View my power point presentation by clicking the link below.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1m__IEdNyVD0-BTbqj75da4MotL2ujwj7HirPiI05Ce8/edit#slide=id.p
Project Reflection:
For the With Justice for All project, we created a series of projects based on the homeless community of Durango. Before we decided to select homelessness as our project we did various research on moral and political philosophy's. After this we decided to focus on the issues or complexities of people experiencing homelessness and create a project on the issues of homelessness. As a class, we studied the issue of homelessness and researched topics on homelessness to gain knowledge and apply that to our project. At first, our class mainly focused on researching and learning about how places like Manna soup kitchen and the Durango homeless shelter function in helping those experiencing homelessness. Approximately midway through our project we took a field trip to the test tracks to visit the homeless camps. Tom who is currently experiencing homelessness, and Ed, who is a police officer took us on a tour. on the tour we had the opportunity to meet some of our homeless community members and hear there stories. Continuing research we then ended our project with an exhibition at the fairgrounds.
On Tuesday night, we attended the event at the fairgrounds. We started off by listening to a starting speech about the importance of the homeless community. We then presented our projects for about an hour to the visitors to the event. To end the event we all had a meal served to us and the homeless community members who attended the event. I think our event went really well and was by far the most interesting exhibition I have done at animas. I found it really interesting to hear peoples stories about how they ended up homeless. One interesting and in some terms concerning aspect of the event was when a gentleman mentioned how he was working three full time jobs and still could not afford to live in a house. It goes to show you how hard it is to pay for a house in Durango.
I think I really succeeded in my work effort for this project. As a change from what I have done in the past, I went for quality not quantity. On many occasions, I have created long presentations that I rushed threw not even attempting to refine it. For this presentation, I spent a lot of time on each slide. I made sure that each slide was descriptive and interesting yet also beautiful and eye catching work. Although this presentation was not very long, I would say it is tremendously better than a long but not well thought out presentation I would have done in the past.
Overall, this event had one of the most drastic impacts on my thinking and especially my view of homelessness. It took my perspective of homelessness that lied deep under the ocean of my thoughts and washed it ashore to reveal the true aspects of homelessness. It really brought out what homelessness really is and how it can be caused in so many different ways. I now realize that homelessness can be caused by loss of a job, loss of hope, and an endless list, not just mental illness or substance abuse. In fact, I spoke with multiple people experiencing homelessness who work up to 3 full time jobs which is barely enough to have a car and buy food. One really sad aspect that is a big contributor to homelessness that latched onto my brain is war vets. As I see it, war vets are brought into the army to be used to protect and serve our country to be thrown in the trash years later to not be appreciated and recognized for the traumatic situation they went through to keep you safe. I personally do not think there is a winner of the project. It comes down to the fastest guy in the race to the slowest guy in the race. What matter's is that everyone has the same mindset to do the best they possibly can. In relation its not that one person had a better looking project than another, but the fact that everyone created a project to create a welcoming environment to honor and appreciate the homeless for who they are and the challenges they have to face.
For the With Justice for All project, we created a series of projects based on the homeless community of Durango. Before we decided to select homelessness as our project we did various research on moral and political philosophy's. After this we decided to focus on the issues or complexities of people experiencing homelessness and create a project on the issues of homelessness. As a class, we studied the issue of homelessness and researched topics on homelessness to gain knowledge and apply that to our project. At first, our class mainly focused on researching and learning about how places like Manna soup kitchen and the Durango homeless shelter function in helping those experiencing homelessness. Approximately midway through our project we took a field trip to the test tracks to visit the homeless camps. Tom who is currently experiencing homelessness, and Ed, who is a police officer took us on a tour. on the tour we had the opportunity to meet some of our homeless community members and hear there stories. Continuing research we then ended our project with an exhibition at the fairgrounds.
On Tuesday night, we attended the event at the fairgrounds. We started off by listening to a starting speech about the importance of the homeless community. We then presented our projects for about an hour to the visitors to the event. To end the event we all had a meal served to us and the homeless community members who attended the event. I think our event went really well and was by far the most interesting exhibition I have done at animas. I found it really interesting to hear peoples stories about how they ended up homeless. One interesting and in some terms concerning aspect of the event was when a gentleman mentioned how he was working three full time jobs and still could not afford to live in a house. It goes to show you how hard it is to pay for a house in Durango.
I think I really succeeded in my work effort for this project. As a change from what I have done in the past, I went for quality not quantity. On many occasions, I have created long presentations that I rushed threw not even attempting to refine it. For this presentation, I spent a lot of time on each slide. I made sure that each slide was descriptive and interesting yet also beautiful and eye catching work. Although this presentation was not very long, I would say it is tremendously better than a long but not well thought out presentation I would have done in the past.
Overall, this event had one of the most drastic impacts on my thinking and especially my view of homelessness. It took my perspective of homelessness that lied deep under the ocean of my thoughts and washed it ashore to reveal the true aspects of homelessness. It really brought out what homelessness really is and how it can be caused in so many different ways. I now realize that homelessness can be caused by loss of a job, loss of hope, and an endless list, not just mental illness or substance abuse. In fact, I spoke with multiple people experiencing homelessness who work up to 3 full time jobs which is barely enough to have a car and buy food. One really sad aspect that is a big contributor to homelessness that latched onto my brain is war vets. As I see it, war vets are brought into the army to be used to protect and serve our country to be thrown in the trash years later to not be appreciated and recognized for the traumatic situation they went through to keep you safe. I personally do not think there is a winner of the project. It comes down to the fastest guy in the race to the slowest guy in the race. What matter's is that everyone has the same mindset to do the best they possibly can. In relation its not that one person had a better looking project than another, but the fact that everyone created a project to create a welcoming environment to honor and appreciate the homeless for who they are and the challenges they have to face.