By snoadmin
Sleeping under the stars couldn’t be more real for the participants of B.E.A.C.H. Sleepout 2007, which was held on the South Campus Lawn near the University Library Tuesday night.
The purpose of the event was to raise awareness of homeless people in Los Angeles County. The night was filled with activities, starting with stating the testimonies and experiences of homeless people, writing letters to legislators, making hygiene kits and a flashlight vigil.
“People who are homeless are a part of society as well, and should be treated the same as everyone else,” said Andrea Esponito, a junior recreation therapy major.
Hope for the Homeless, an organization that attended the event, is an AmeriCorps program that helps raise awareness of homelessness. The program was created in 1993 to give millions of Americans opportunities to improve communities through service, as stated in the Hope for the Homeless volunteer manual.
The mission statement of the program is: “To passionately advocate for the hope [of the] central community population of downtown Los Angeles [by] taking the resources that are already available within the community and making them more accessible to the community members,” as stated on a flier at the information booth.
Hope for the Homeless consisted of four teams: the street outreach team; the resource team; the data management team; and the volunteer management team. All teams were responsible for implementing the homeless emergency links to the providers’ program. Christopher Wynne, 33, is involved in the volunteer recruitment program for Hope for the Homeless and helps raise awareness and get people involved by volunteering. Wynne said that in the downtown area, Hope for the Homeless is involved in one family program, six male facilities and numerous other organizations that help women.
“I was homeless at one point. Seeing that I got out of that homelessness … I wanted to give back,” Wynne said.
Wynne signed a one-year commitment to the program, which in return will provide an education award that will be applied to school expenses. Help for the Homeless will be back on campus today to talk more about the program and how interested students can get involved.
