courage and perseverance in really trying to better their lives and obtain a home that they can call their own and keep. For me, I was really surprised at the amount of bravery that some clients exhibited simply by seeking help in homeless shelters. For these individuals, they recognize that being homeless means that you are a outcast in society, and seeking help in a homeless shelter simply makes the individual admit that they are homeless. For me, this process of admitting that they have this problem (not because they were at fault), inflicts pain on their pride that I would not think I could withstand.
Later in the afternoon, once we have gotten all the materials, we started sorting what materials we have and started to organize the materials. Tomorrow, we will have to go through all of the client interviews, sort through all the photos, select them, and come up with a method of organizing and producing our exhibit. Our work will for the past two days with the clients will really show through in the effort that we put into creating the photography exhibit.

And we begin…

The Cape Cod team arrived at the Cape on Sunday night. On Monday morning, we were ready to go and meet Housing Assistance Corporation and their clients.  Like last year, HAC gave us a welcome meeting in the morning where the team was introduced to the various leaders of the different programs at HAC. There were people in real estate, weatherization, job training, and different shelters. All of the programs were there to combat the different aspects of homelessness and help to place and keep people in permanent homes. Even though we learned about the different programs, it was not until we saw that individual staff members that were responsible for the programs that we grasped the breadth and depth of HAC’s efforts to curtail homelessness on the Cape. The team was impressed with the organization and more than ready and willing to do what we were there to do: interview HAC’s shelter clients and produce a photography exhibit based on the idea of personal space for public relations purposes.

After our initial meeting, the team split up into two groups to go to two different shelters to meet the clients. One group went to the NOAH shelters, which is an overnight shelter that works on a “first come, first serve” basis.” The other shelter, called Angel House, is a shelter for single mothers who are recovering from an addition, and is a long term program where they may recover from their addiction while having the support of other individuals going through the same process. Both teams had a chance to have lunch and dinner at the respective shelters where they got to know the clients they were supposed to interview the next day.
The team got to see homeless shelters first hand and for many, it was their first exposure to the clients, the homeless individuals. It was definitely a challenge to not only remove your preconception, but also to build up the courage to approach and talk to them. During our conversations, we realized that not only did the clients have a lot of stories in their lives, that they are not defined by their homelessness, but that they were also really open to sharing their experiences. It was definitely surprising to see them open up to us and talk to us so frankly about their life stories.

We also had two training session, one about how to take photographs and compose them, the other on how to conduct interviews. The team found these sessions to be helpful and everyone was well prepared to interview the clients the next day, record the interviews, and take photos of their clients and personal space. At the end of the day, the team was ready to tackle the task next day.

the essence of family

Today was a very different day, one that was so much as physically demanding as the previous days. Today we worked on putting together a slideshow presentation of profiles of HAC clients using all the information gathered in the client interviews. I was excited to get to see the client interviews and see what they had to say about the HAC. Here are just some of the quotes we extracted and used in our slideshow presentation:

“I wish more people had access to HAC, or knew about it… the experience we’ve had has been phenomenal.”

“Carla [a HAC staff member] had told me: you’re almost there, you’re almost there, don’t give up.”

“They helped me more than just monetarily. I was able to see how people really cared about other people. It was really hard for me in the beginning because I had my guard up it was weird to have all these strangers have such an interest in me and have such a strong desire to help me with my situation.”

“I love HAC. HAC is my family. I owe so much to this agency and the people that work here and I just believe in this agency wholeheartedly I’ve seen miraculous things happen here. “

Later in the day when we showed the presentation to some of the HAC staff and Cornell alumni and a goodbye dinner, they had one word to describe it: powerful.  The dinner itself was really great and as you can tell from the last quote the HAC really is like a family, and everyone thanked us so much for the work we had done which we all really appreciated and felt good about. At the same time I thanked them for giving us an amazing week and that. I told one member that our presentation wasn’t powerful only because of how we put it together, but it was truly powerful because of all the great things that the HAC was doing to make sure everyone has a safe, stable place to live. By working with the HAC I think one really gets not only a new sense of what a family means, but also the importance of having a home for that family.

determined to finish

This morning started out with a phone call. After thinking about it last night, I really wanted to finish work on the chicken coop.  I knew the team would really appreciate having fully accomplished a project like this rather leaving it 90 percent done.  I called one of the HAC staff members, a woman who worked on the Community Green Farm project and asked her if we could split into three teams of two instead of two teams of three.  I proposed that instead of just having two teams, one working on the Community Green and the other on the client interviewing, that we would have three so two people could help Neil finish off the chicken coop we started. Additionally, I wanted everyone to rotate through at least all three projects, but splitting into teams of two meant that one person would not be able to do the client interviewing. I decided that this person would have to be me. I really wanted everyone on the team to participate in this project. I wanted them to really meet and talk with the people who were being directly helped by the HAC. I felt that this was important in terms of each of the members getting a truly meaningful experience out of the week. Here one could see how it would be easier to understand the situation some Cape Cod residents were going through by talking with the clients directly as opposed to working on the Community Green garden. I knew that everyone would love to hear the stories of how the HAC helped their clients and simply make the work that the HAC does much more real in their minds.

