Field Notes from Project Homeless Connect

After you finish your volunteer shift at Project Homeless Connect, record your observations from your experience here as a comment. Record everything you remember from your day and include as many details as you can. Be as descriptive as possible. As you conclude, reflect on what was significant about your experience.

IMPORTANT: Please do not use people’s real names. Use initials or pseudonyms. We want to preserve the anonymity of the people you interacted with.

Preparing for Project Homeless Connect

As you prepare for Project Homeless Connect, reflect on your expectations for Friday’s event. What do you think the day will be like? What do expect to learn? What have you already learned about homelessness or poverty that you think prepares you for volunteering? What did you learn from the volunteer training session? If you’re feeling any anxiety, apprehension, or nervousness about the day, please reflect on these feelings, too. Why do you think you feel that way?

Final Thoughts on Barbara Ehrenreich and Nickel and Dimed

In her final evaluation of her experience working as a low-wage earner, Ehrenreich states a number of interesting and provocative conclusions. Here’s one that I imagine may have gotten many of your attention, and I’m curious to elicit your response.

As she reflects on why low-wage workers behave the way they do—that is, not as “free agents within a capitalist democracy”—she writes that “it is because they dwell in a place that is neither free nor in any way democratic” (210). She continues: “When you enter the low-wage workplace—and many of the medium-wage workplaces as well—you check your civil liberties at the door … We can hardly pride ourselves on being the world’s preeminent democracy, after all, if large numbers of citizens spend half their waking hours in what amounts, in plain terms, to a dictatorship” (210).


What do you think of this passage? Do you agree with Ehrenreich? Why or why not? What role do you think her book—as a form of research—plays in making our country more democratic?

Ideas for change

As I was reading Nickel and Dimed, I couldn't help but wonder how I would act if I had to live in the situations that Ehrenreich is living in. What do you think you would do? How would you handle being a maid and having to clean up after others? Would you try to change the way things were done? Challenge the process perhaps? How about standing up for others like Ehrenreich did with Holly? Think about if your job is worth changing how things were handled. Do you think it’s a risk to take if it would cause you to get fired?

 

The question of ethics comes into how Ehrenreich is conducting her research. Do you think that by living in the manner that she is and being so secretive to others is ethical? How would you feel if you found out someone you worked with was doing what Ehrenreich was doing? Would you do the same thing she is in order to find out more? Is there any other way her research could be conducted? Think about how things would differ if she was truthful to her employers and her fellow employees. 

Responding to Ehrenreich’s as a Participant-Observer

What has been the most surprising observation that you’ve read so far in Barbara Ehrenreich’s account of her work as a waitress or a maid? What was surprising about it? How was Ehrenreich able to make this observation as a researcher? (As you respond, find a quotation from this passage that illustrates your response and include it.)


As you conclude your reflection, pose a question to the rest of class about today’s (or last Wednesday’s) reading that you think will help generate class discussion.

Ties Between PHC and Ragged Dick

After having read Ragged Dick and discussing his transformation, what do you expect going into Project Homeless Connect? We discussed a great deal about Dick's character and his hardworking, outgoing attitude. We also saw obvious juxtapositions between Dick and other charcters in the novel that reflect varying character traits. Do you think these traits are pretty typical of homeless people? How do you see actual homeless people and their situations?

During the Project Homeless Connect, do you expect to find hardworking individuals that are morally grounded with an educational background, or do you invision it being more likely that you will meet clients will alcohol and drug related issues? Will they be unmotivated? What kind of personalities do you expect your clients to have after their time on the streets? Will they be outgoing, emotional, reserved, mean..... etc.? Furthermore, what do you imagine your client's expectations for the day to be? How much do you think you'll be able to help them or affect their lives? Do you believe these homeless clients have families or friends that try to support them?

Talk about your expectations and reflect on the characters portrayed in Ragged Dick. Do you believe Horatio Alger's characters to be good representations of homeless people?