Before the meeting, participants read this Washington Post article to understand how homelessness has affected a real D.C. family. They also completed a values "quiz" to understand their own values and put themselves in a position to make tough decisions during the meeting.
We opened the meeting with a little taste of what's to come in our trip. Last year's Alternative Breaks: Chicago trip created a great video that got us excited for our own trip. Thanks to those trip leaders and here is their great video:
I hope you all are as excited as I am for the trip! :)
We then went over government policies, including the history of welfare, the programs available today and welfare myths.
Some myths include:
- Myth #1: Once on welfare, always on welfare
- Truth: Actually, half of the people on welfare move off of it within two years
- Truth: You also can't be on welfare for more than 60 months in an entire lifetime
- Myth #2: Women on welfare have more children for money
- Truth: It is widely known that you get more money through welfare if you have more children, but the money you get doesn't nearly pay for everything you need to take care of a child
- Truth: Also, the odds of having children decrease as women stay on welfare
- Myth #3: Most teen mothers turn to welfare
- Truth: 5 percent of women on welfare are teenagers
To roll it all together and see how our values influence our choices, we went through an interactive activity together. I highly recommend doing it yourself and seeing how difficult it is to manage your values and have money to pay for life necessities.
Go AB Chi-town! :)
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