Helping The Homeless: Top Ways To Make A Difference
Due to the global pandemic, the housing crisis continues to worsen. Each day, 1000s of people in the US are faced with homelessness. It’s difficult to even imagine the situation they are put through. They don’t lose just their homes, but their families, a part of their existence and part of themselves. Sounds tough, doesn’t it?
It’s heartbreaking to see the rising numbers of homeless people every day, but as a community, we can make a lasting difference and help those in need. But in order to do that, you need to change your mindset just a little bit. Rather than focusing on the problems they face, let’s focus on developing solutions to make them lead better lives.
In this blog, we will walk you through ways to help the homeless. Read on carefully.
Understand Who They Are
Get yourself acquainted with some of the facts about people affected by homelessness. Try to understand the reason behind homelessness. Debunk misconceptions regarding the situation, the people. Educate yourself and the people around you.
Learn to respect them as individuals. Treat them just as you would any other person. Don’t mistreat or disobey them just because they don’t have shelter over their head. Whenever-wherever you interact with them, make sure to greet them cordially and reply with a smile. You never know a smile can make their day.
Don’t dismiss them at all .
Volunteer Your Time
Homeless shelters are usually shut down due to a lack of funds and volunteers to keep the operations running smoothly. By putting in an effort to volunteer for these people in need, you can make a difference in their lives. So, on your free weekdays/weekends, research about the homeless shelters in your area, make a list including the shelter’s name, address, and contact information. You can easily get phone numbers online. Once you are done with the list, get multiple copies printed. Distribute amongst friends and family. Collect as many volunteers as you can to help serve food, make donations, raise money and help build tiny homes for the homeless.
Learn about NGOs and various associations that sell items so that homeless people can benefit from them. Associate yourself with such organizations, run drives with them, become a part of their team, and contribute to the total earnings
The satisfaction you get from helping these people will change your perspective of life, for the better.
Help Them In Any Way You Can
Do you run an accountancy firm? Are you a guitarist? Do you have a food business? Do you have well-paying hobbies? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we can tell you how to best utilize your knowledge, wisdom, and experience to help homeless people.
Regardless of what you do for a living, you can host classes at homeless shelters. You can teach them the basics of cooking, stringing the guitar, dancing, yoga, aerobics, etc. You can also teach children how to read and write. Give them counseling on what to do with their careers. Motivate them to do better in life and not feel discouraged due to current circumstances. If you have friends that run coaching institutions/schools, get them enrolled. A kid’s education can play a huge role in shaping their future.
You can also help the homeless by offering them free-of-cost services. If you are a doctor, you can have them on your health plan, treat them in your clinic/hospital. A lawyer can help them sort out their legal matters. If you have clerical skills, teach them some lessons that they can use to monetize.
Distribute gift cards if your pocket allows. Take them to shopping centers, give them a fun experience. Teach them the beauty of forming new relationships.
Volunteer For Programs Designed For The Homeless
Search for various programs that are curated specifically to help pay for their everyday bills. From educational fees to the household budget, preparing meals, medical plans, etc.
There are a lot of organizations that offer free trips — educational as well as recreational for homeless kids. Volunteer for those trips, go with them, have fun, make them feel involved, a part of the community. Educate these kids about how to do better, teach them about raising environmental concerns and the methods they can adopt to reverse climate change.
Organize/ host food drives, clothing stalls, mini grocery markets, donate all the stuff that you no longer need/ use. Ask your friends and family to do the same. You can also host a donation camp in your company. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So be generous with your donations. Take out clothes, furniture items, electronics you can, for the homeless people. To make winter bearable for them, kick off a winter wear drive. Ask people to donate blankets, coats, sweaters, socks, boots, and other pieces of winter clothing. Start with yourself and ask people to pitch. Be the change you want to see.
You can also consider hosting a yard sale with these items and raising funds for organizations that build tiny home eco-living village communities for the homeless.
