Dalton State students to sleep out for the homeless

DALTON, Ga. — In the early 1980s, the National Coalition for the Homeless began organizing “sleep outs” where groups spent a night outside in visible places — such as church lawns or city hall parking lots — to draw attention to homelessness.

“If I had my way,” said the coalition’s Michael Stoops, “every American would spend a night sleeping in a box.”

On Friday, the Dalton State Social Work Club will hold its own “Box-A-Thon” to raise awareness and money. Proceeds will benefit DOC-UP, the Dalton Organization of Churches United for People, which provides low-income residents with money for utilities, rent, prescriptions and gas.

Many people served by DOC-UP don’t live on the street, but in begged, borrowed or otherwise uncertain housing.

“The box is a symbol,” said Kimberly Shaw, Social Work Club president. “Housing instability affects a lot of different people in different ways.”

In rural areas such as Whitfield County, the homeless rarely sleep on the street, said Jane Massey, project manager for the 2008 Georgia Homeless Count. Instead, they double up at the home of a friend or relative, stay in motels or even camp out in the woods.

Several weeks ago, Dalton State social work students volunteered for the Whitfield Homeless Count.

Ms. Shaw said that students went to count people living in motels when they learned how DOC-UP gave needy people the money to stay there, she said.

Last year’s Box-A-Thon benefited Dalton Episcopal Outreach, a clinic for the chronically homeless.

The Rev. Elizabeth Roles said both “the awareness raising (and) the funds raised” last year helped the clinic, a ministry of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. She sees crossover between her ministry and the work of social workers.

“Both the social work profession and the life of the church are about the welfare of the community, and of human beings and of wanting to reach out to those who are maybe on the margins of society,” she said.

IF YOU GO

* What: Box-A-Thon

* When: 6 p.m. Friday to Saturday morning

* Events: 7 p.m. rally with Brother Ron Fender, a case manager at Chattanooga Community Kitchen

* Cost: Free, with no requirement to spend the night

HOW TO HELP

To support the Box-A-Thon, call Dalton State College student activities at (706) 272-4428 or e-mail Kimberly Shaw at sshaw1@daltonstate.edu.