Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week began on Nov. 17. It is an annual event run by the Student Volunteers Council (SVC). Every week, SVC volunteers are building houses with Habitat for Humanity, delivering food to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and caring for homeless children at Cherry Tree Club. They are laying down sheetrock with Martin House Construction, serving meals at the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen and looking out for the wellbeing of homeless youths at Anchor House. SVC volunteers run Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, not in place of making a direct impact on the lives of those affected, but precisely because their direct service experiences make them painfully aware of how much more needs to be done to change the social structures that necessitate the existence of shelters and soup kitchens in the first place.
Last Sunday, the Down Syndrome Conference at Princeton drew more than 400 student volunteers at served more than two hundred families with Down Syndrome. The conference was run by Princeton Disability Awareness (PDA). PDA creates opportunities for Princeton students to interact with people affected by disabilities to raise awareness. During the Down Syndrome Conference, the majority of the Princeton volunteers were paired with children with Down syndrome. This experience of befriending a child with Down syndrome can really open minds, remove stigmas and raise expectations of children with disabilities.
In both examples, we see why awareness is necessary. In the case of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week, students who are already acting to fight hunger and homelessness added new voices to their call for change. An Organizational Fair actively recruited Princeton students to join campus organizations that work to end hunger and homelessness. The "Home/Homeless" and "The Cardboard House" displays allowed both artists and engineers to unite under a common cause of raising awareness on the issues of hunger and homelessness and reached the eyes of Princetonians from even more diverse fields.
The greatest success of the Down Syndrome Conference is that it does more than disperse facts and statistics. It fundamentally changes people's attitudes toward disabilities by building relationships between Princeton students and people affected by disabilities. Changed attitudes persist far after an event is over and are instrumental in building the foundation of common understanding on top of which systemic change is possible. These changed attitudes can manifest in unexpected ways, such as in a conversation with a friend who hadn't thought about the issue of systemic hunger before, or a vote two years down the line for a bill to increase inclusion of children with disabilities in classrooms.
Not all awareness events, then, are created equal. Awareness events, when done well, can make true and lasting differences. The challenge is to ensure that awareness events contribute to actual change. First, awareness event planners must make a concentrated effort to ensure that there is depth of awareness, not just breadth. Statistics are informative but must to be linked to thought-provoking discussions or experiences that lead to changed attitudes. Second, there must be a clear connection between awareness and the actions that students can take to affect change, great and small. It is not enough to show a movie. Follow that movie with a reflection on issues raised and a resource list of concrete ways for individuals to improve the situation. Third, awareness events are opportunities to bring together a diverse set of people who work together toward a solution that no group alone could have imagined. Seek constantly to make and maintain those connections.
Ultimately, the power of awareness lies in your response. As a guest columnist, I challenge the ‘Prince' staff to respond by making an effort to cover civic engagement in greater depth and with a greater attention to connecting Princeton students with opportunities to serve. As a Princeton student, I urge my classmates to keep an open mind and to give a helping hand. Whether it is with SVC or PDA, Student Global Aids Campaign or Sustained Dialogue, BreakOut Trips or SpeakOut, we need to unite as a campus and dedicate ourselves to being agents of change in our community. So the next time you see an awareness campaign, stop, think and reflect. It makes a difference.
Deborah Chang is a member of the SVC Executive Board. She can be reached at dychang@princeton.edu.
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