Create An Online Fundraiser
While donating the discarded stuff and raising money is one way to help the cause. There’s another way to earn money for the right cause. Host an online fundraising event. Ask the community to pitch in and put up a lively event, full of music, activities, food, entertainment that the homeless can attend and enjoy. Ask people to display talents at these events and make this fundraiser worth everyone’s while. In order to encourage more people to join the event, make sure to market it well.
Contact a reliable digital marketing company and ask them to run paid advertising campaigns to reach out to a wider audience. Distribute pamphlets, inform the magazines, newspapers to spread the word around. Reach out to top-tier companies for their contribution. Pitch them to donate money, give out free hampers, coupons to avail their products/ services, free travel, health care packages, etc.
The path may seem difficult in the beginning, but it will all be worth the effort.
Help The Homeless Apply For Government Aid
Governments roll out programs, schemes to help homeless people with their day-to-day life. However, because some of them don’t have a mailing id, and most of them don’t have adequate knowledge about these initiatives, neither can they reach out to the government nor can the government get in touch.
You can find out about these initiatives and help them sign up for them. You can also direct them to officials that oversee such activities or an organization that can apply for them.
Employ The Homeless
A lot of us think that homeless people are just lazy, but that’s not true. They live a difficult time, much harder than any of us does. But still, they have hopes higher than us. They just can’t find enough opportunities to help themselves. So, find those opportunities for them. Check newspapers, online websites for job openings. Help them design a resume and talk to a counselor about various career options that lie in front of them. If you run a company or are close to someone who does, keep in account if there are some jobs homeless people can be trained for?
Having jobs will give them a sense of security, a glimpse of a better future. Contact government agencies for recruitment. Write to corporations claiming to offer equal job opportunities for everyone in the society. Don’t give up if they refuse. Fight a legal battle against injustice. If you won’t do it, the homeless people might not get a second chance at life. Get in touch with government advocates or private lawyers that believe in the same cause. You may think you are the only one trying to bring a change, but when you look around, you will find a lot of people who want to do the same thing. So join forces with them.
Run An Active Volunteer Program To Encourage Debate
Share your ideas with other volunteers. Host debates/discussions to encourage thoughtful thinking. Ask everyone to come up with various approaches/ ways/ ideas to help the homeless and create a full-proof program to execute them. Don’t forget to ask around for funding. If your ideas can actually make a difference in the community, you will get the money to make it happen. Trust in the goodness of people. However, don’t be blinded when people are trying to ruin your plans.
Reach out to politicians, ask them for help. Make an effort so the world can hear and acknowledge their voices. Don’t forget to ask them what they want. The answer could be different for different groups of people, their needs could be entirely different too. But simple gestures and effective solutions can touch their hearts. Your hard work will reap you benefits, but you need to be patient.
How Can You Help The Homeless In Your Community?
Join Hands With TOJ Tiny Home Villages
1. We Build Tiny Homes For Homeless Veterans
It’s time to give back to the veterans that sacrificed a whole chunk of their life in the service of the nation. These people have kept us safe, every single day. They deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and love. At TOJ Tiny Home Villages, we host events to raise money and build tiny homes so that homeless veterans can have a permanent housing situation.
2. We Build Tiny Homes For Homeless Single Moms
You will be shocked to know that in today’s world, single moms with younger children are the faster-growing group of the homeless population. Not only are they subjected to disrespect due to their current relationship status, but they also find it difficult to get a roof over their heads. That’s disappointing and sad. To help improve the situation of homeless single moms, we build tiny eco-villages that have minimal impact on the environment. The more money we are able to raise, the more people we can house.
3. We Build Tiny Homes For Aged-Out Youth
Adults who age out of foster homes find it difficult to have a stable future. They have to work hard for their education, lead a normal life, get the job of their dreams and get a house. Most of them cannot sustain themselves and end up on roads, working even harder. Now you will find it difficult to believe, but it costs more money for some people to remain homeless than it does to place them in a shelter. That’s what we do. We help them find permanent housing solutions, tiny built spaces they can call homes.
Be a part of the solution
If you want to help the homeless lead a better life, simplify your efforts with us and create a bigger impact. Get in touch with us to know more.
