Starkville Strong hosts Homeless Experience to educate community
They have created a Homeless Experience inviting the community to participate in a homeless simulation .Executive Director Brandi Herrington says they want to educate the community.
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Homelessness is a large issue nationwide and Starkville Strong is working to help the homeless population.
They have created a Homeless Experience inviting the community to participate in a homeless simulation.
Executive Director Brandi Herrington says they want to educate the community.
“Doing events like this is important to educate and bring awareness to what homelessness really looks like. It’s different in rural areas, and it’s different in Mississippi so what we are doing here tonight are simulations and hands-on experiences that put our participants, our guests, through the actual paces that an unhoused person might go through when they are looking to secure somewhere to stay,” Herrington said.
Starkville Strong intern Annabelle Sharpe says the simulation allows participants to see the struggles the homeless population faces.
“Each person was given a persona. One, in particular, is Maria, she has run away from a domestic violence situation with her children and she has left her ID at home. She is going to have to find a new ID, she is going to have to find a new job because she was a stay-at-home mother. It just simulates the challenges that a homeless person can have,” Sharpe said.
They also had a board game Housing Hustle that was created to show how the lack of affordable housing in Starkville connects to homelessness.
Sharpe says they hope to bring awareness to the community on these issues.
“I think our main takeaway from these games is we are really wanting people to go out there and say to their friends ‘Well hey, I went to this event and homelessness is an issue here in Starkville and we should try to make a change for that’,” Sharpe said.
Herrington says they hope to host more events like these in the future.
