2a. What is your personal experience with your local social issue?

What assumptions might you

carry in regards to the issue or problem? What kind of research will you do to inform yourself
about the issue or problem? Where might you find diverse and conflicting perspectives as you
research?

Response:
For my social issue this semester, I decided to focus on homelessness among teenagers.
Recently, I was able to experience something that many teenagers are not able to. I was able to
go to the Volunteers of America (VOA) Homeless Youth Resource Center in Downtown Salt Lake
City and serve the homeless youth lunch. While I was there, I was able to interact with the
youth, get a feel for the circumstances they were living in, and observe and analyze all the
resources that are open to these kids. It was an amazing experience, and fortunately, I have the
opportunity to take part in it once a month for the next year.
While this was such a good experience, I realized that at the beginning, I had carried
some assumptions about the homeless kids. I carried the assumptions that they were probably
addicted to drugs and had made some really bad decisions, causing their parents to kick them
out of their homes. I also carried the assumption that there were not that many homeless teens
within Utah. Boy was I wrong! As I interacted with the staff on hand at the resource center, I
learned that there wasn’t a majority reason as to why the kids were homeless, that many of
them had different reasons for being so, and that there are actually a lot more kids in positions
of homeless than I first perceived.
To help me gain more information on the issue, I began looking at homeless statistics
gathered in recent years, finding that in 2018, over 15,000 teens experienced homeless within
the year! This blew my mind! Not only did it blow my mind, but it helped me realize the
importance of truly analyzing, studying, and researching a subject before jumping to
conclusions and assumptions. Because of this, I’ve taken the initiative to not only research
online articles and reports about teen homelessness, but that I should also gain a very human
perspective on the issue by talking to people who interact with the homeless youth, along with
those who have also experienced it.
As I have thought more and more about talking to those who have interacted with the
homeless youth and their personal experiences with it, I’ve realized that I may receive many
diverse and conflicting responses. For example, my uncle is a police officer and has worked with
the homeless population for the past 3 years or so. When talking to him, I can expect to gain a
response geared more towards that of a law perspective, talking about how homelessness
among teens relates to the law and the set rules they are to adhere by. This would be a
different response than when I’m talking with my aunt, who is a DCFS trainer, and who has
worked specifically with foster kids who have aged out of the foster system, many of which
become homeless. I can expect from her a response more geared towards compassion, talking
about the policies in place to get out of the cycle of homelessness. When we look at these two
responses, we can see that both are geared towards helping the teens escape homelessness,
but they approach them from different sides.
It’s important to notice this process when approaching any social issue. First, we must
try and connect it to any of our own experiences to make it personal. Second, we must analyze
what types of assumptions we have related to the issue, and third, we must research and gain
differing perspectives on the issue so we can erase our assumptions and replace them with
truth and knowledge.

Sources

“Utah Homelessness Statistics.” Homeless in Utah Statistics 2018. Homeless Estimation by State |
US Interagency Council on Homelessness, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, 24
Jan. 2020, www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/ut/.