Last Friday, Tarleton State University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion set up an event to help bring awareness to the Homeless Community. People from Diversity and Inclusion, Social Workers, Communication Studies and Multicultural Ambassadors all helped make this event possible.

Educational stations were set up and people were divided into small groups to learn more and become more educated on just how hard and how much we may not know about the Homeless Community.
Stations such as the “Choices” station taught individuals how it would feel if they only had a few sparing moments to gather the things they might deem most important. This exercise allowed the students ten seconds to pick up what they could, and then discussed how far they could actually get with the items that they had chosen.

A Hygiene Station allowed people to donate hygienic items that the Office of Diversity and Inclusion delivers to a women’s shelter they have paired with to help.

According to Jim Cowen, volunteer nurse, there are over 564,000 homeless people in the United States as of today. Numbers vary from county to county and many people don’t realize just how many people are out in their community without a home.

Federal agencies run different studies and have found that 40 percent of homeless people have a mental illness and 22 percent have a chronic mental illness; many also suffer from substance abuse.

“Homeless: You have to be without a home for a year or more, or have four episodes in the past three-year period and have a disability. There are so many people out there that need help, but since so little attention has been brought to the Homeless Community, they aren’t offered many options,” Cowen said.

The closest places for homeless people in Stephenville is in the Fort Worth and Dallas areas.

Cowen said, “Mental illness and homelessness can happen to anyone at any time; that’s what’s really scary. Take care of family and friends, and take care of each other because that’s your support system. Remember that we all go through rough times.”