Sustainable Networking Activity

For this group project, my group chose to address the issue of homelessness. Each of us agreed that homelessness is a concept that is often misunderstood. There is a negative stigma that exists within the public's perspective of this issue. Our group worked together to come up with a solution to help shed light on the reality of the situation at hand. As we presented in class, our idea is a website and/or app that brings those willing to volunteer their time and effort to the cause together. It is one resource where people with the common interest of helping the homeless can go to stay connected to one another.

One of the examples we used was students in hair school who would be willing to accumulate their hours by cutting hair for the homeless. Another example would be an employer who is willing to provide a second chance for an individual in poor circumstances. Our group as a whole agreed that communication is the first step toward creating a change. Where things are at now, there is no effective way to get the conversation started. People tend to look away from the issue because they don't know what to do about it, or jump to conclusions about how the homeless got there. Obviously this strategy of turning a blind eye is not doing anything for anyone. Our networking solution would create opportunity for the homeless to begin to put the pieces back together, and it would also benefit those who are willing to be apart of the movement for change.

Our site would have components that are influenced by social media, as each person who is homeless could build a profile with background information as well as their resume, experience, and life story. As a group, we discussed our idea outside of class in the Holland and worked together to create the content for the presentation. After presenting our idea to the class, I personally felt very inspired and fulfilled. I think sometimes we as humans have the tendency to overcomplicate things. It's easy to forget that one simple idea, one initial step toward progress, could potentially save lives. Overall, this activity was extremely beneficial and I was really happy with what we did.