Binghamton has slowly captured my heart because of the strong sense of community that I keep finding every time I go out to volunteer. After learning about how prosperous Binghamton was in the past, it is hard to see so many people struggle with hunger, homelessness, and more. I think the people of Binghamton are working hard to revitalize the area and there is so much that we, as a class can do to help them. Yes, while we will be limited to give our grant money to a few organizations, we still have the power to be involved in this community through our time.
As we get ready to delve into these issues, it is important to look to see how widespread each issue is. We, as university students, will only see the “nice” parts of Binghamton but there is a population here that is having difficulty surviving. One of the reasons I rushed my group into signing up for the homelessness topic is because there is a large population of homeless people here who go unnoticed nearly everyday. I don’t think many students are aware of how great the need is on our community even though many understand how prevalent poverty and hunger is in developing countries. And I’ll admit I was one of those students until I saw two very powerful videos in an HDEV course I took last semester. This video is one that was taken right here in Binghamton.
While we are to compose a small presentation, I hope that we all take the time to understand how serious the issues we are delving into are. We may have preconceived notions of what is more important and should be what we focus on, but this project will let us all understand topics we don’t really know about. And we also won’t know how great of a problem it is until we research. As for some tips, ask community leaders for help. They are the people figuring out how to solve these issues. From my experience, many of them are very kind and very eager to impart there knowledge. I did a project with a few of my friends and many of the organizations here in Binghamton were very open in helping us. I also think it is important to compare Binghamton statistics to national data since we are a very numbers oriented class. Let's see Binghamton for all that it is. I am looking forward to the presentations next week!
Great post, Shanna,
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to think of how Binghamton used to be. In a way it reminds me of my (much smaller) hometown, which was founded around a paper mill. There are so many former factory towns in upstate New York. The decline of factories goes to show that there are larger forces behind homelessness and poverty.
When I first started looking up info for this project I was honestly surprised by how many organizations exist locally. I know that there are great people here, who can be inspirations to us if we reach out to them. I'm looking forward to making those connections through future volunteering and internships.
Last semester, I had the opportunity to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, and it was a good experience for me because like you said, it's easy to become isolated from the community as a student. On one hand, it was depressing to see parents who seemed to be drug users, a mom yelling at her toddler, and a mentally ill older man. But on the other hand, it was nice to see the support between family members and the interactions between people. That video is great because it shows that homeless people are people, too. They're members of the community who deserve to have a voice.
I agree that we have to set aside our preconceived notions and try to see what the real needs of people in the community are. I hope that the community needs presentations help us to gain new perspectives rather than become more focused on an already existing interest. I kind of wish that they had been assigned randomly, as well.
Thanks for the feedback Dana! I found that there is so much success happening right here in this community. While researching homelessness, I found that Binghamton was the FIRST town to completely end homelessness for veterans using the efforts of the whole community. It also showed the importance of having small organizations taking responsibility of their community. If there are six small organizations that are effectively meeting one need like upemployed men, women suffering from domestic abuse, etc, how much good can be done! Binghamton was able to help one part of the community so it stands that they have the ability to do the same for others. I think that another important part is to have these efforts highlighted more often. News like this is important in empowering a community and showing them they have the power. I may sound optimistic, but there is precedence for this and it makes me ecstatic!
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