1. SECCOMBE, Chapter 4

Unfortunately I have to agree that the welfare system breeds dependency on itself. On pages 79-90 Seccombe gives an example of Rhonda a 28 yrs old white women mother of a 5 yrs old named Robby who has been in the welfare system for 4 years and yet she doesn’t seem to realize her dependency on welfare. She claims she hates the welfare system but keeps coming back  whenever she’s unemployed. I think this is a good example that shows us both sides of reality, a mother that want to advance and provide for her family but keeps taking advantage of welfare. I personally think that welfare should be a support for people until they can pick themselves up and find a job and able to maintain a good economic status. I know some people who are in welfare who don’t need the help; they have god jobs, house, car, etc. I don’t know how they manage to do it but they do. I think is easy for people like this to think that they can take advantage, get away with it and be dependant while they are not busted.

However, I don’t believe that for most people living like this is really their choice. I don't believe that the better life for them is to depend on welfare. I believe that the reason that people give up so easily is because we have allowed them to become dependent on the welfare system. I know it seems cruel to put a time limit on a person or a family to stay on welfare, but in the long run, it's not. Living on welfare is all they know, they think that they could never really succeed. They have given up hope and is sad but true. It is up to all of us to be encouragers of people. To offer hope, an uplifting word. I think that all of us would be better off by not allowing people who are going through a difficult time to become dependent on welfare, but to show them that we expect them to take the steps necessary to improve their situation. And to give them the encouragement to do so.

2. SECCOMBE chapter 5

I agree with Seccombe when she says that living and surviving on welfare touches all aspects of a person’s life not just economic realm. I think her point is valid because if we think about when one is on welfare is most likely to be stress out, low self-esteem, perhaps drug proble, mental problems, not having enough money to bys basic stuff, etc. lack of money and being on welfare limits ones activities they have to learn how to survive on meager amounts. I can’t imagine what is like to live on $274 a month in food stamps.
Also, I think that people on welfare usually experience somehow discrimination form society which affects primarily their self-esteem. I notice this when I used to work in a grocery store years ago and people would shop with their link cards and I could see the cashier and the people in line would look at them in a different way. At he time I thought that link card was some type of special card that only some privileged people could have. Later on I learned that it was the other way around. But I guess if one is on welfare gets used to those kind of discrimination and situations and again I strongly believe that people on welfare have self-esteem problems, which is sad and should be that way.

On page 111, Secombee gives us an example of what is like to live on welfare and how this situation affects families like Jana a 28 years old African American mother of 4 children. Her oldest son is in a center for emotionally disturbed children located a 120 miles away from home. Jena lives with her other children in deplorable conditions that could affect the health of her children and herself in a poor are of town. So yes welfare does affect individuals and families whether one chooses to be in or have the necessity of welfare, it does affect people and communities. If Jena was form an affluent family or had a little bit more money, she wouldn’t have to go through this painful separation of her children and putting the rest of her family in danger, instead she would be healthier and live in a better area in town.

3. REVIEW OF TWO STUDENTS BLOG

The first blog I review was “Dino & justice” on Sunday April 08 http://onlydinothegreek.blogspot.com/.
I decide to review Dino’s blog since he is so outspoken in class. I noticed he does the same in writing. His blog is very good put together; he uses his own style of writing and naming each entry. I like the bubbles in the background and the color he uses for his blog. The only thing I notice was that he had some entries missing but I guess latter on he would put them! But overall I enjoyed reading his blog. 

The second blog I review was “Does the U.S and the rest of the world care?” by Clarence http://doestheusandtherestoftheworldcare.blogspot.com/. on April 09. I like the title of his blog and I think is very strong statement that I usually ask myself and people and I think we all know the answer by taking this class.  I think he did and excellent job in putting together this blog. So far is one of the best in my opinion. He has a lot of pictures and it flows throughout, this shows me that he is committed to the subject and knows what he’s talking bout.  I like his comments and summaries because they are concise and well written. Overall this is an excellent blog. 

