Name: Leo Munasinghe
Social Justice Group: 2019-2020, Child Hunger & Homelessness
Date of Fieldwork: November 26, 2019
Name of Organization:
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Professor Brendan O’Flaherty
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did:
My group and I asked Professor O’Flaherty many questions about his work on homelessness. We also asked many questions on how race can affect homelessness because he wrote books on race and homelessness.
What I learned:
Through this process, I learned that Los Angels spends less money on shelters than New York. Los Angeles spends almost less than half of what New York spends in a year. I also learned that there are many families and single adults who are homeless which makes up 2/3 of NYC.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
Through the fieldwork, I learned that there are many ways to help homeless families. ways we can help is to call 311 donate clothing to shelters, and volunteer at organizations to prepare hot meals for homeless families and adults. At first, I thought that giving money to people on the streets will help them pay for food and everything they need, but after the interview with Professor O’Flaherty, I learned that giving a homeless person on the street information to go to a shelter or food bank will help them even more. If people want to help people who are less fortunate than the many people in NYC then being an activist in your own way by volunteering, donating, or just giving information to a person less fortunate than you can help create a change in society.
