Homelessness: Is the U.S. doing enough?

Here is a presentation using the presentation tool prezi. This presentation is to inspire people to fight for the less fortunate when their government will not. So here it is:

Homeless in America on Prezi

Tutorial #2

Using prezi, which is the same tool I used for my project, I created my second tutorial. This is a simple diagram showing the steps that it took both me and my classmates to get to our final presentation projects.

Tutorial on Prezi

Tutorial

Posted here is a diagram written down of the process of writing my professional story. Here are the steps once again, listed along with the a detailed description of the steps. I will also show you my specific steps.

Step 1: Look At Examples- Here we looked at examples of types of professional stories in the world today, both on the web and in print form.

Step 2: Pick 5 Topics Of Interest- We wrote down on a piece of paper five topics that interest us and why they interest us. For example I wrote topics including homelessness, environmental issues, abortion, football, and accuracy in the media.

Step 3: Narrow Topics To 3- Then we narrowed the topics to three by choosing the three with the most personal effect on us. Mine were narrowed to the homelessness, the media, and the abortion topics.

Step 4: Narrow Topics to 2- Here we then eliminated one more by proposing what call to action can come from the topics. Here I chose homelessness and media. We presented our steps 2-4 to a small group of peers to get help on defining what are professional story should be.

Step 5: Pick 1 Of The Ideas And Write 1st Draft- Here we began to write our first draft of the story. We had to write it using zero multimedia. We wrote it in the most "primitive" form possible...with paper and a pen. I decided to do my story about helping the homeless by striving to break inaccurate stereotypes about them.

Step 6: Present To Class- We were to read our first draft aloud to the class and in turn our classmates were to give us feedback on a sheet of paper.

Step 7: Create A Blog- We began tapping into the multimedia aspect of professional writing by creating our own blogs on blogger.com. I chose to name mine Ray's Blog.

Step 8: Use Presentation Feedback And Revise Story For The Web- Here in the final step, we used our feedback from our classmates to revise our story. Then we put our story onto our blog pages.

And that is how you go about writing a professional story for the web. Just follow these eight steps and you be there!

Homelessness: Breaking The Stereotypes

It is no secret that most stereotypes stem from some truth. But I am here to tell you about a stereotype made up out of total ignorance and convenience. I am talking about the stereotypes that form many peoples opinion of the homeless population.

In my life I have studied and worked with homeless people through class projects and volunteering. Through my interactions with the people in the homeless shelters I have found that a lot of our society's view of the homeless population is distorted. Yet, countless times I hear people say "Oh homeless people choose to live on the street..." or "Homless people need to stop being so lazy and get a job!" If I had a nickel for every time I confronted one of these people about their jaded opinions...well I would probably have enough money to feed the homeless population.

Okay, not exactly, but that is because there are over three million people without a place to live every year in just America alone. I feel that those who call the homeless lazy don't realize that half of the homeless in America actually do work and most of that half work more than one job. Also many homeless do not work because they are children. Yes, a recent study showed that one third of homeless people in America are in fact children.

Many like to justify the lack of help the government and the fortunate people of America give to the homeless, by saying that "it is their choice" and "they can get help if they wanted it." This justification could not be further from the truth. First of all, the most common causes of homelessness in our country is not choice and laziness, but factors such as untreated mental illness, lack of affordable housing, poverty, and loss of job (for reasons such as injury or downsizing).

Secondly, a recent survey shows that contrary to popular belief, most cities claim that they do not have the resources to provide help and shelter for homeless persons. 52 percent of the cities surveyed say that their shelters turn people away some or all of the time.

So what is it you can do to help your fellow man that some of our society views as lazy, worthless and less than human? Well, I am not asking you to give your life savings to the next homeless person, but I do have some ideas of how you can help to combat an increasingly terrible problem in the "land of opportunity?"

For starters, you can help to curb the ignorance of those who buy into the incorrect stereotypes of the homeless by presenting the facts. You can also go out into the community and donate your time and resources to local shelters. And lastly, and most importantly, when you come into contact with a homeless person, treat them with compassion because chances are they are either very sick, or have been through hardships that most of us fortunately do not encounter.