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The Shelter

I was nervous, but it is a nervous feeling that I have felt before. A feeling of excitement because I am about to embark upon another journey with the purpose to create change. Although I have had a lot of interaction with people in poverty, every new interaction is a learning experience. I was impressed by how vast the Hesed House facilities were; it was the biggest homeless shelter I have seen. It pushed me toward both a feeling of gratitude and sorrow. I felt grateful that facilities like Hesed House exist so that people in poverty have the ability to have a roof over their head and access to food. On the other hand, I felt sorrow because it breaks my heart that poverty has such a strong hold on so many individuals in our society.

It is an uneasy feeling for me that Hesed House is the only shelter in Aurora when there is an overwhelming need in the area. However, I am glad that it can accommodate as many people as it can and that it touches the lives of so many in more ways than just food and shelter. I was impressed by the other ways Hesed House touches the lives of the people they assist. The multitude of social and emotional help Hesed House can give was a very great thing to see. The services they can give introduced me to concepts that we have now talked about in class and read about for class. I am starting to understand how important those services are to people in poverty. I knew before that a lot of people in poverty have issues that need attention beyond shelter and food, but I never saw the resources in action, I am looking forward to the opportunity to see everything come together to create change.

The facilities at Hesed House were much bigger than the homeless shelter I worked at for many years through college. But the style of sleeping was very different. It is amazing that they can provide so many people a cool place to sleep, but I think that if an average American realized how they were sleeping they would hopefully be aroused to make a change. The existence of places like Hesed House is an amazing blessing to the impoverished community; I can only hope to continue to make the live of the people who frequent Hesed House even better with my work. I have always felt that if more people stepped up to touch people in poverties lives that change could be created. I want to start a movement towards helping others.

I was very grateful that I had the opportunity to learn more about poverty while visiting Hesed House. I never had it so simply laid out for me. The fact that poverty is a combination of money and family support makes perfect sense. The static population at Hesed House was not very surprising to me, while volunteering before I saw the same handful of people. Some of them, I was able to talk to regularly and enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them outside of their circumstances. I enjoyed building relationships with the people I came into contact with during my experiences in college. I wanted that to continue beyond college and law school. I am really looking forward to building working relationships with individuals staying at Hesed House. After walking through the shelter I want to help even more than before. It made me even more excited for this semester and next. I want to work with the medical clinic to effect change in the lives of the families who need it. I want to learn more about poverty and hopefully someday use these experiences to strengthen the movement toward change.

I knew that I wanted to help when I signed up for the clinic but I did not understand how I would help. After the visit I started to grasp how I will be helping the people at Hesed House. I am looking forward to gaining the tools and experience needed to assist individuals at Hesed House and others in the future like them. I would like to learn how to help people in poverty so that I can continue to help them once I have my license to practice law. I want this experience to create a stronger desire in me to continue to help others with my law degree. I know that I will help people daily as an attorney, but I want to help people who can’t afford any help and who need it the most. I am looking forward to learning about things that I would not have the opportunity to if I were not apart of this clinic. I think these experiences will be the most important in my law school career.

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