I had the pleasure of joining Dahlia Kurtz on her radio show on Sunday to talk about the amazing work the kids in my Upstanders Academy did in our Activism to End Homelessness session.
We talked about how kids are born caring about the homeless – they know that everyone deserves a home, they know that no one should end up living on the street. But as the kids grow up, they are bombarded with anti-homeless messages from the media and society. They are told that the people on the street have addictions or mental health issues and there is nothing that you as an individual can to do help. At the lower end, they are told to ignore the homeless, at the upper end they are told to fear and hate them. What if we could teach the kids the truth that those experiencing homelessness deserve our dignity, kindness and respect? What if we could teach them that becoming homeless could happen to any of us? What if we could teach them compassion for the homeless? This is what I love to imagine – a future where our leaders who are making decisions around homelessness have kindness and compassion for the people they are supposed to be helping.
In this awesome interview, Dahlia and I talk about all that and more.
You can have a listen here.