By Tanner
Writing about his experience after a Social Issues Walk with Ben and Jeremiah, Community Engagement staff from The Mustard Seed Edmonton.
Today, I had the best day of my life. Best thing I have ever experienced and done in life.
The Mustard Seed is an organization based out of Edmonton and Calgary. This organization is put in place by some amazing people to help the homeless, diminish homelessness, and to make homeless people feel like they have a chance in life to get back on their feet again. The stuff they do for homeless people is outstanding, with the support of awesome volunteers and other outside organizations.
Stereotyping doesn’t help
Homelessness is often stereotyped by the majority of people in this world…saying stuff like they chose that kind of lifestyle, or they are useless and do nothing to help themselves, or that they are homeless because of drugs and alcohol. This stuff is completely false.
Many of them, if not all of them, did not choose that lifestyle. They were rejected by their families at a young age or as a teenager growing up, or they were told they weren't good enough, or simply could not make enough money for their families or themselves. Lots of homeless people do in fact work to try and get up on their feet again, and to try and make a living for themselves or their family.
Help end homelessness
The stuff I witnessed today…the way the homeless live day to day, makes me heartbroken inside, but it also gives me inspiration to help end homelessness even more. I wrote this because I felt the need to share my personal story of the homelessness I have now witnessed inside and out. I want to raise awareness to everyone and to get the stereotyping to stop. Instead of wasting that time to stereotype, or instead of the government using money to build or fund useless stuff, let's put it towards homelessness and give every single person in this life a second chance if need be. Thank you, Ben and Jeremiah! It was life changing.
