Past Issues :: 2007 May 1:: News: Pangaea Project
Pangaea Project targets a change for homelessness
Elizabeth Bogue, 18, is keenly aware of the homeless situation in downtown Portland. She sees the people sleeping in doorways
and in the parks. She doesn’t like the way they are treated, and
she’s preparing herself to do something about it.
“I want to be the one to make the change,” says Bogue, a student at Portland Youth Builders. “It’s definitely going to take money, and people donating their time. It’s going to take getting city officials involved, bringing the issues to the government. Put it straight in their face.”
Bogue is one of 13 students in the 2007 class of The Pangaea Project, now in its second year of cultivating leaders from underprivileged young adults. The organization targets Portland’s underserved neighborhoods for service-learning projects, including a trip abroad to raise global awareness, and a curriculum at home to translate that understanding into local change. This year, the focus is on homelessness, featuring a monthlong trip to Ecuador to study the environmental and social impacts on poverty there.
“We’re not going to Disney World and we’re not going on a cruise,” says founder Deb Delman. “This is a program based on human rights and social justice. And they’re going to be exposed to things that will wake them up.”
After their own adventures traveling and helping people in other countries, Delman and Stephanie Tolk wanted to create a program for young adults that focused not on the experience abroad but on the lessons brought home. There are many international exchange programs available to students, but they were expensive, and most of then weren’t built into a larger curriculum of community service at home. Some had scholarships for low-income students, but none were designed specifically with the low-income in mind. Delman and Tolk envisioned a more comprehensive program that served specifically people living in poverty or at-risk youths, with hands-on training on both ends of the overseas experience.
“We decided a long time ago that this isn’t just about a trip abroad, this is about making a trip more impactful by looking at issues that impact not only the people in the country we’re visiting but in our own community,” says Tolk. “Our main goal is to help the students see that they can become change-makers. We tell them you don’t have to be rich or famous to make a difference. You just have to care about a place and have leadership and have knowledge.”
All of the students in the program this year are from Portland YouthBuilders, a nonprofit educational and development program for low-income students. Most of them have never left the country or flown on a plane. The students are sometimes vulnerable, according to Tolk, but they are determined.
“They’re kind of at this interesting crossroads when we meet them,” says Tolk. “They all have these intense backgrounds — gang involvement, foster care, incarceration, parents on alcohol and drugs in the past and still. But they’re in Portland YouthBuilders. They’re choosing to be there.”
The organization receives funding to cover travel costs and other expenses, but students are expected to make their own investment in the program by raising 10 percent of their hard costs, or $500.
A component of the 10-month program will be a supervised shadowing of Street Roots vendors around for a day. In conjunction with adult mentors, the students will see first hand how the public interacts with people on the streets. In April, the students spent a day working at Dignity Village, learning about the tent-city’s organization and helping residents relocate their houses from a minor flood.
“It was an awesome experience,” says Mary Coffey, 17. “I thought Dignity Village was a great idea. It’s a strong community.”
The trip to Ecuador will include two weeks of travel and education. The second half will have the students living in pairs in host family homes, immersing themselves in the culture and environment of the community.
“They feel a lot on these trips,” says Delman. “It’s very emotional for all of us to go into the Amazon and see these toxic waste pits that the oil companies have left behind. But when they’re there and meeting with all these community organizers. I think that’s wher they come back inspired.”
“People look at Pangaea and focus on the month abroad,” says Tolk. “But really our program is about Portland and helping our students come back with these skills and the desire to make change.”
Chris Craig, 22, has had his own personal experience with being homeless. He joined the program to learn about the issue from a larger perspective.
“I want to see how homelessness is dealt with, not just locally, but internationally,” Craig says. “If they’re doing things to stop it, is there some way we can help with that. I don’t stereotype people. We’re all human beings. We’re all flesh and blood. We’re in the same world and we should work together to fix this world. If we work together, I know we can fix things.”
It’s that solidarity that Delman says remains long after the program ends.
“We expose them to real social issues happening in the world, but ultimately the focus of the program is the people working on the solutions. And that leaves them, I hope, with the sense of being inspired.”
