Re: Greatest lesson learned working at a homeless shelter?

I was only a volunteer so I didn't get to do very interesting work during my time at the homeless shelter. While I made a lot of interesting observations, I wouldn't say that I learned many great lessons. Perhaps one of them regarded the nature of social justice. First, the term "homeless" connotes inaccuracies among general opinion. The clients at the sheltor are all literally homeless, but not much else could be fairly assumed about them. Many dressed in suits and appeared unlike images that might come to mind when discussing the homeless. Most clients were resourceful and diligent, and were only homeless as the result of difficult circumstances, some unpredictable, some out of their control.

People not in the homeless group often treated and related to the homeless, however ambiguously or unconsciously, without knowledge of these things. But rather unfounded assumptions of the opposite. I was among them when I first began volunteering. Sometimes the condescension or relative comparitive self-elevation was detected, and incited reactive open discomfort and irritation from the client. Sometimes it was detected but only drew resigned communication. But it was always detected, and always negatively affected the relationship and communication between outsider and client from the start.

As opinions of others affect the onset and development of relationships so drastically, there is a serious problem in a society that nourishes so many negative opinions between different groups of people.