Students U.N.I.T.E. to address issues of homelessness and hunger in Baltimore
For 15 years, students from Loyola College have participated in a unique service immersion experience called U.N.I.T.E., short for Urban Needs Introduced Through Experience. In the course of one powerful weekend, participants have an opportunity to learn about hunger and homelessness issues, engage in direct service, interact with men living in transitional housing and gain better understanding of the painful choices poverty can force people to make. U.N.I.T.E. takes place several times each academic year—the first program is set for Oct. 20-22.
The experience begins on Friday evening, when students travel with MaryAnne Cappelleri, Assistant Director of Service-Faith and Poverty Concerns at the College’s Center for Community Service and Justice, to the Beans and Bread Outreach Center at the corner of Bond and Bank Streets in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood—an area best known for its harbor views, eclectic restaurants and vibrant nightlife. “One of U.N.I.T.E’s main purposes is to encourage students to see the city, particularly Fells Point, with new eyes,” says Cappelleri. “We hope they come away from the weekend with a better understanding of how issues of hunger and homelessness are affecting people in Baltimore.”
The program continues through Sunday morning. Throughout the weekend, in addition to providing direct service at one of two meal programs, participating students have an opportunity to interact with residents of the Frederick Ozanam House, a transitional housing program for men who were previously homeless; discuss their own perceptions of the realities of poverty and how they came to those beliefs; learn more about the economic conditions that lead to hunger and homelessness; and reflect on their experiences.
“U.N.I.T.E. is a good introduction into the types of on-going service options that are available to Loyola students,” says Cappelleri. “It’s particularly helpful in helping students understand Loyola’s relationship with Beans and Bread, which is a major partnership. We want students to come away from the experience thinking about how poverty is cyclical, what they can do to insert themselves in this cycle to help stop it, and what it means to be an advocate.”
Program organizers are deliberately vague about the weekend’s precise schedule and ask participants not to divulge many specifics about the experience, believing that the program’s elements have more impact when they are unexpected.
In addition to helping students gain better understanding about issues of poverty in Baltimore, U.N.I.T.E. also strives to help students recognize the difference between helping and serving—stressing that helping suggests that a person living with hunger or homeless needs something from a more materially comfortable person, while serving implies that the two have something to give and teach each other.
“We work very hard to help students see the people they encounter on the U.N.I.T.E. weekend as whole, not broken,” says Cappelleri. “During the course of the weekend, we stop and talk about a beautiful mural that’s in a very well-traveled part of town, but easy to miss if you’re not paying attention. It’s easy for us to overlook people who are hungry and homeless, too, unless you take the time to see them, to understand their beauty and how knowing them can transform your life.” The Center for Community Service and Justice is still accepting applications for the Oct. 20 – 22 U.N.I.T.E. weekend. Additional weekends are scheduled for Feb. 16 – 18 and March 23 – 25. For more information on any of these opportunities, please contact Cappelleri at 410-617-5352. To learn more about other Center for Community Service and Justice programs, please visit www.loyola.edu/ccsj. |
