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Introduction
The city of Brockton Massachusetts was originally part of the town of Bridgewater, it
separated from Bridgewater in 1821 and became North Bridgewater. Then in 1874 the city
decided to further part themselves from Bridgewater by changing their name Brockton. The
Brockton that we know today is part of Plymouth county and has a population of 94,304 people.
Brockton is 25 miles south of Massachusettss capital Boston and is 35 miles northeast of Rhode
islands capital Providence. Massachusetts State highway 24 runs through the city. It is also
located near Interstate Highways I-93, I-495, and I-195 (Info, 2016). The median household
income in Brockton is $51,274, while Massachusetts medium income is $66,768 (Data, 2016).
The purpose of this project is to connect what was learned in class to real-world experience, to
expand our understanding of community and school health needs. Working in our group we
identified a need in the chosen community, assessed the level of the need, created an activity
plan, executed the activity and collected the results from the activity. On the social ecological
model, we choose to work on the community level and a little within the individual level.
Working with local groups and organizations to help with the needs observed in the community.
The activity we choose was on the individual level however we had to start at the community
level and worked out way down.
Need Assessment

The first step we took to assess the needs of the community; was to brainstorm what we
knew or thought we knew about the city of Brockton. We based our brainstorm off of
stereotypes, rumors and what we heard about on the news. From our brainstorm we came up with
problems that we felt Brockton faced such as violence, drug use, homelessness and alcoholism.
After brainstorming, the next step we took was to actually go into the community to see
everything first hand. When we went into the community we found that most of the roads were
poorly maintained and there was a lot of trash on the streets. Many of the buildings in the city
were either condemned or in bad condition with graffiti on them. There was also a lot of fast
food restaurants as well as big chain shopping areas. Many buildings that looked to be a one
point a small local business were shut down and there were more big chain businesses such as
Walmart near. We did see some local establishments that catered to the specific cultural groups
that live in the area. Such as Cape Verdean grocery stores and African restaurants. The streets
had a lot of traffic and we were cut off multiple times while driving. We also saw children
playing in the streets, unaccompanied by any adults. During our there we did not see a lot of
visible homelessness on the streets, however, during the time of day we were there the shelters
were not yet open so the homeless were dispersed throughout the city and not easily identified
from our car. It was also difficult to find statistics on the amount of homeless living in Brockton,
possibly because many homeless people are not accounted for. It is difficult to account for those
not in shelters and couch surfing without a stable living condition. We did further research and
found out that in an effort to take control of the homeless situation in Brockton, the city has three
hotels filled with homeless families as well as other homeless living in 89 other locations
throughout the city and surrounded areas. Brockton is also applying for a 475,000 grant threw

the Federal Reserve Bank of Bostons working cities challenge. The grant will help with job
training for homeless families to help them help themselves and ultimately pull themselves out of
the homeless statues. There is also a 500,000 state grant from Urban Agenda Grant Program to
help homeless youth 18-25 who are uncompounded or out of foster care (Larocque, 2016). From
that information we concluded that there is a homeless problem in Brockton and that we wanted
to focus our service learning project around homelessness.
Purpose/Aim
From our assessment of the community we choose to do something to help the homeless
problem. Our goal was to get into the community to work with local businesses as well as the
high school to coordinate a fundraiser to hold within the city to ask for item donations to help the
homeless. Such as hygiene products. We wanted to get students from the school to help
organized the fundraiser to educate them on the homeless problem that their community faces
because about 600 of their fellow students are considered homeless (Larocque, 2016). By getting
the students involved in a community focused fundraiser, we would be able to connect the school
and community together for a greater good.
Methods
The approach we wanted to do, to provide a service to the community based on the
homeless problem was to do a fundraiser to collect items for the homeless. The first step we did
was contacting Father Bills & Mainspring, which is a local homeless shelter in the Brockton
community. They are a local nonprofit organization that focuses on providing a professional level
of services to the homeless in the community. They seek to create partnerships with other
nonprofit organizations, business and government agencies to serves the needs of those
struggling with homelessness. At the moment they provide shelter to 178 families and 2,006
individuals throughout Brockton and the surrounding areas. They also provide meals and basic
necessities, as well as having a prevention program to try and prevent homelessness. They also
help those in their shelters to gain skills to secure a job to get into the work force, so they can one
day afford a home of their own (Father Bill's & Mainspring , 2016) . We wanted to work with
them specifically because they are incredibly involved in the community and do their best to
work upstream. We got in contact via email with Mary Ann Mendes asking her if we could do a
fundraiser on behalf of the shelter to collect item donations. She said we could do fundraiser for
them and she sent us a list of specific items that the shelter needs such as toiletries, basic hygiene
products cleaning supplies and bedding. After getting permission from Father Bills we then got
in contact with the school to see if we can get students involved in the fundraising process. We
wanted to align ourselves with Father Bills before contacting the school because we wanted to
make sure we had an approved plan for the school to be able to look at and understand what we
wanted to do. Unfortunately, we were unable to coordinate with the school due to time
constraint. The school needed to do back ground checks and other paper work that would have
taken too much time. Next after aligning ourselves with the shelter we needed to find a location
in which to hold the fundraiser at. We decided to do a buy and drop type of fundraiser outside of
a local Family Dollar store. We figured that we could ask people going into the store to purchase
an item or two to donate to the shelter. We chose the dollar store because items are cheap there

