Care Kits for those Experiencing Homelessness

This group didn’t know what they should do to make a change in their community.  They wanted to do something hadn’t yet been done in Professor Janzen’s classes before. After much thought, Kayla’s mom gave them an idea to make care kits for the homeless. This group thought this was a project they could complete and it might feel more rewarding to work directly with others. Ashley explains, “Our first step was to raise awareness by reaching out to friends and family. I did this through social media and raised items and cash to go towards the gift bags.” What did they put in their bags? Summer writes, “For our Care Kits, we collected donations and bought some of the items ourselves. The items that went into the Care Kits included, socks, bottles of water, snacks or sandwiches, toothbrush/toothpaste, first aid kits, deodorant, tissues, wipes, lip balm, and other hygiene products. All together we had 14 Care Kits to hand out.”

As this group began distributing their kits, they realized that this may be harder in certain ways than they had imagined. Ashley writes, “We had very different reactions when handing out our gift bags. Most of those we found were very generous and thankful…On another occasion we approached a woman and she began to ask us questions such as ‘Are you part of a charity or something?’ we answered saying we are doing this for a class project. ‘So you’re doing this for a grade’ she said in disgust.” This group realized that their ideas about charity and justice may not be wholly shared by those they hoped to serve. These interactions with others made this group think more deeply about their work and the impact it may or may not have had. Were these kits helpful? Did they make a positive difference in their community? How did this project influence the individual members of the group? Summer writes, “I had never done anything like this before, so it was a really good experience to step out of my comfort zone, be brave, and do something that would help people out.”

For more details check out these e-portfolios:

https://sites.google.com/site/summersexperimentsinethics/organize-an-activity

https://sites.google.com/site/ashleysexperimenttemplate/organize-an-activity

https://sites.google.com/site/dearkaylabowe/organize-an-activity