At the same time I was a bit disappointed because I really wanted to meet some of the HAC clients and talk to them in person. But I knew I would be seeing video of the interviews anyways so it was like I was completely missing out.  Regardless, I still had another great day working on the chicken coop again. This time I was little more experienced and things definitely went smoother and faster.  It also turned out that the other two teams finished early and everyone met at Neil’s garage to help put the finishing touches on the chicken coop. It was something that we had all worked on and out so much effort into.  One of the greatest team bonding moments we had was when all 6 of us were trying to move the giant coop onto Neil’s trailer to deliver it to the Community Green garden. An hour later when we finally got it unloaded there, we all took a step back to admire the finished product. I think everyone felt satisfied knowing that a little piece of them was part of that coop and would always be at the Community Green.

can we do it?

Today the team was again split up into two teams. One team went to continue work on the now 16 ft by 10ft chicken coop while the other team went to begin a project which involved interviewing clients of the HAC. Today I was with the team that worked on the chicken coop. We drilled boards together, hammered nails, wrapped chicken wiring around the entire chicken coop which was pretty labor intensive because the chicken wiring had to be stapled in every so often.  The chicken coop we worked on was meant to be implemented in a more specific part of the Community Green, the Community Green Farm. The Community Green Farm will aim to teach sustainable agriculture to both adults and children, house a market garden, and house livestock, 15 dairy sheep, 3 alpaca, bee hives, and 150 chickens some of which would be used to put into the chicken coop we were building.

At first it was a bit difficult to see how building a chicken coop would actually benefit the low income residents or even be a part of the effort to house more low income and homeless residents.  But you really have to put it all into the context of the Community Green Farm project as a while. Eventually this would serve to provide job training as well to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to work on an organic farm. What really strikes me is the emphasis on providing stabilization to low income residents by supplying them with the necessary skills they need to gain employment and stay on their feet rather than simply just housing the homeless.

Having the end goal in my mind is what kept me going throughout the day as we continued to help one of the HAC volunteers, Neil, on building the chicken coop. I was really impressed by how hard working he was. I found out that he had in fact built his own house with a little assistance from his teenage sons at the time. And if you saw this house, you would definitely be very impressed.

We had worked almost straight from 9am to 5pm, not to mention the hours some of the members put in yesterday, and we were still only 90% done with the chicken coop. My heart sunk a bit when we didn’t finish because I knew that we weren’t really scheduled to work on this project after today. I knew the team still had to do some work on the Green as well as continue the interview/profiles project.  It was an almost impossible task to complete such a giant project in only a day and a half but yet we were so close.

welcome back!

It felt really good to walk through the doors of the Housing Assistance Corporation for reasons which aren’t entirely clear to me. But I would guess that it was the sense of walking to a place that was just so welcoming. It had been over a year since I had been at the Housing Assistance Corporation in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Yet somehow the place still felt so familiar to me. The Cornell team is always greeted with the biggest of smiles and everyone at the HAC appeared to want their kids to get into Cornell, at least for that week.

We soon walked into a room and were greeted the volunteer coordinator, Mary. She had set up for us an entire orientation of the HAC and to educate us about all aspects of the HAC and what it does. Our meeting mostly focused on the issue of affordable housing on the Cape Cod. Many people know of Cape Cod as a great tourist destination spot because of the culture of artisans, writers, painters, and fisherman associated with the area. Most, however, are unaware of the lack of affordable housing in the region for its lower income residents. The median priced home $280,000, which would require an income of about $93,000 annually. For many residents of the Cape, this type of number is not a reality, and on the Cape, the HAC is one of few places they can turn to for help.

Our meetings also focused on one of the HAC’s biggest developments, the Community Green, but first the team was educated by each of the heads of the departments of the HAC about what they do. The first to speak was the CEO, Rick Presbrey, who gave a general introduction. One thing they really tried to impress upon us was the informality of the organization. This was shown by the CEO’s dog who apparently often accompanied him to work. I think the team found this pretty surprising that there was such an informal feel to the place and to the orientation itself.  Another thing we also noticed was that each of the staff members on the panel could easily be some hot shot professional in the more intense corporate for profit world.

After a quick lunch we were eager to get started. The team was split into two groups later on in the day. The first group worked on the beginning the construction of a chicken coop needed for the Community Green and the other group went directly to the Community Green itself. I was a part of this group on the first day.  Here we mostly helped move compost to a certain plot on the Community Green garden as well as take soil samples to assess what the nutrient composition of the soil is.  The Community Green is a development covering 45 acres and will include approximately 46 units of rental, 10 units of single-resident occupancy, five single family homes, and a 20,000 sq. ft. enterprise center. Other than affordable housing the Community Green will provide job training and future employment in the areas of culinary arts, clean energy, and agriculture. One of the green’s focuses as well is that it is a model of sustainability utilizing ‘green’ building and land-use principles. This is also where we helped out a lot in the previous years. I believe it is a great project because it is the HAC’s way to eventually  provide a more permanent solution to the lack of affordable housing rather than more temporary shelters that the HAC also runs.