Saturday, February 4, 2012
Week 4 ...Major Inquiry Project
I did my first interview yesterday. The homeless man I interviewed was only 24 years old. I spotted him at the corner of Kenilworth and an I-277 off ramp. He was holding a sign that said, "Homeless - Anything Helps - God Bless!" I rolled my window down and told him I would give him a few bucks to answer some questions for a research paper I was working on. He said okay, so I pulled into a nearby parking lot and walked to him. After getting some general information from him I asked him a few personal questions concerning his health, future, and level of happiness. In short, he served three years in prison for a methamphetamine lab, but is not currently using any drugs, other than marijuana. His parents are both in federal prison, so there could be some trend there. He had stitches in his lip where he had been in a fight the night before with an intoxicated homeless man. He did say he was content, but his departing words were, "Stay in school. Don't be like me," which makes me believe otherwise. I'm going to add more details into my finished research report and I plan to do a few more interviews. One of my clients actually created a database program for all of the Charlotte shelters in 2008 and is going to give me the report she used. If anything the resources she used with be very helpful.
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Thats very interesting. Knowing me I would have been a little nervous to just ask a homeless man on the side of the street, can I ask him some questions but, I think that your on a good start. If you want to interview homeless people in a safer venue you can go to some fire stations that allow homeless people to stay sometimess.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ashley, I didn't know fire stations housed homeless people. I'll check into that. I figure that the guy standing on the side of the road holding a sign up is as harmless as the next. Show him dignity, respect, topped off with a couple of bucks, and there should be no problems. Sometimes you have to take risks to get the best results.
ReplyDeleteThis is great, Zant! I'm so glad you've already gotten started. I would like to reiterate what Ashley said, though. Be careful. I imagine being out in the open during the day, you weren't really at a risk, but I don't want you to put yourself in harm's way. I didn't know that fire stations house homeless people either, but it makes sense. I'm really looking forward to hearing more stories from our real homeless neighbors.
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