P.A.D.S

I volunteered at P.A.D.S Homeless Shelter in Mattoon. I found it rather difficult to get a hold of anyone at P.A.D.S to even volunteer. I had to go back and forth from Charleston to Mattoon a few times because the shelter was very unorganized with the times I was told to go and the people there actually knowing that I was coming. Once I was finally able to volunteer my time, thy once again did not know that I was coming due to a lack of communication amongst the people.

When I was volunteering they had me cleaning up different areas of the shelter, first I had folded sheets and blankets, then they had my organize a few bookshelves and swept up a few messes, put tables and chairs away and cleaned up the kitchen. There were only men who came to the shelter that night and I was able to sit down and talk with a few of the men while they were eating dinner. Some of them were willing to talk to me about how they ended up getting in the shelter, the challenges that they came across. There was one man who told me he worked hard all of his life and ended up losing his job. After a while he ended up losing basically everything. He comes to the shelter to eat  and sleep at night.

Hearing his story makes me think about what could happen to my family, my dad worked at the same company for 25 years and lost his job out of nowhere due to the economy. My family struggles everyday to keep what we have. There were a few times that we thought we were going to lose our home. Thankfully my dad just started a new job that seems to be permanent. But we still have to struggle due to the fact that my mom just recently lost her job due to them relocating it to Texas. My family is not out of the woods just yet, but it seems as if we are getting closer.

It makes me very thankful to know that what happened to my family did not have us end up with no home like the man I talked to. It also makes me very sad for the man that ended up in the shelter cause I could only imagine what he has gone through and how hard it had to have been for him. I hope that he will be able to catch a break and get back on his feet like my dad did.

We learned in class to always assume diversity when you meet someone. That’s always something that I do when I meet someone, and I made sure that I did that when coming into the shelter. Many people think that homeless people did it to themselves, they were lazy, they are crack addicts, ect. However, that’s not always entirely true, maybe for some people who are homeless but not all. Homelessness can happen to anyone.

Having this homeless shelter is a good thing for the community. For some people this may be the only place they are able to have dinner, get a shower, and have a warm place to sleep at night. The shelter was not very big but the few people that it can house for the night its better than having them out on the streets.