Finding the Connection for Social Change
Posted by Megan Elizabeth Morris on Fri, Apr 17, 2009
(This is a guest post by Megan Elizabeth Morris.)
My first real dilemma when encountered with homelessness in the city was understanding.
How did these people end up here? What is it about their lives that left them with this option? Which of them chose it -- for freedom, or some other reason -- and which of them would do anything to change it if only they had just the right opportunity? People are so complicated, and homelessness must be also. I had never traveled this train of thought before.
Even more, I questioned how I could really find these answers. Sure, shelters and agencies know one side of the story. Social workers surely know another. (You, you could tell me things!) Me, I'm coming at it blind. But the story I want may not be a story that can be told by people who have never been homeless. The story I want is the one that comes from those who have lived it, who understand the complications and likely scenarios and means of livelihood (if indeed there is means at all). In Jacqueline Novogratz's The Blue Sweater I read how very poor people will often tailor their responses to suit the person listening, because getting temporary assistance now is better than getting sustainable assistance they can't count on. What is that exchange like on America's streets, I wondered? How do I find out about these people's lives? And what is it like to live them?
Especially since moving to Austin and especially since reading Jacqueline's book, I have ideas -- but they're no good to anyone if I don't understand the world they'd be working in. I can't tell you how frustrating and confusing that is to someone who's built her work on the implementation of ideas. I can see right away, very clearly, how many initiatives to reduce poverty must end in failure, or worse than they began, simply for lack of true understanding between worlds. I saw this even before The Blue Sweater, and I haven't quite managed to make inroads on solving it for myself -- but at least I know it's there.
It's the connection we need. And I've been thinking hard about how to find the right connection first, before I flood my comprehension with stories from all angles. Because I already know which angle is most important, I want to start there.
Megan Elizabeth Morris (email)
Ms. Morris writes at Personal Revelations of the Magnificent Megan M. Megan Elizabeth Morris, or The Magnificent Megan M., [proper noun]: Superhuman font of knowledge, skill, determination & resourcefulness. Exudes enzymes that cause others to surpass their potential. Master thinker; writes, designs, manages, ideastorms, markets, inspires, connects, grows, teaches, makes things happen, changes the world, and throws a mean right hook. (Okay. Not the last one. Well! Not literally.)