Tonight I made the pilgrimage downtown for the Boston Homeless Census. All communities that receiving funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the Continuum of Care (CoC) need to conduct an annual "census" of people who are experiencing homelessness. It consists of literally counting every person in the streets (and shelters submit their numbers too) on a given night, usually in January.
My partner and I didn't find a single person in our assigned area, but I still didn't consider the evening a waste of time. My partner had 15 years of experience working with youth in the city of Boston. I learned about how the Department of Youth and Families responds to gang violence, conflict resolution, and treatment of the family (not just the individual). It was a great learning experience; much more valuable than adding tick marks to our sheet.
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