Name: Carmen Yager

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Homelessness—Communities of Color and Children

Date of Fieldwork: February 2, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Shams DaBaron(Da Homeless Hero)

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On Wednesday February 2nd, my group and I interview Shams DaBaron, also known as Da Homeless Hero. He had experienced homelessness on and off for many years. Through his life he has continued to read for hours on end which has given him lots of opportunity to learn and grow. during the first outbreak of Covid Shams ended up contracting it, after that near death experience he got the inspiration to start helping and trying to make a change.

We got to take a deep dive into Shams DaBaron’s past. We learned about how he was in a group home and eventually got kicked out and had to sleep at his friend homes until he could find somewhere to go, and plenty of other events that caused Shams DaBarn to become Da Homeless Hero. Now he works in the theater bringing awareness to homelessness.

It was really wonderful hearing about Shams life. It gave me a whole new perspective on homelessness. One things that I has stuck with me since the interview is to not judge someone by their financial status and instead give them that chance to show you who they really are. I am so grateful that we go to have this Interview and will take everything I learned on with me as we work on this project.