Did you know there are over 12,000 homeless people in North Carolina alone?
Perhaps you've encountered one at an intersection holding a cardboard sign asking for help.
You'd like to help, but you're not sure how.
Hi, my name is Nathan Barrick and my Citizenship Focus action plan
provides a solution to this problem.
When I was reading "Do Hard Things" a book by Alex and Brett Harris, I came across a
project started by two teens in Oregon called H2O, Hope 2 Others.
The goal of the project was to provide the homeless with tangible hope.
The project consists of filling bags with items necessary for survival
on the streets such as a water bottle, socks, tuna, and snacks.
The bags are intended to carried in a car a passed out to
the homeless on the street.
One effective measure I utilized was making my project a group effort. My first step was
to tell the Forsyth County 4-H'ers about the project through
the 4-H newsletter and promoting the project at various co-ops, churches, and 4-H events.
My county council eventually adopted H2O as our community service project.
Because the H2O program already existed, it was fairly easy to start a branch in my community.
With support from H2O, I was able to get the information I needed to jumpstart my effort.
The concept of H2O is to sell the bags for three dollars, which is enough to pay for
the contents. The money then goes to replenish the supply of bags.
However, it's difficult to start the cycle with nothing.
And that was the exact position I found myself in. But by raising enough awareness among
county council members, we were able to assemble sixteen complete kits from donations.
Although sixteen may sound like a small number, we have received enough donations to be able
to keep about thirty bags in stock with donations on hand if a large event calls for more.
The final step was distributing the bags. Distribution went a whole lot slower than
planned. The original plan was to distribute the bags by October 2009.
It took much longer than that. Even though the bags do sell at
a steady rate, we don't usually sell many at one time. Also, the original plan
to have fifty Forsyth County 4-H'ers distribute five bags each was too demanding.
We decided to make our objective simply the distribution of 250 bags.
By the end of 2010 we had reached our goal of 250 bags, and in January, the county council
decided to continue H2O as our community service project.
I have heard numerous stories of how other people have implemented
their own H2O project because of my efforts.
H2O recently won the World Citizenship in 4-H Youth Development Award for the Southern Region.
Not only has this project helped many homeless, but it has helped me see
the need in my community.
I encourage you to take your project to your community, follow through with it,
and make the best better.