4. ACTION PROJECT

My group is group 8 integrated by Adam, Scott, Kenneth and myself. We decided to do our action project at nonprofit organization called “West Suburban PADS” which dedicates to serve individuals and families who are homeless, or risk of homeless by providing shelter, housing and supporting services

On April 7 Scott and I began our action project from 9am to 2pm. I was put to work right away arranging some donations wrapped up in bags like shampoo, toothpaste and lotions. I had to separate each item and put them in a small shelve which later would be provided to clients when the y come in and out to use the shower.

Then we meet with Lindsey LaPointe, support center case manager, who basically told us the way this center functions and some valuable information like statistics of how many people they serve in a given day, what type of clients they have , the process of the clients selection, programs they provide which I will explain later in my presentation. After finishing our meeting with Lindsey we were put clean the refrigerator. There was some food that had to be thrown away. I know it sounds bad since is a shelter and food is suppose to be given away instead of ending up in the garbage. But I guess we had to do the hard task of dumping food. When we finished that task we were told to observe meanwhile. When we came back from lunch we meet with Justin Schloer he is in charge of substance abuse case manager. He’s been working in the area of substance abuse for 14 yrs. He explained us the services they provide to clients who suffer from alcoholism and substance abuse, some of these services are consultation; provide house treatment, therapy, meetings, narcotic and co dependency anonymous, etc. He informed us that 20-30% of these clients suffering form substance abuse and alcoholism are willing to commit with treatment, 85% of clients that come to PADS are most likely to be on some kind of drug or alcohol. We conclude our meeting with Justin by asking if PADS is doing a good job when it comes to these kinds of issues. He said that PADS has an amazing staff and he loves all they do for the organization. However, he would like to see a program where new employees or volunteers are trained properly. That’s how our project ended in this day.

On April 9, we were supposed to start at the same time but Scott and I decided that would be better to start from 4-8 because we wanted to see the lottery at the shelter which is basically a lottery that allows to select which clients can stay for the night and who can’t. When I arrived to PADS Scott and I were told to do some filing which it took us a while since there was a big pile of papers that needed to be put away and organized.

Around 5:00 I was sent to the shelter to observe the lottery. I meet with Tiffany Coco an intern who was in charge of the set up of the shelter. It turn out that there was no lottery in this day because there was enough room for all clients. Honestly the staff as so nice that they didn’t expected me to help and just observe but I decided to help and proceeded to put the mattresses on the floor, bring the pillows and put the cover on it, bring blankets and distribute to each bed, set up the table for dinner, put silverware, put a chair in between each mattress so each client can put their belongings

 

While I was doing this I felt proud of myself for doing this and I’m glad I got to see it first hand and experience this project. Later on around 7:30 it was time to call the clients and check their PADS memberships and make sure they are no in suspension. Clients were free to pick their mattress and put down the belongings. I found out that 25% of the clients have part time jobs. According to Tiffany the shelter usually fills up and they have to turn away clients as they did the past week. I stayed in the shelter until 8:30 observing clients and staff how they interact until they are serve dinner. To sum up my experience I found out and realized that being homeless is not a choice is not something that someone chooses to be, instead is a sad reality that many Chicagoans and people in the U.S can easily fall into because we have a bad Socio-economic and political system that lacks of opportunities and ways to advance to individuals in this society. I really enjoyed helping PADS to make a difference in poverty; I think I would never have done this project without taking this class. It created awareness and I feel  proud of what I did and pass onthe message and inspire other people to contribute, volunteer and try to make a change in poverty and hunger.

5. EHRENREICH TEXT

Ehrenreich began her journey in key west, Florida .her fist challenge was to find a place to live where rent started from $675 a month and up. But she could only afford $500 to $600 with a $7 job. So she decided to rent”efficiency” but she realized that is too far   away form jobs. She took a job at hearthside as a waitress making $2.43 plus tips, after a while she realizes that is not enough money survive so she was force to get another job. Sadly with 2 jobs she started to have health problem and had to leave one job after a short time and even is she stayed, she couldn’t have make money for the rent. Bottom line is that she could not get by in Florida by making minimum wage.

