Empowering Youth in Relationships

The Youth Group is excited to announce a joint program with the Women's Alliance on Sunday January 22, 2012.

The aim of "Empowering Youth in Relationships" is to provide an educational program surrounding issues involving Teen Dating & Relationship Safety.  We have a number of panelists lined up to speak to different aspects of this important issue.

The evening will begin with a brief reception at 6:30 followed by a lively panel discussion from 7:00-8:30pm.  The panelists come from a variety of organizations including: Renewal House/UU Urban Ministry, Transition House, REACH Beyond Violence, and Futures Without Violence.

Some of the areas we hope to touch on are:

• How to recognize when a relationship is unsafe
• Facts and figures relating to domestic violence and teen dating violence
• Types of abusive behaviors
• What to do if you are in an unsafe relationship
• What to do if friends are in an unsafe relationship

This program will be open to the First Parish Youth Group, parents and any other members of our congregation who are interested in coming.  

What is an immediate action you can take, today, to help?

Smile at a homeless person on the street – make them feel seen, not invisible.

Immediate action can be as simple as donating money to an individual or organization, or as complex as working to improve the school systems or homeless shelters.

Donations. Time. Money. Materials. Anything. More than that, activism.

Raise money, raise awareness.

You can give.

Homelessness can’t be ended overnight. It is reoccurring.

Offering support through shelters, food pantries, etc. can make a large difference.

Give change, blankets, food.

If I go out to eat, I can give my left-overs to someone on the street.

Participate in community outreach programs.

To lift the burden of homelessness completely from a person or group of people is a tough problem, but many different small things, such as donating socks or helping at a shelter, can add up to a lot.

Random acts of kindness.

Help them find a place to call home.

Offering money to people on the streets.

Food drives, donate clothing, support local shelters.

Education.

Don’t judge them for being homeless. Acknowledge them as human beings.

Smile at homeless people and talk to them. Treat them like regular people instead of a lower class. Just be nice.

Donate clothes – the weather is getting colder.

Listen. Learn. Educate. Try to open your eyes. Drop a dollar or a sandwich in the man sleeping in the subway station’s lap.

The best things I can think of seem so inadequate. I’ll do whatever I can.

Why are there so many people without homes today?

Due to job cuts, poor economy, and other issues like alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Because of the chronic racisms, phobias, and biases of the job market.

Because homelessness became about an issue, not about people.

Because our standardized society doesn’t care about the single people’s needs. Like any evolved society, actually.

Illness, accidents, it could be because of anything.

Lack of independence, both financial and mental.

“Luck” is not on everyone’s side.

Because of a combination of financial woes, rising cost of living, an underperforming and expensive housing market, coupled with rising unemployment.

People can’t afford their mortgage or rent anymore.

Some people aren’t given as fair of a chance as others.

With a bad economy, people lose their jobs.

An imperfect economic system. Because others are unable or unwilling to help.

Many people are still homeless because of lack of support, mental disorders, not knowing what to do.

Because they have lost their jobs, ran out of money, have no resources, or got evicted from their homes.

The economy, loss of jobs, loss of money. People who may have had enough money before now have none.

Because of the economy and people being forced out of their homes.

The divide between the upper and lower class is growing.

Because becoming homeless is easy, but getting back out of homelessness is hard.

Because it is hard to recover from nothing to something.

Because we have failed in so many ways.

What would you feel like if you didn’t have a home?

Like I had no center.

I would be vulnerable, unhappy, and scared.

I’d feel lost. And cold.

Outcast.

Unsafe and unloved.

Worry, shame, uncertainty.

It would be frightening and embarrassing.

To not have a home is like not having a basis for anything.

I would feel lost, and I would try to turn to safety only to find more darkness, and holes in the ground.

A very alien feeling, very stressing and disorienting.

I can’t imagine this. I can imagine a small apartment or a dorm room, but not nothing.

I would become a drifter, but it would be a cold and hard adventure.

I would feel vulnerable, exposed, unprotected, unjustified, hurt, betrayed, and resentful.

It would be bad, especially as you lose that sense of a final destination.

I would want to find a home, but I wouldn’t know how to find one.

With nowhere to center myself, I would just wander, without purpose.

I would be thankful for any bit of help.

I would be scared and ashamed.

I can’t imagine not knowing where my family would be day to day.

I’d feel like I could never be as good or important as the people surrounding me and that was all my fault. I’d feel helpless, alone, and depressed.

It is really unimaginable.

I couldn’t live with the pain and worry that comes with being homeless.

What is a Safe Home?

A place where you feel loved.

Where you have nothing to fear.

A safe home is a home where you feel like nothing is going to hurt you and nothing wants to hurt you.

Somewhere you feel comfortable, both physically and mentally.

A home you can return to again and again with no harm or danger.

A safe home is a place where someone can feel protected and loved at all times.

Somewhere you feel never changes without your say.

Where you don’t have to worry about being hurt or robbed.

A safe home is structurally sound, no gas leaks or broken floorboards. It is a safe place, with loving people, no violence, no drugs.

A safe home is a home that is secure.

A place where you feel no threat from anyone.

A safe home is where you can be yourself with others who can be themselves.

A place where there is no worry, violence, abuse, or harmful things.

A safe home has insulation and heating and electricity and plumbing.

Where you can be yourself without fear of being judged.

A home that has people you trust in it.

A home should always be safe, otherwise I don’t know if it would still be a home.

Why did we choose “Homes and Homelessness” for our Social Action project theme this year?

Because it is important – spiritually, physically, socially, and financially.

Because it is a big problem in the world that we can help solve, and reach a lot of individual people at the same time.

It is relatable – we are all people, whether or not we have a home.

Because too many people are without homes or in homes that are unsafe or broken.

Homes and homelessness affects so many people and there is a lot for us to do to help the cause.

Everyone should have a place to live.

To help people in need who we frequently interact with.

We know that without a home, people can feel so completely alone and helpless, and we want to help them.

We all realize that this is a very constant and desperate issue. It is very much in the now, and the future, and it is something a big group or creative, thoughtful people like us can make a difference in.

Because everyone deserves food and shelter.

Many things can be done to speak out and raise awareness for a broad range of topics such as domestic violence, homelessness, child abuse, and more.

We chose this issue because Homelessness is a prevalent issue in society today and has been for much time.

Because walking down the stress in the city, you are bound to come across a blatantly homeless person, and more often than not, turn a blind eye.

The issue is a very important and large-scale one that is affecting many people disastrously.

It helps our community.

We heard a call to take action.