TakingITGlobal

1) Learned More About the Community Going into this project, we had a lot of preconceived (and ultimately incorrect) ideas about what life was like for a person experiencing homelessness. For example, we initially wanted to include sandwiches and socks as the main portion of our care package. However, upon interviews with community leads, we learned that what was actually in demand were restaurant gift cards, as these allow individuals to choose their meals and temporarily escape the winter cold. By doing so, it puts autonomy back in the hands of those who are the most marginalized. In addition, because several shelters in downtown Toronto already had an abundance of established meal centers and clothing donations, these were less in demand than some specialty items, like chocolate. Ultimately, we learned that effective community service must incorporate the voices of those it aims to impact. Restoring empathy to volunteer efforts involves close communication with the target audience at every step of the way, and the humility to change one's own preconceived biases. We also learned more about the Ottawa community as we interacted with various people who shared their own views and ideas, contributing to our own learning as a group, this allowed us to pick different book throughout the project that would be of interest to the Ottawa community. Lessons learned from my project is understand that it takes a community to better one's health [...] I learned to listen to the wants of the community rather than assume I know what's better. Overall, it was a humbling experiences. Lessons Learned Section 4: 36

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