Why Click Homeless exists, in three acts

Why Click Homeless exists, in three acts

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Act One

I WISHED I HADN’T HAVE GIVEN HIM MONEY

But why the experience helped me see the
need for knowing in what contexts I should.

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In high school, a man walked up to my car, while I waited in a McDonald’s drive-thru. This was the first time someone approached my car at any drive-thru and I was alone. I was jolted. He would ask for money. He tapped on my window and my heart pounded because I tried desperately to figure out what I believed—I didn’t know.

I rolled the window down. Yup, he wanted money. I came up with a thought. I decided I believed it was good for me to give to those less fortunate than me, of course. That was actionable; why not now? I hadn’t processed much about homelessness, so my action was based on these fleeting thoughts.

I nervously got some change and gave it to the man. The man didn’t go away. He asked for more, even while I drove to the next window. His aggressiveness unnerved me. I felt out of control. I rolled the window up and looked away. I drove away with my heart still pounding and my mind spinning, trying to connect random thoughts about what I believed and what I should have done.

If I could do it again, what would I do? I now think it wasn’t wise that I give to the man at the time. I didn’t spend time speaking with him to see what his needs may be. But that experience helped me realized I needed to be better educated, and that education led me to go further in other situations. This education has made me less afraid of eye contact with strangers.

I want to make it clear that Click Homeless is not about supporting homeless bloggers because it makes us feel better, or because it will help us all write the manual that will be some definitive truth. It’s not about blindly supporting all homeless advocacy programs, because that’s our thing—a bumper sticker we can slap on our laptop that shows we are changing the world.

I want “our thing” to be about learning about homelessness, and making sure we are reading the research that often gets pushed to the back of the shelf.

In the limited time I’ve spend learning about homelessness, the sources that have had the greatest impact on me, and the sources I trust most deeply come from homeless speakers and writers, the most accessible of which have been online.

I want Click Homeless to exist because these voices enrich our lives and help us all wrestle with what we believe. Our conclusions will not all be the same, but if we can decide a few things about what we believe, it sure does make us bolder in trying to alleviate some of the issues homelessness can produce.

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Act Two

THE TONE OF OUR SUPPORT

How grandma makes the Internet like home

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I want Click Homeless to support homeless bloggers in the way I try to support my grandmother’s use of the Internet.

My grandmother, who currently uses a slow dial-up Internet connection, says she plays solitaire between waiting for pages to load.

She has great patience and spends time online connecting with family and friends.

I’ve helped her experiment with blogging. It has been great to see her posts shots of her husband tending to goats, and to see posts on here history, Recently she accepted my request to join facebook. She is the best cook in the world, so when she asked when I was visiting next, we scheduled a visit.

Because I send so much time online with my profession and because grandma doesn’t live in the same city as me, the greater her presence online, the more connected I am am with her and the more I learn from her.

This is the online relationship I want to mimic. The more we can support homeless bloggers, the greater we all will be enriched. Through the building of relationships, we can better educate each other, and better move forward with seeking ways we can converge and create nuggets of change.

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Act Three

CLICK HOMELESS IS MADE UP OF PEOPLE

What you can do to help.

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I am not the only voice in this network. I hope to set the tone, but I know there will be disagreements about the best way this all will work. With or without funding from ideablob.com, I hope we will band together and support homeless bloggers in the ways we can.

We may not be web designers, or grant writers, or specialists in blogging, but we all can Click Homeless and make sure our education of homeless issues includes this key source.

We have slipped to number two in the sprint rankings. Please encourage others to vote and learn about our efforts. If we have enough votes by Tuesday at midnight, we will be a finalist and have the opportunity compete against a shortlist of ideas for $10,000 in funding to help support homeless bloggers.

http://clickhomeless.com

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