and we felt that we could get the most donations outside of a store like that. We then typed up a
letter explain what we wanted to do and asking for permission from the store manager to hold
two fundraisers on the store property. Getting written permission was important to make sure that
we could hold the fundraiser without any issues. We also got in contact with Jorge DosSantos the
vice president of the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton, Inc. for an interview. The
association is very active and involved within the community due to the large Cape Verdean
population in Brockton. The Cape Verdean Associations mission is to provide education,
health, civic, social and human services to the Cape Verdeans and other people residing in the
greater Brockton area. Our primary purpose is to serve the members of the Cape Verdean and
other communities living in the greater Brockton areas, with special emphasis on the needs of the
youth and the elderly. We endeavor to provide quality social services, defend their rights and
interests while trying to restore the level of dignity, honesty and pride which are identified
elements of the Cape Verdean and Immigrant name throughout the world (Cape Verdean
Association of Brockton, 2016). Mr. DosSantos is a friend of one of our group members and
while speaking to her he said that he would be able to donate blankets they have left over from a
drive that they had held themselves to help the homeless. On the 15th and then 25th of April our
group meet at a local Family Dollar store from 11am to 1pm. We had made a poster addressing
what we were there for and who we were working with as well as a list of specific items the
shelter is in need of. While we were there, we spoke to customers going into the store asking for
donations to our cause. The general attitude we received from the people we spoke with were
positive. Many of them already new about Father Bills and commanded us for what we were
doing. Others were either indifferent about, bluntly ignored us or just said no before we were
able to tell them what we were doing. We did notice a small trend, people in nicer newer looking
cars generally either avoided us or just did not donate. One women driving a Lexus said no,
times are tough after we asked her to donate. While others in more modest vehicles listened to
what we had to say and at least donated one item. Of course we were only there for two hours
and cannot make any general claims about people who own more expensive vehicles, this is just
the pattern we saw in the time we were there. Altogether, the drives went well and we collected
what we felt was a good amount of items in the time spans we were there.
Results
This is a table representing the quantity of times we were able fundraise
Product Type
Personal Hygiene

# Collected

House Hold

# Collected

Pads

Blankets

45

Razors

Plates

16

Toilet paper

16

Pot Holder

Lotion

Playmates

Q Tips

Sponges

20

Mouth Wash

Flip flops

Hand Soap

Detergent

Hand Sanitizer

Bandaids

Floss

Tissues (boxes)

Tissues (on the go)

16

Shavign Crme
6

Bars of soap

51

Toothpaste

16

Total

127

Total Collected

Photo of our fundraiser set up

Discussion

Toe nail clipers

Wips

Body wash

Trash bags

Total

245

8
118

Based on the what we collected from our fundraisers we were able to do a decent size
donation to the homeless shelter in Brockton, Father Bills. We collected mostly personal
hygiene items such as soap, tooth paste and deodorant. It was important to us to collect basic
hygiene products because based on Maslows Hierarchy of Needs a person cannot move up in
the world without their basic biological and physiological needs such as food, shelter, and proper
hygiene (McLeod, 2014). By collecting personal hygiene products, we were able to allow
someone to cover that basic need for a certain amount of time so that they may able to take
advantage of other services Father Bills has. For example, if they are not self-conscious about
their body odor or appearance may take a class on job interview skills, thus improving their
chances of getting a job and moving up out of poverty. Based on what we saw in the community
there is a homeless problem in Brockton so much so that the homeless created a city hidden
within Brockton called Tent City. That itself shows the severity of the homeless problem,
Father Bills can only accommodate 115 homeless people every night, so others who could not
secure a bed had to improvise and make a home. Tent city is a 31-acre track of woods behind
north Montello, Elliot, and North Carry streets in Brockton (Paulin, 2014). Jorge DosSantos vice
present of the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton (a very active group within the community,
who have worked with Father Bills before) during our interview said the homeless situation is
out of control and has doubled in the past few years (DosSantos, 2016). Based on the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health Socio-demographic standard report for Brockton
17% of families with children live below the 100% poverty line compared to the state which is
10% and 33.4% of people in Brockton are living below the 200% poverty line or in extreme
poverty (Health, 2013). All of these finding correlate with what we saw on our windshield tour.
We saw homeless people waiting outside the shelter for it to open as well as the outer edge of
Tent City itself (we did not feel safe going into the City.)
We got very lucky with our group, as a whole we have more strength than weaknesses.
Our group was in constant communication using texts and email to keep on top of each other. We
bounced ideas off of each other and supported each other ideas. We were aggressive and took the
assignment head on. We made plans to figure out what needed to be done, when it needed to be
done and who was going to do it. It was important to us to divide the task up according to who
would be the best suited to the tasks. We felt that if we were working and using all of our
strengths to the fullest than we would be able to complete the tasks needed to be done. The
major barrios that we faced were time constants, conflicting schedules and getting in contact
with different groups in the community. It was difficult at first to get involved with certain
groups because we were new and most of us are not form the community. We had a lot of great
opportunities while working on this project. We to align ourselves with Father Bills in order to
do our fundraiser, as well as work with the Cape Verdean Association. The vice president of the
association was kind enough to not only do and interview with us talking about the community
but also to donate to our fundraiser. Another group we tried to work with was a local grocery
store chain called Vicentines, unfortunately do to the busy schedule of the owner we were unable
to talk to him about the project. The local Family Dollar, was also kind enough to let us hold our
fundraiser at their store front. We also tried to work with Brockton High school, but do to time
constraints we were not able to work anything out with them. They would have been a great
group within the community to work with because of how directing involved they are as stake

