Moving Up

Today I graduated from my first posts and got to actually interact with clients today! Crossroads Community Ministries is best known for two things: a soup kitchen and helping people obtain identification. Both services are meant to be utilized by homeless people only. Therefore, each day begins with an orientation where new clients have to fill out intake paperwork and a verification of homelessness form. Someone can be classified as homeless if they're sleeping in a shelter, with friends or relatives, if they're facing eviction, in an abandoned building, or simply on the street.

The first week I spent my days familiarizing myself with the organization by working in the soup kitchen and the mailroom. Since homeless people generally do not have reliable mailing addresses where they can receive things such as food stamps, social security/disability checks, and other important documents, the mailroom is very important, but working there consists primarily of putting mail in folders alphabetically then finding people's mail for them.

Today, however, was my most interesting day at work. No soup kitchen, no mail room...real people. After orientation, a recent theology school graduate who is getting practical experience in Urban Ministries and I sat down to work with a few of the new clients. There were two victims of domestic violence. One had a place in a shelter but is an illegal immigrant with no job. She is homeless because her husband recently tried to kill her and is now in prison. The other came with her two children. She has a job, but cannot find housing because she has been evicted previously. Other services include verifying employment and helping people to receive MARTA assistance, navigating the bureaucratic jungle of obtaining birth certificates and state IDs (which are often necessary for work and housing), and helping people with disabilities and addictions get help.

The people at Crossroads realize that they cannot simply feed people, and also that they cannot do everything, so I have learned a lot about other social service agencies in Atlanta because Crossroads works closely with many of them. I've also learned about fundamental problems with Atlanta that make people particularly prone to homelessness. I now am acutely aware that an Emory Student's Atlanta and a Homeless Person's Atlanta are two very different cities in the same geographical location.