According to the Labor Law center minimum wage in Florida is  $7.25, living wage is 9.70 and poverty wage is 5.00 (http://www.laborlawcenter.com/p-34-florida-labor-law-posters.aspx. If I compare this numbers with Ehrenreich making when she lived in Florida she was making $5.15+$7.50= $12.65 but having both jobs. If she maintained one job put her in the group of below poverty level. So she wouldn’t be able to survive if she stayed in Florida nor at that time could afford to live in Key West.

6. REFLECTION PAPER ON STREETWISE

The movie Streetwise exposed the facts of poverty that many young teens face in nowadays. This film centered on a particular teenage residents of the Seattle streets. What really socked me about this film was shows that teens engaged in various forms of drug dealing, petty thievery, and prostitution. These are often their only means of survival. Rat, a 17 yrs old who lives in an abandoned hotel and survives by ``rolling queers'' and digging discarded food from restaurant dumpsters. The character that stood out to me was Dewayne. With his malnutrition problems and yet very strong and determine to continuing in the daily battle of survive. I admire Dewayne and feel sympathy because he didn’t have many opportunities like most of us do; his father was in jai for almost his entire life.

I think this film was very interesting and educative for viewers because it showed the realism experienced by a growing number of nomadic teenagers in America's urban centers, and it is extremely difficult and disturbing to view. Streetwise inevitably undermines the comfortable myths that are associated with childhood. These give way to scenes of grim authenticity that depict the daily lives of children, who are routinely placed in danger of death, starvation, and prostitution and who must often sell their bodies and their blood in order to survive. This episode in the movie was hard to watch and understand how is possible that a fourteen-year-old prostitute climb into a passing car for the purpose of performing sexual favors and a 14 yrs old who must sell his blood in order to eat, it got to me and made me think how and why we as society allow this to happen to some of our teens.

What I like the most about this film was that unfolds the hidden reality of the horrors of life on the street as they are experienced by a number of, vulnerable teenagers. It does so without falsely glamorizing their dangerous exploits or elevating their experiences to the realm of the surreal. There was an. it was sad to see that happening to this teenagers who were left in life with two things, hope and a great heart.

7. ARTICLE

Food banks stretched, but ending childhood hunger reachable, advocates say

Source: Medill reports Chicago 

by Sarah Marchmont
March 04, 2010

 This article looks at Food insecurity rates are a way the government measure individuals' access to food and level of hunger.  According to this article every week, 5.7 million people are receiving food assistance from one of Feeding America’s nearly 42,000 member agencies.  In Cook County, 142,000 people receive food each week from the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s member food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. There’s been an 86 percent increase in clients they served between 2008 and 2009, serving in January around 980 clients. It also provides 600member agencies that lat year gave out 58 million pounds of food. However, in Cook County, 44 percent of households with children have “very low food security,” according to the Feeding America study, which means people in those homes are reporting disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake — people in this situation aren’t eating three meals a day, seven days a week as is suppose to. Nearly 40 percent of the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s clients are children.  So the questions is ending hunger just about pouring more and more money into federal food assistance programs, or is it about decreasing the need for assistance?  Anti- hungers advocates that this problem may be solve with 5 yrs in the barrack Obama’s administration.

The picture of this article is shocking, a young white man holding a cardboard trying to find a job and having his resume on hand.  He relies on panhandling and food pantries for food. This is similar story of Ehrenreich but in different way, Ehrenreich went she worked at various jobs trying to make a living she still wasn’t able making enough to meet her needs, I assume this guy shown in this article is trying to do the same as Ehrenreich which is surviving and trying to get a decent paying job. I used to think that this could only happen to foreign people or people who decided to be on the streets since they don’t have the language skills and education but I guess is not about the lack of opportunity and jobs. Addressing the problem of the high demand of people assisted in food depositories. I believe the answer for poverty is not to provide more food banks and investing, although I think is good that Chicago food depositories help children and people who need of this basic items in order to get by. And understand why people are hungry and address those issues.