Haniah Jones and Amani Sheard Capstone Project

As seniors in high school, we have never experienced homelessness or having to live in a shelter. But what about the hundreds of teens that have? We (Haniah Jones and Amani Sheard) are going to step into the shoes of others by visiting YTC youth shelter while documenting and analyzing the experience. We seek to help change the community and go beyond what we know. Not only will this open up a new perspective on ourselves and others once we share, but we plan to promote and emphasize a youth center that could be beneficial to many. A challenge that we initially anticipated had to do with the fact that we have never been in a shelter. And neither of us have ever interacted with teens who have faced emotional hardships. So thinking of how to approach them without offending them would be difficult. The whole point of this senior capstone project is to create something memorable and useful to our community. What better way to do so by tackling an issue in our community directly. At first, we wanted to just simply volunteer at the shelter, but decided that we needed something better to base a whole senior project on. Therefore, we thought that stepping into the shoes of someone else would not only help us appreciate what we have but then see for ourselves what this program is about and then volunteer afterward. Another goal of this project is to indulge in the lives of someone else to then deeper understand them as people in hopes to end youth homelessness and learn to appreciate what we have in the process. Lastly, to help promote and enforce the goals of the YTC program to those who need it.