holders within it. In the future if we are to do something like this again we would definitely work
on better coordination with the school to make the effort more sustainable. We would also try
harder to involve more stake holders in the community to help create more unity within the city.
It would be beneficial for stake holders in the community to work together, because having
multiple organizations working together on an issue is better than multiple organizations working
alone on the issue. There is power in numbers. Another smaller thing we would do is to have pre
written thank you notes to hand out to people as they donated to us. On the note we would have
been able to thank them but also give them more information about how they could help or
places they could go to in order to help like Father Bills.

Translation to School Health


For our service learning activity, we wanted to align ourselves with Brockton High
school. The school was willing to work with us, but unfortunately do to time constraints we were
unable to do so. If we had been able to get into the high school, we would have worked with a
group of students who were interested in learning about homelessness and helping homelessness
in their community. We would have worked with the students to do a fundraiser both in the
school and out in the community. Teaching them how to plan a fundraiser, as well as how to
work with other association and groups for the greater good. Getting students involved in their
community allows for them to learn new skills and also educate their fellow students on issues.
Especially since there are about 600 Brockton students who are homeless, we felt that learning
that information would make the students look differently at homelessness and probably bring it
closer to home. Students most likely dont think their peers when they hear the word
homelessness. But according to National Center for Homeless Education there were 1,301,239
homeless students enrolled in 2013-2014 school year (YOUTH, 2015). If we could educate the
students of Brockton high about these numbers than we they may want to get more involved
because they will feel like it more directly effects them.

Conclusion
For our active learning assignment, we choose homelessness because it is one of the most
prominent issue that Brockton is facing at the moment. We got into the city by doing a
windshield tour and then reached out to organizations with in the community, who were already
diligently working to impact the homeless issue. We then deiced to do a fundraiser for specific
items requested by Father Bills a local homeless shelter within the city to help them. What we
did made a small impact on a big issue, however it could be translated into a larger inactive by
getting more stakeholders in the community involved to lend a bigger hand in the fight against
poverty. We feel that the amount of abandoned buildings in the city could be used additional
shelters or housing to reduce the amount of people who are homeless. People living the city also
need to be made more aware of the homeless problem. For example, when we were trying to
locate tent city we asked a local if he knew where it was and he told us he had no idea what we
were even talking about and it turned out he was literally across the street from one of the

entrance. What we did impacted on the individual level of the social ecologic model. However,
had we been able to work with the local schools, we would have made a bigger impact by not
only raising awareness but also by allowing the students to get involved and see that they are not
powerless in this fight and can make a change in their community.

Works Cited
Cape Verdean Association of Brockton. (2016, 4 18). Retrieved from
http://cvassociation.webs.com/
Data, C. (2016, April 21). Brockton, Massachusetts. Retrieved from City Data:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Brockton-Massachusetts.html
DosSantos, J. (2016, April 20). Vice President . (R. B. Winy Gomes, Interviewer)
Father Bill's & Mainspring . (2016, 4 18). Retrieved from Father Bill's & Mainspring :
http://helpfbms.org/
Health, M. D. (2013). Socio-demographic Standard Report for Brockton. Boston:
Massachusettes Deparment of Public Health.
Info, C. T. (2016, Feburary 26th). Brockton, Massachusettes . Retrieved from City
Town Info: http://www.citytowninfo.com/places/massachusetts/brockton
Larocque, M. (2016). Brockton collaborative aims to address family homelessness.
The Enterprise, 1-3.
McLeod, S. (2014). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved from Simplypsychology:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Paulin, B. (2014, July 21st). SPECIAL REPORT: The tenants of Brockton's 'Tent City'.
pp. 1-3.
YOUTH, E. F. (2015). FEDERAL DATA SUMMARY. Browns Summit,.

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