Our House e-newsletter January & February 2014 | Page 5

Some homeless people may
need help with education.
Some may need to attend AA
meetings. Some may have no
family. However, these traits
don’t describe all homeless
people, as the stereotype wants
us to believe. As we see in
celebrity pictures splattering
our Facebook news feeds every
day, anyone, whether homeless
or housed in a mansion, can
have any one or more of the
problems that are inaccurately
known as traits of homelessness.
And anyone can suddenly find
themselves homeless. Including
families with children.
Family
It was for this reason that Dave
Hoffpauir invited F.R.E.S.H.
members Mary Shue and
Brenda Anthony to his class of
future social workers, students
who will need to understand
homelessness in their future
careers. Both Mary and Brenda
are mothers.
“I invited Mary and Brenda to
my Practice II class in the
UALR BSW program to talk to
my students about the experience of raising their family in a
homeless shelter,” Dave says,

Part of the F.R.E.S.H. (Former
Residents Educating Society
about Homelessness, named by
Our House alumni) program is
community service. In 2013, the
group reached 100 hours of
volunteer service. For one of
their community service projects,
the group adopted a street. The
section of 28th Street between
Scott & Commerce. They visit
the street regularly to pick up
trash. They do the same for the
part of Roosevelt Road that is
directly in front of Our House,
though they haven't officially
adopted Roosevelt.