Name: Aaron Goodhart
Social Justice Group: Homelessness in NYC
Date of Fieldwork: January 20, 2024
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Manhattan Church of Christ, Carl Garrison, Richard Jones
Type of Fieldwork: [69]
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:
My fieldwork started by setting tables. After that, I headed downstairs to give out clothing and help people find what they were looking for. Once handing out clothing stopped my group members interviewed Carl Garrison and Richard Jones. From this, I learned many things such as how housing programs give people homes but the homes must be consistently inspected. If the homes do not meet the standards the person in it loses the home. I was also told that young people working to help the homeless and having faith in people can help them have faith in themselves.
From the interviews, I learned a lot about activism in general. I learned that it can really impact people personally and it can impact the system. It can cause a lot of change. I learned that personally helping a person such as going out to hand out clothes or food has a genuinely big impact. Showing you care makes a big difference and it can help raise people’s confidence in themselves leading to self-improvement.