“Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.”

Bertrand Russell

 

            While driving around San Antonio one day with my parents, I became aware of the homeless people in my city. I hated seeing how they lived out their days sitting on the curbs, lying bundled up under bridges, and walking almost aimlessly on the streets. Sometime later, I learned about how many homeless people also have addictions to drugs and/or alcohol. They spend their lives stuck in a horrible cycle of getting high or drunk, getting arrested, getting thrown in jail, and then turned back out on the streets to start the process all over again. This process is expensive for my city and it does not help the homeless people in the long run. I soon developed a heart and a nagging conscience for these people.

 

            Then, I learned about our city’s new Public Safety and Detoxification Facility that opened in the spring of 2008, where the police and ambulances can take those people who have been arrested for urinating in a public place or for passing out because of their overdose. First, the triage team meets the people in a room where the floors are vinyl so that vomit or even blood can be cleaned up easily. The glass on the windows is bulletproof is case someone else gets angry and takes it out on the staff.  It’s not a pretty place to be, but a necessary start. Then, a patient or client is moved to the sobering room that has cots with clean sheets and soft blankets. Although this place offered the potential hope of better lives for the homeless people, I found that the aesthetic look of the place was anything but hopeful. This is still a hard place to be, as the people in this room have to endure the aftereffects of their overdose. Eventually, clients get to move on the other side of the Detox Center as they come and go each day for their outpatient substance abuse treatments. This part of the building looks much better, as the floors have tile and some of the rooms have nice carpet. It is a hard progression from one side of the center to the next, but so is recovery from substance abuse. But, if they stick with it, patients can break their cycle of addiction and can then learn skills to have a productive life.

 

             The Detox Center is a part of Haven for Hope which is a large campus on the near west side of San Antonio that is dedicated to improving the lives of the homeless by providing all kinds of services in a central location. The Haven for Hope works hard to treat the root causes of homelessness by providing medical care and social services. When I first saw the Detox Center, I could see that is was a remodeled building to house the triage team and treatment center. I was surprised that the inside was nice and new, but the outside had not been finished because Haven for Hope did not have the funds to dedicate to landscaping at the time it was finished. The entrance was clean, gray, unsightly concrete—not exactly my idea of hopefulness. By this time, I had developed a heart for the homeless and it weighed on my conscience that homeless people were trying so hard to break their cycle of addiction and had to walk into a building that looked so cold and “hopeless”! So, I was inspired to organize a way to improve the entrance so that when clients entered the building, they could be filled with a sense of hope and feel uplifted as they arrived for treatment. This project I called “Roots of Hope” and I developed it into a Gold Award project for the Girl Scouts of America.

 

            What I accomplished in the end was far better than what I originally imagined, thanks to the help of the many wonderful volunteers with Roots of Hope. My original drawings for the project were very basic and simple, but with the help of a professional horticulturist and landscaper, I was pushed to achieve much better. At first, I was going to landscape a small portion of the area with the few selection of plants and flowers that I was familiar with, but I sought the help of a well-known, professional landscaper and was advised to aim higher, landscape a larger area, and seek donations for plants and trees that would provide this “hopeful garden” with a little foliage all year long. I ended up learning so much about plants and what works well in Texas weather and what does not. I learned how to select trees and how to estimate their eventual size and canopy. I gained knowledge about all aspects of landscaping like how to measure an area and estimate the amount of soil and mulch that is necessary. Irrigation, drainage, and visual appeal were all considerations I had to reflect on as well.

 

            I learned several things from Roots of Hope. First, I learned how to go to business owners and individuals and ask them for financial support or for donations of plants and supplies. That was hard, because I have never had to ask a new acquaintance for such a large favor before, and had to learn the right way to approach them about it so that I was more likely to have a successful outcome. But, after asking several businesses for help and getting such a positive response, that part of the project became easier and almost natural. Most everyone I asked for help from was eager to assist me. I learned that there are a lot of generous people in my city that want to help the homeless and want to do so in tangible, practical ways, but do not see as many possibilities as I think should be available. The Roots of Hope experience taught me that if I see something that needs to be changed, I could do something about it and I do not have to do it alone. If I provide good leadership, others will seize the chance that they may have been looking for to assist the community we live in and they will be willing and excited to assist.