Veronika Scott a former student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit created a wonderful project for her assignment for her design class. She created a coat that could be transformed into a sleeping bag. Wonderful right ?
The project The Empowerment Plan started back in 2010 and now it is a small nonprofit organization with 13 employees who gets orders from various helping organizations .
I think this is a great steep for humankind , I mean designing something that could be useful for people who struggle give you just the faith back in humanity. Detroit has a huge problems as it is but this is one thing that can help motivate people who are on the streets due to some unfortunate circumstances. The coat represents a hope, it tells them hey someone still cares about you .
Veronika used to spend a lot of time in a homeless shelter to get help from the people there to design her coat that can be turned into a sleeping bag . It was her work and her determination with the help of others that created this piece of clothing that can be so helpful for the people who do not have a place to sleep . I really admire such people, people who change the world bit by bit, starting with a small idea that one day will be remembered as a idea that helped solve a issue. She addressed the problem from the perspective of the people living on the edge and she manged to come up with an great idea.
Now you must be wondering why the title of this article is “Your coats don’t matter, jobs matter.” well it wasn’t all nice from the start. As she came with the idea one homeless woman said “Your coats don’t matter, jobs matter. We need jobs, not coats.” and this is where Veronika shows how dedicated she is to her project. Quoting her own words:
“She said, ‘Your coats don’t matter, jobs matter. We need jobs, not coats,’” Scott said. “It was then about who I could employ.”
People who are on the streets are not happy with their situation, especially not if someone comes and tries to help them by just giving them some cloths. It hurts the human pride , there for I understand the stand point of the woman who said she don’t need the coats she needs a job. There are also people on the other side who live the good life and when they help and someone’s complaining about their help they just stop helping. You have to understand that the homeless people go to a huge amount of struggle, but they are still human beings who can think for themselves , who still have their pride and who sometimes might see you in a different way than you think.
The amazing thing that Veronika did is to create a nonprofit organization that hires only homeless people, 13 employees who were or still are homeless are currently working at The Empowerment Project in Detroit. Its sometimes amazing what a single human being can do for a lot of people that have it harder then themselves.
This is why I love this project its not only that they go and give a coat out and just leave the person be, they try to help people by giving them jobs in a city where jobs started to become something that’s really hard to get to. This project has great potential to spread across the glob, as I am sure there are a lot of people who would need such care , even the smallest act of kindness can sometimes be the biggest motivation in someones live.
Thank you for reading I hope you’ll check out the great project at their site http://www.empowermentplan.org .
Stay Awake,
The Solkotovic
I’d be offended if someone bitched at me like that for trying to help them. I mean, the homeless woman does have a point, but at least it seems that she won’t appreciate someone actually trying to do something. Or maybe it was only written to look like that?
Yes she does have a point and yes she could’ve said it nicer but she didn’t. She probably thought that those coats will be just given and the people would be left alone. I do understand her opinion and yes anyone would be offended.
Personally I believe that the best way to help someone homeless is to give them a job, not money because money is just a temporary solution a job is a long term solution.
In my opinion, if you truly want a job you will get one. Sitting around collecting change or yelling at those that are trying to help you is not the way to go about doing it. I used to give out money whenever I could even had a little saying whenever friend and acquaintances would ask “why?” it was “Me and giving them a dollar is between me and God, what they do with that dollar is between them and God.” However, I went to Jury Duty one day and was dismissed early and decided to just walk around downtown and I was blown away but what I saw. “Homeless” people laying around, smoking, just seeming to have a ball with each other’s company. There was a lady (did not look hungry by any means, if you know what I mean) laying down on the side walk asking every one that passed by “Sir, Mam do you have a smoke or spare change?” WHILE she herself was already smoking a cigarette. Granted, I know not everyone who is homeless are just out there being lazy I know real situations happen but there are places that can help you get back on your feet and if you are really wanting to get out of the situation you can.
Yeah it does depend from one person to another. There is no excuse for the lazy but you never know what happened that they became homeless. There are a lot of people who are like that but there are people who are trying their best to get a job and get back on their feet.