Hello, and welcome to this blog! My name is Sharon, and I am a Senior Girl Scout who is currently working on achieving my Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. It requires that I carry out a service project that will improve my community and is sustainable. As you can probably tell from the title, this blog will be focused on enriching the lives of homeless youth through self-expression.
One of the biggest problems our nation faces today is homelessness, as many families have no choice but to give up their houses in exchange for life on the streets. Research has shown that homeless children often suffer from critically low self-esteem levels. Countless federal programs target education, but very few focus on actually raising the self-esteem levels of these children, which studies have shown are most easily gained through self-expression.
My program is focused on using self-expression to improve the self-esteem levels of homeless youth within the Goose Hollow Homeless Family Shelter, which houses homeless families with children while the parents look for jobs and homes. I'm in charge of creating a booklet containing self-expression activities every night of the working week, and finding businesses or stores willing to donate supplies towards this cause. Once the relationships are established, the shelter will take over the continuous requests for supplies.
Having just received the "OK" from my council, I can finally start working on my project! Looking forward to keeping this blog updated,
Sharon
