Sunday, November 29, 2009
Coming soon!
Soon we will have the link to our film posted here so that the results of the semester's work can be seen! :)
Reflections on the semester
Until now we had never given much thought to the topics of homelessness and extreme poverty. It was easier for us to keep our eyes on the road when driving past a person who was panhandling or living out on the streets, than to acknowledge that there was a problem in society that needed dealing with. We believe it was easy for us to react this way because we didn’t know enough to form a fair opinion on homelessness, and not knowing makes one fearful of being involved in any way. After spending a semester in a Major Work Major Issues class focused on the topic of homelessness, we can all say that our opinions on the matter have changed. We all feel more knowledgeable on the different aspects of homelessness, like who it effects, how they became homeless and the treatment they receive as a result of their economic condition. Now that we are more educated in the subject we are all far less fearful to help this population who is so in need.
Prior to taking this course the group’s main opinion on homelessness was that the individuals who were homeless were most likely drug addicts who couldn’t hold jobs or pay for necessities due to their substance abuse habits. We now know that this is a huge stereotype that many people incorrectly believe. We first realized this when our class attended the Mental Health Center (MHC) and listened to two of the clients tell their story on how they came to be homeless. Rueben’s story was very memorable for us. He lost his leg in a roofing incident that took place when he was repairing roofs after a major hurricane. He then had trouble finding work after he got his prosthetic leg and chose to become homeless so that he would not burden his son with taking care of him. Though this may not have been the most obvious choice Rueben could have made, his story really opened our eyes to the fact that people become homeless for so many different reasons, not just because of a drug or alcohol habit. In addition, after reading the novel on street kids our views were expanded even more. Many of the kids in the book chose homelessness as a way of life because their home life was even worse than living on the streets. Most of the street kids did participate in drugs and drinking but many of them weren’t major addicts until they were out on the streets because they were using drugs as their way of self medicating to deal with their living conditions.
As the class continued on and the core work on our group projects began, we continued to learn the realities of homelessness. We chose to center our project around the Mobile Medical Bus, a service that makes healthcare portable and brings testing and treatment directly to the homeless population. Through this project we were all exposed to the issue of homelessness and lack of healthcare. Many of the homeless population do not have healthcare and cannot afford treatment so they simply suffer the illness or self medicate. We wanted to create a promotional video for the Mobile Medical Bus because it is really a great start to solving the healthcare issue amongst the impoverished. We wanted to promote the Bus in hopes that more homeless service providers will be interested in having the Bus come to their location and treat those in need. The group worked well together to make this informative video. Ashley Harris helped write the script for the interview questions along with the entire introduction and conclusion sections. On top of this, she created an online blog documenting the entire project from start to finish. Alyssa Kennedy performed all of the interviews and was a great help during the editing process as well. Matt Gardiner ended up compiling the bulk of the editing for the project and Matt NeSmith helped with the filming and the in-class presentation. Nasim Fakhri-Medrano found many of the facts used in the video and also helped write the interview questions. Tim Bender oversaw all of the going-ons in the group alongside helping with the script writing and interview process. All in all, the group worked well together and near equal loads of work were had among all.
In conclusion, we feel that taking this Major Works Major Issues class was very beneficial to us in a number of ways. Before this semester, we all lumped all of the homeless people under one stereotype that we have now come to realize is quite unfair and incorrect. We now know that people from all different situations end up homeless due to many different causes. From families who lost their homes due to the economic conditions to single men who suffer from mental illness, homelessness can affect people from all groups. Whatever the case may be, we all now see that focusing on the road and ignoring the people on the streets is not the answer to a widespread issue, it is only worsening the problem. If everyone reacted this way, so many people would be left to suffer quietly and forgotten. Through personal interaction with the homeless and the creation of our promotional video for the Mobile Medical Bus, we feel that we have all been a part of a positive force that took action to help those in need in our community.
Prior to taking this course the group’s main opinion on homelessness was that the individuals who were homeless were most likely drug addicts who couldn’t hold jobs or pay for necessities due to their substance abuse habits. We now know that this is a huge stereotype that many people incorrectly believe. We first realized this when our class attended the Mental Health Center (MHC) and listened to two of the clients tell their story on how they came to be homeless. Rueben’s story was very memorable for us. He lost his leg in a roofing incident that took place when he was repairing roofs after a major hurricane. He then had trouble finding work after he got his prosthetic leg and chose to become homeless so that he would not burden his son with taking care of him. Though this may not have been the most obvious choice Rueben could have made, his story really opened our eyes to the fact that people become homeless for so many different reasons, not just because of a drug or alcohol habit. In addition, after reading the novel on street kids our views were expanded even more. Many of the kids in the book chose homelessness as a way of life because their home life was even worse than living on the streets. Most of the street kids did participate in drugs and drinking but many of them weren’t major addicts until they were out on the streets because they were using drugs as their way of self medicating to deal with their living conditions.
As the class continued on and the core work on our group projects began, we continued to learn the realities of homelessness. We chose to center our project around the Mobile Medical Bus, a service that makes healthcare portable and brings testing and treatment directly to the homeless population. Through this project we were all exposed to the issue of homelessness and lack of healthcare. Many of the homeless population do not have healthcare and cannot afford treatment so they simply suffer the illness or self medicate. We wanted to create a promotional video for the Mobile Medical Bus because it is really a great start to solving the healthcare issue amongst the impoverished. We wanted to promote the Bus in hopes that more homeless service providers will be interested in having the Bus come to their location and treat those in need. The group worked well together to make this informative video. Ashley Harris helped write the script for the interview questions along with the entire introduction and conclusion sections. On top of this, she created an online blog documenting the entire project from start to finish. Alyssa Kennedy performed all of the interviews and was a great help during the editing process as well. Matt Gardiner ended up compiling the bulk of the editing for the project and Matt NeSmith helped with the filming and the in-class presentation. Nasim Fakhri-Medrano found many of the facts used in the video and also helped write the interview questions. Tim Bender oversaw all of the going-ons in the group alongside helping with the script writing and interview process. All in all, the group worked well together and near equal loads of work were had among all.
In conclusion, we feel that taking this Major Works Major Issues class was very beneficial to us in a number of ways. Before this semester, we all lumped all of the homeless people under one stereotype that we have now come to realize is quite unfair and incorrect. We now know that people from all different situations end up homeless due to many different causes. From families who lost their homes due to the economic conditions to single men who suffer from mental illness, homelessness can affect people from all groups. Whatever the case may be, we all now see that focusing on the road and ignoring the people on the streets is not the answer to a widespread issue, it is only worsening the problem. If everyone reacted this way, so many people would be left to suffer quietly and forgotten. Through personal interaction with the homeless and the creation of our promotional video for the Mobile Medical Bus, we feel that we have all been a part of a positive force that took action to help those in need in our community.
Introduction
Our names are Timothy Bender, Ashley Harris, Alyssa Kennedy, Matt Gardiner, Matt Nesmith, and Nasim Fakhri and we worked together in our Major Work Major Issues class at the University of South Florida to create a project that we felt would help the homeless population in Tampa. After gaining some background information on the Services in Tampa and also the needs of the population, we really took interest in a fairly new service called the Mobile Medical Bus. We felt this was an interesting topic because health care is such a pressing issue in society right now. We decided to make a promotional video for the Mobile Medical Bus that would make it more well known and hopefully inspire Service Providers in the area to have the Bus visit their site.
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