Homelessness is an issue often misunderstood in America. Stickney as well as Jason Phillips have created seminars in order to address this problem and educate the community as well as the church.
Homelessness is an issue that makes many Americans uncomfortable. Briana Stickney (City Liaison for Rock Harbor Fullerton) and Jason Phillips (leader of Fullerton ACT) have collaborated with other organizations in order to create seminars regarding homelessness, in hopes of eliminating fear.
In an interview with Briana Stickney, she explained the creation of the homelessness seminars. As a member of AmeriCorps VISTA, Stickney had spent months researching the issue of homelessness in the city of Fullerton, California. Research included "the history of homelessness as well as interviewing 204 individuals experiencing homelessness in order to assess their current needs," said Stickney. Jason Phillips works with Fullerton Police as Chaplain and is leader of Fullerton ACT. He also is experienced with the issue of homelessness in Fullerton.
Throughout the research, there was a realization that the city government as well as many non-profits had reached full capacity in terms of resources to solve homelessness. Furthermore, Stickney and Phillips realized a gap between the churches and others who were willing to address the homelessness issue. The gap was a lack of teamwork along with a lack of effective knowledge.
"The problem is that most individuals only know how to yield immediate and temporary results when it comes to homelessness," said Stickney, "Sometimes churches have a more negative effect than positive."
The solution to these problems is education. Stickney and Phillips planned and created seminars aimed at educating and empowering the community to address the issue of homelessness: Homelessness 101 and Homeless 201. Homelessness 101 is geared towards education, for anyone and everyone who just wants to know more. Homelessness 201 is meant to equip those who are interested in making a difference by giving them the right mindset towards homelessness.
The Homelessness 101 seminar will be held Saturday, September 20 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM at EV Free North Campus. Registration and more information can be found at http://fullertonact.org/event/homelessness-101/.
"We want them to be equipped with the right mindset "¦ to know that they all have roles and gifts that they can use to help," stated Stickney when talking about the Homelessness seminars.
The seminar will explore the topics of who our homeless neighbors are, mental health, daily struggles, available resources, causes of homelessness, and in what ways we can love our homeless neighbors. There will be several speakers covering these topics and afterwards a panel that will be avaible for further questions and information. At the end of the panel there will be a faith component that will be optional. Those who are willing will join in a time of prayer after the panel.
This past summer, both seminars were held for the first time and yielded positive results. The previous Homelessness 101 seminar had a turnout of 40; this time there are over 100 registered attendees.
"The initial target group was the church, this time we are expanding our reach to small businesses. The seminar will include a panel that will allow small business owners and other attendees to ask questions and learn more about homelessness and manners of active participation," said Stickney.
Although churches are participants in the seminars, those who are not Christian are welcome to the seminars and are encouraged to become part of the movement to address homelessness. "We have a faith component at the end of the seminar. People are free to leave before the prayer at the end if they are not comfortable. We want the church to join with the rest of the community, to work together," said Stickney.
When asked about hopes and expectations for the seminars, Stickney said, "That fear towards homelessness would be broken, that there would be more investment in terms of time and not just money, and that the seminars would empower people to be effective in the community. The church needs to be aware of what He would be doing if He were here, by addressing the needs of the community at home and not just abroad."
"There were several opportunities for these seminars in the past three years. But people are ready now. There is a movement happening in the church. Especially with the proposal of a new shelter cite, more are willing to listen. We are no longer in crisis mode," Stickney said.
"More than anything, I just want people to be willing to come [to the seminars]. It doesn't matter how involved or knowledgeable they are, it is crucial to gather together and know what's going on in Fullerton. We need to become aware of our community"
