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Advocating For Social Justice
The Coalition Advocates for
Social Justice is by identifying people's needs
which the "system" of service providers is not
meeting. When we know of such 'holes" in the
system we bring them to the attention of the
service providers and work out ways to fill
those holes. If we cannot accomplish that within
the current system of services, we try to get
the attention of city and county officials to
add more services to the network. And we have
often found ways to temporarily fill those needs
by direct action on the part of the Coalition
staff.
What can we all do to help?
Getting the attention of officials regarding
the needs of people who have little political
power is some times a struggle. Citizens can
assist the Coalition in advocating for more
services and better services for people who are
homeless by talking directly with those
officials themselves and by join in advocacy
efforts when those occur. Watch this website for
such announcements of such actions.
Another way that the Coalition Advocates for
Social Justice is by publishing STREET SPEECH.
Why Publish A Street Newspaper?
Since 1986 when the Columbus Coalition for the
Homeless began bringing agencies and individuals
together, its members have expressed interest in
developing a street newspaper. Larger cities
throughout the country have created such
newspapers and our sister coalitions in
Cleveland and Cincinnati have published them for
years.
Now that this city has
become the 15th largest in the U.S.
and the largest city in the state of Ohio, it is
only natural that the time should be ripe for
Columbus to begin expressing its homeless
voice. To be quite honest, it would be more to
the city’s credit if we did not have the need to
create a street newspaper; unfortunately we do
not feel this to be the case.
We believe that the
development of a street newspaper is a logical
outgrowth of our mission to advocate for
homeless persons and to educate the central Ohio
community about homelessness. “Street Speech,”
the paper’s title has been designed to be a loud
voice for the interests of homeless persons.
These interests include access to safe and
affordable housing, access to employment; a wage
which will support an individual and a family;
the availability of quality health care and
community supports to help an individual survive
during times of illness or incapacity.
Street Speech is also being
published to eradicate myths about homelessness
and homeless persons. Our community is not
educated about the large number of homeless
individuals who are employed. Suburban kids
possess antiquated stereotypes that homeless
people are dirty vagrants who do not wish to
work and who panhandle all day for alcohol. Few
citizens know that kids and families are the
largest growing group of homeless persons in
this country. We believe that it is our job to
set the record straight, tell the facts as they
are and debunk cruel and erroneous myths about
people who are struggling, often due to no fault
of their own.
We are also publishing
Street Speech because organizations and programs
designed to help homeless persons do not always
do a good job. The community, through its taxes
and donations, pays large sums to non-profit
agencies and housing organizations which are
often beyond the reach of those who need these
services the most. Sometimes it is the fault of
the Federal government which creates
dysfunctional policies to exclude the neediest
homeless persons from a program. Other times it
is the lethargy of policy makers; a mean
spirited staff member who treats homeless
persons without respect and dignity or a data
hungry bureaucrat who delights in finding ways
to gather more and more irrelevant information.
The point is that such situations need exposure
and resolution and hopefully Street Speech can
serve this cause.
Lastly, and perhaps most
importantly we publish Street Speech to give
Columbus’ homeless persons a voice. Who seeks
out their life stories to understand what it is
really like to be without a home, a job, a
family? Do homeless persons have the
opportunity to speak their views to their
Congressman or Senator? Do such elected
officials spend time visiting homeless
shelters? And can homeless service providers
really represent their consumers or does their
need for self-preservation supersede any
accurate portrayal of homeless misery? Homeless
persons have a right to express their views and
a right to be heard. We hope that Street Speech
can help them to achieve these goals.
Buy a copy ($1) each month
from one of our street Venders. You will be
supporting their initiative and learning about
their lives.
If you want to to learn
more about the value of street news papers and
what one paper has done for some of Denver's
most vulnerable citizens, take a look at this
great video:
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=56hZ9KZIj-A
Hate Crimes Against
Homeless People are Frequent Occurrences
Columbus Coalition for the Homeless is actively
working to reduce these awful crimes. We need
your help. If you observe an activity which you
believe is (or might be) a crime or an act
of abuse or mistreatment committed against some
one who may be homeless, we ask that you file a
report with us as to what you have observed. And
if you are currently homeless and are the victim
of such an act we want you to file a report with
us also. We follow-up on any reports which we
receive. A form for this report a can be
accessed by clicking
HERE. Thank you for your concern and help on
this important issue.
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