MISSION STATEMENT:
We are committed to fostering a love of community through civic engagement on issues that impact one of the most vulnerable populations - homelessness/at risk of being homeless. We aim to strengthen our community by focusing on social advocacy, volunteerism, and spreading education on policies and laws that affect the day to day lives of individuals. We will no longer normalize the barriers that so often obstruct progress for our communities, but instead hope to empower individuals to join us in working toward solutions for themselves, their families and future generations.
We are committed to fostering a love of community through civic engagement on issues that impact one of the most vulnerable populations - homelessness/at risk of being homeless. We aim to strengthen our community by focusing on social advocacy, volunteerism, and spreading education on policies and laws that affect the day to day lives of individuals. We will no longer normalize the barriers that so often obstruct progress for our communities, but instead hope to empower individuals to join us in working toward solutions for themselves, their families and future generations.
Project need:
Girls Revolution's project will focus on civic engagement for the homeless/at risk of being homeless population. Clinton Middle School is located in South Los Angeles in Council District 9, which has the second highest homeless population in Los Angeles with 3,224 homeless individuals. Having such a high homeless population makes it so that everyday we are immersed in the disparities that our communities face. Our community is affected by high rates of poverty and unemployment, rising cost/lack of housing options, low educational attainment (high school/bachelors/master degrees), and is disproportionately predominantly a Latino and Black community. This year we decided in an effort to tackle a growing social epidemic that we will focus on factors (mental health, substance use, housing costs, and lack of resources) that affect the homeless/at risk of being homeless populations. Action plan: Volunteerism: We will collaborate with local homeless agencies to provide needed items (i.e. gathering donations and making bundles of children’s hygiene products) to those who are homeless and/or at risk of homelessness. Education: In order to bring more awareness to issues related to the homeless population we will educate those around us (peers, our student/teacher population, our families, and community members) on important factors that impact homelessness such as mental health/substance use, increasing costs of housing, and lack of access to needed services. In our schools we will use a peer-to-peer method which is an evidenced based practice known to increase student connectivity with learning topics. We will also educate the adults in our community about the impact of making informed voting decisions as they pertain to homelessness laws/policies. Social advocacy: Lastly, through appropriate training by our coordinators/mentors, we hope as a team to feel empowered to advocate to local assembly members and elected officials about the issues of homelessness in their surrounding communities. The ultimate goal of the members of Girls Revolution is that we feel educated on important issues so that we can lobby for ballot measures affecting the homeless population and provision of mental health services in order to promote equality and opportunity of services for all. Girl’s Revolution’s mission is not only to motivate our community and ourselves to get involved but to have us all feel empowered to become change agents in our communities. Research: As part of this project it was important for us to understand common views on homelessness. We targeted our very own Clinton Middle School (CMS) community members as they were most accessible to us. We distributed a survey to CMS teachers, students and parents on their understanding of homeless individuals and the link of social disparities/laws, as well as factors that affect homeless/at risk of being homeless. By understanding current views we could begin to strategize on how to address gaps and what areas we can provide education/awareness so community members make educated voting decisions as it pertains to laws/policies on homelessness. |
Project Need/Submission Video
We gave surveys to students, teachers, and parents and received responses back from 350 students, 35 teachers, and 25 parents/community members. Below are some sample questions that were asked.
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