Garden of Dreams

As I toured the Health and Human Services campus for the first time, Cynthia Brooks (program director and my boss) showed me what life is like for a homeless person in Phoenix.  When they wake up, from wherever they fell asleep, they flock to the Health and Human Services Campus in downtown Phoenix on 12th Ave and Madison.  This is not a typical homeless shelter.  Over 15 different organizations and non-profits call this location home serving nearly 10,000 people annually.  Different buildings serve different purposes from food to clothing.  There is even a dentist and a health clinic on campus that people can go to.  The sad part, as I noticed as we walked the grounds, was the amount of individuals with substance abuse issues.  Cynthia informed me that most, if not all of these individuals have some form of substance issue from alcohol to meth.  This is a major factor contributing to homelessness.  Instead of saving money each month to pay rent, they are more interested in spending what little money the receive on drugs or alcohol.  There are some people who have a severe mental illness that does not allow them to hold a full time job or be able to keep an apartment.  So not everyone put themselves in this situation.  Cynthia showed me where people can sign up for a bed to sleep in, but they fill up fast and cannot accommodate everyone who wants one.  She then walked me over to the "overflow" lot where people can sleep.  It is a parking lot with a 15 foot fence with razor wire on top.  They can lay down whatever blanket or sleeping bag they have on the hard pavement and sleep without the police bothering them.  They wake up and start all over again. 

After the tour I was torn: do I help these people who don't help themselves?  I thought about it long and hard and decided that yes, I do want to help, because if I don't who will? 

My first project was to begin writing grants to plant a garden that the clients could tend to and harvest.  Research has shown gardening can calm individuals and give them a sense of purpose.  I began looking for grants online through federal websites and local non-profits.  I quickly learned how competitive and difficult it can be to write grants.  I spent the first month of my internship researching and learning how to construct and build a grant from scratch.  I checked out books from the library and asked as many people as I could about how to write grants.  After two months of writing and re-writing I submitted two grant applications to groups that plant trees and gardens in local communities.  I am sad to say that both were rejected and the garden project was put on hold.  Although it did not pan out the way I would have wanted it to, it was still a good experience.  Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, the plants would have needed constant tending to and watering. 

After talking with Cynthia about how to proceed with my internship, we decided that I should work on projects that will get the clients of Safe Haven out into the community in a structured, supervised way.  I started thinking of things they might enjoy and thought, lets take them out to the ball game!