Inspiring Greenville's Future
Having learned about the Greenville Homeless Alliance through the 2015 Homelessness White Paper, I knew I wanted to intern here during my time at Furman. I majored in Sustainability Science where I have been trained in systems-thinking and appreciate looking at large scaled societal issues from a systems level view in order to work on closing loops. This passion for systematic work is what drew me to be interested in the Greenville Homeless Alliance and the work they do. The Greenville Homeless Alliance uses the collective action model to bring together community partners to close these systematic gaps in our community to address homelessness. As my four-month internship is ending at the Greenville Homeless Alliance, I wanted to reflect on my lessons learned.
I would divide my internship into two parts. The first part was my research into advocacy in order to develop the inaugural advocacy platform. I participated in the Greenlink Citizens Transit Academy throughout January and February where I learned about the Greenlink system and advocating on behalf of public transportation in Greenville. I also participated in the South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development’s Advocacy Bootcamp Webinar Series where I learned about all things advocacy from developing relationships with lawmakers to using data when advocating. Having learned from Susan and Heather this past semester as well as these advocacy experiences I have learned how so many diverse issues affect homelessness both directly and indirectly. I never learned in high school that evictions stay on your record for life or that public transit is such an integral part to employment. These educational experiences gave me foundational experience in advocacy which contributed to my interest in joining the Advocate Working Group. Being a member of the Advocate Working Group has allowed me to see firsthand the important work this group is going to do in the coming months and years. The Advocate Working Group has been tasked with developing an Advocacy Training Academy and I have been in awe of the incredible minds working on developing this academy. By creating a public facing series addressing Homelessness, GHA will be able to increase their education efforts in the community and equip more residents with the ability to advocate for people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
These experiences in advocacy influenced my creation of a policy rubric to determine which state and local policies connected to advocacy. Using a model similar to many other non-profits, I divided advocacy work into three categories: Monitor, Support, and Lead. The specific policies in these three categories that are based on the 2019 Report on Homelessness in Greenville County which include: “Increase Housing and Exits from Homelessness, Reduce Barriers Surrounding Homelessness, Strengthen Coordinated Community Response, and Support Transit”. By focusing advocacy work on the system as a whole and reducing barriers, residents are addressing the lifespan of homelessness. Advocacy is vital for changing the system in our community and with this policy rubric, I am confident the Greenville Homeless Alliance can move in the right direction.
The other part of my internship was spent developing and creating content for the Greenville Homeless Alliance YouTube channel. Tasked with creating Partner Profiles, I had the opportunity to interview almost all of Greenville Homeless Alliance Steering Committee, the Co-Chairs of the Advocate, Collaborate, Educate, and Organizational Excellence Working Groups, and multiple other community partners. This was a fascinating project to work on since I was able to learn so much more about the Greenville Homeless Alliance, learn what other community groups are working on and how they are addressing issues affecting homelessness, and learn about the Greenville community as a whole.
Two common themes that came up during these interviews were the importance of collaboration and the hope for a more equitable Greenville through partnerships. Listening to why so many of our partners thought the Greenville Homeless Alliance was important, it is obvious that the answer is the fact the Greenville Homeless Alliance brings together different stakeholders from different sectors of Greenville to discuss the common issue of homelessness. The Greenville Homeless Alliance brings together partners from hospital systems, elected officials, law enforcement, nonprofits focused on issues ranging from public education to feminine hygiene products, local faith partners, Greenlink, and so many others. These partners can collaborate, listen, and learn from each other. As Brandon Cook puts it “The Greenville Homeless Alliance is good at bringing together the usual suspects and the unusual suspects”. Homelessness is a deeply complex issue, and we need to address it through the lense of multiple social sectors. We can’t solve homelessness by just building affordable housing. We need to fix our transit system and bolster our public school system and reform eviction records and much more. Working in silos is not effective for systematic issues like homelessness, but by collaboration we can create positive change. Our partners believe in Greenville and have hope for the future thanks to the vast network of nonprofits who work tirelessly with our low-income and homeless population. The Greenville Homeless Alliance has brought together our community and will continue to bridge gaps to strengthen the system.
I also believe that in order to our community to be a place where everyone has a safe, affordable home, there is the need for youth involvement. As a Furman student, I feel like it is my duty to help the Greenville community in any way possible since Greenville has opened its arms and welcomed me. Greenville 2040 is our future. How do we want the world to look when we raise my kids in the coming decades? I truly believe in the power of youth mobilization and my wish for Greenville is that our youth can become more engaged in the fight to end homelessness. I have been inspired by my generation and I hope that moving forward more Furman students can become engaged in the work that the Greenville Homeless Alliance is doing in our community.