Personal Narrative: Homelessness At Home

In the United states there are 549,928 homeless on a given night. 355,212 of them were individuals, and 35,686 were unaccompanied homeless youth (Snapshot of Homelessness
). These high numbers always got me thinking, who around me could be homeless and I wouldn't even know. For my civic engagement, I did not want to simply volunteer at a shelter for a day, but rather, I wanted to make a life long difference in someone's life. When I am not on campus or at home doing homework, I spend a decent amount of my time at Chief City Vapor which is located in Metamora, Illinois. That is where I met a guy named Jacob Lacher. At first glance, you wouldn't have known that he was homeless, he was nicely dressed, clean and well groomed. It wasn't until his story that I came to the realization that he had nowhere to lay his head at night.
About a month ago I sat down next to Jacob on the couch at Chief City. I decided to strike up a conversation with him, we found out that we had many things in common. It did not take us long to become friends. We decided to hang out with a few others that night and before the night ended, he asked if he could crash at my place because he had nowhere to go. I was confused at first, because he was a year younger than me and had no reflection of being homeless. He then told me quietly that his stepmother had kicked him out of the house because he was not able to pay $200 rent a month and $300 for car insurance, which covered his car and hers, along with buying all his own food and clothes At the age of 18, this fresh out of highschool kid was being forced to pay about $1000 a month and he was only just able to find work. I was the first person he had opened up to telling about his situation, It was then that I knew that I wanted to help him in any way I could.
Throughout the weeks we spent together, hanging out I learned that he dreamed of being a machinist for Ford Headquarters in California.
He wanted to make enough money to have a place to rest his head at night and not have to worry. I decided to start mentoring him and helping him find his way. Every day we would sit down for about an hour and talk to each other about the things that went through his mind. We would discuss new weekly goals so that we could get him a step closer to his dreams. Week after week Jacob would hit milestones that he told me he never imagined he would hit. Week one we signed him up to take the ACT at Icc on June 10th, once he takes this test he can finally go to college. Week two we came up with a budget system so that he would be able to save what money he could and spend only what he needed. Week Three was probably one of the biggest weeks. This week, my dad hired him to be our regular handyman around the house. My dad had surgery so he won't be able to do much for the next few months and he needed someone to do it for him. Along with landing a job with my father, he also got hired on at Le Peep in peoria as a
dishwasher.
My experience was filled with a significant amount of emotions, hills, valleys and lessons learned. Going into this, I wanted to make an impact on someone's life, but I wasn't quite ready for the reality of what I was capable of doing. I learned that I absolutely love helping people, being their go to person to find their direction. I really underestimated my ability to change someone's life for the better. I learned that all it takes is one choice to make a difference, and the rest is just commitment. To me civic engagement is not only becoming involved in your community, but it's remembering the individuals, not just the whole. Its remembering that working with a single person for longer than 4 hours can make more of a difference than a day at the soup kitchen. Now that my eyes are open I believe that civic engagement is a fundamental key in a healthy society and life. It is essential to making this world a better place.
Today is April 28th, and Jacob is at home with his roommate Matt Gatton, he works 3 jobs, and is meeting with advisors from ICC in a week. Jacob is now one my closest friends and he has the best work ethic I have ever seen. Today Jake works for Le Peep, for my dad and also for me as a table manager at conventions. One choice I made, completely changed someone's life and that makes me want to continue helping homeless teens and making the numbers go lower and lower, one by one.
Citations
"Snapshot of Homelessness." National Alliance to End Homelessness. National Alliance to End Homelessness, n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.