Blog post 6

If I were to restart my project, I’d do several things differently.

First and foremost, I would not bring my own ideas of how I could help the organization to begin with. I learned through the course of this project that one of the most important things in charities is that they won’t necessarily make good use out of what I think is beneficial to them. When I first began thinking about the project, I wanted to effectively build homes for the homeless. I had a book on temporary structures that were being built around the world in small communities that I thought would be a fantastic idea. I would essentially be building homes for the homeless.

In my first meeting with Al I quickly realized that this was not at all effective. Legally speaking, the structures weren’t up to building code. They’d need a foundation and electricity to qualify as a house which is simply not feasible. Furthermore, because someone would be living in it, it would have to meet those requirements. 

So from there I learned what SZM truly needed. Which, to my earlier point, is what I should have done from the beginning.

Secondarily, I would have learned more about what the organization needed before entering my project rather than making the project about learning these things. This way I could have been of more help. While I did make ample progress on packing letters and sorting donations, and my partner even figured out how to save a substantial amount of time with the printer, I would have liked to do even more. I could have potentially organized a coat drive at Hawken, or helped to structure another event. 

However, the time has passed for these things to be of use. What I can do in the future is to encourage further interaction with the organization within Hawken. Dr. Pucci and I discussed giving some of the comic books to the Homelessness intensive. That could be an excellent learning opportunity for a veteran specific topic, which as far as I know they are not covering.