Name: Ally

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Homelessness & Education

Date of Fieldwork: December 17, 2018

Name of Organization:

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Orayne Williams

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

Orayne Williams traveled to our school for an interview. Orayne has experienced homelessness when he was 14. He was lucky enough to go to school even though he was in the homeless shelter. After touring him around the school, we crossed the street to Le Pain for the interview.

What I learned:

Stay positive while thinking about your situation. If you have a fixed mindset, you won’t be able to overcome homelessness because you are less obliged to try. Most of the ways to get out of the homeless cycle is to be smart and go to school. Orayne understood this so he took the opportunity to get a scholarship to John Jay college.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

Through the fieldwork I learned that sometimes the homeless cycle is on your side but other times they need proof that you’re homeless. He says it’s super complicated because you have to “look a certain way” for people to think you’re homeless. People would always go up to him and say “you don’t look homeless.” Society has images of what homeless people look like which should not be the case. Homeless shouldn’t have an image.