TU:‘Social Service Maze’ to broaden Cardboard City’s homelessness experience

A community of seemingly homeless people will suddenly appear Friday on the grounds of CrossRoad United Methodist Church in Jacksonville. They will spend the night, rain or shine, cold or warm, in cardboard boxes, tents or in their cars.

The next day they will return to their houses, apartments, dormitories or condos. But they will take with them an inkling of what homelessness — and trying to escape homelessness — feels like.

That’s the premise behind Cardboard City, an annual fundraiser for Family Promise of Jacksonville, a nonprofit that helps homeless families become self-sufficient. The event is open to the public.

In a new twist this year, participants will not only spend the night outside, they will navigate the “Social Service Maze.” They will take on the identity of a homeless family and have limited time to get services they need at stations manned by Florida State College at Jacksonville honors students.

“For several years at Cardboard City, we had ‘The Homeless Journey,’ a walk-through experience showing the different ways families experience homelessness. It was educational and informative, but we had done it for three years so it was time for something new,” said Beth Mixson, Family Promise development director. “We wanted something more interactive. We want people to understand the roadblocks.”

As they enter the maze, participants will be told their “family” circumstances, the resources they have and what services they need, she said. They will move from one social-service station to another trying to find shelter, employment and housing. They might also need medical services, child care, food or work clothing. Afterward there will be a group discussion about what they learned.

“We hope people will understand the challenges,” Mixson said. “For example, you might have a job offer requiring you wear steel-toe boots. You can’t get steel-toe boots because you don’t have the money and the clothing closets don’t have them in your size, so you lose the [job] offer. It’s hard work getting all the necessary pieces in place. Sometimes it takes some luck as well.”

“That’s why we believe intensive case management is crucial to help homeless families identify problems, find solutions and get back on their feet. We all need a helping hand and guidance at some point,” she said.

Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Center for Civic Engagement and Brian Nail, an English professor in the school’s honors college, will provide students for the maze stations.

“By connecting what happens in the classroom with the real challenges that people in our city face, FSCJ is providing a model for what higher education should be about,” Nail said.

All honors program students are required to complete at least 30 hours of service learning: The ones in Nail’s Introduction to the Honors College Experience seminar are also tasked with “developing their cultural awareness through civic engagement,” he said.

“In particular, in the seminar we have been exploring various forms of socioeconomic inequality and the ways that ideology as well as political and cultural bias shape the self-perceptions of individuals and their relationship to society,” he said. Participating in the maze will help students understand “the structural and institutional barriers that often discourage social mobility,” he said.

The students took a field trip to Family Promise’s downtown office where they met staff and learned more about homelessness. The visit also included a panel discussion with other social-service providers.

Nail said he hopes the maze experience will make the students more empathetic and “actively engaged civically and politically in their communities.”

Usually, as many as 150 people show up for the main Friday night part of the event, with as many as 75 actually staying overnight, Mixson said.

“We have seen everything from families to set up a tent for the evening to youth groups building cardboard shelters for the night,” she said. “While we realize it’s only one night and everyone knows they have a home to go back to with a bed, shower and food in the refrigerator, we know being there has made people think,” she said.

“They have thought about what they would do if faced with homelessness and realized that homelessness could happen to almost anyone with a series of unfortunate incidents. They realized the homeless families are just like them but without the stability.”

Beth Reese Cravey: (904) 359-4109