The following is an article written by members of Suzanne Linder's 2009 Social Advocacy class. This year, the class split up into three different groups, with some students in two groups. One of the groups was dubbed the "local group" because of its focus on the local economy and how the group members could help it. They have outlined their efforts below in the hope of reaching more students with their message and letting them know how they can get involved.

URBANA — During the 2008 presidential election, there was a lot of debate about the state of the United States economy. This was really the first time that many people realized that the economic stability of the nation was declining.

In October, more than 240,000 jobs were lost, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 6.5 percent. Then in January, an additional 598,000 jobs were lost, and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.6 percent. The current recession is now about to surpass that of 1981-82 in severity.

This isn't a new development; since December 2007, when the recession began, 5.7 million jobs have been lost, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of April, there were 13.7 million people without jobs.

In Illinois, the unemployment rate in April was 9.4 percent, according to the BLS.

Locally, the unemployment rate in the Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area was 6.9 percent in March, down from 7.3 percent in February.

For some surrounding areas, the situation has been even worse. In Danville, the March unemployment rate was 10.9 percent after reaching 11.0 percent in February. Decatur was 9.8 percent in March, 10.0 in February.

The Bloomington-Normal area was best off, but its unemployment rate still exceeded 6 percent (6.3 in March, 6.4 in February).

Hypothesis and correction

Based on all the talk about the economic downturn, our Social Advocacy group decided that our project would focus on the negative impact the recession has had on the local community, and especially organizations such as shelters, which are meant to help people who are going through rough times.

We visited half a dozen different organizations in Champaign County, including the Center for Women in Transition, Restoration Urban Ministries, The Salvation Army, and the St. Jude Catholic Worker House. From our visits, which at most of the organizations consisted of an informational tour, we learned that they hadn't suffered financially.

In fact they were seeing an increase in donations and people willing to help. However, there was a noted increase in the variety of people needing the services of such things as food banks and shelters.
Those who were already using these services continued, but now those who were once slightly above the poverty line dipped below it and needed aid.

Instead of the organizations suffering, they remained stable and have increased the range of services they offer.

Changing course

We didn't know how to make this new information fit our original hypothesis that the economic downturn had a negative impact on these organizations.

Finally we realized that instead of trying to continue with a project based on an assumption that was incorrect, we should change the focus of our project.

We decided to adapt our project so that it would address the problem of "youth apathy."

This issue was brought up because everyone in the Social Advocacy class had encountered some instance of youth, teens especially, not getting involved because they believed that finding places and ways to volunteer was too difficult. Many people raised the issue of age, stating that most organizations did not accept volunteers that were under 18.

After much thought on the subject our group decided that the best way to learn was by doing. Therefore we started looking at ways that we could contribute to the organizations that we had researched in a way that other youth could easily mimic.

Following many days of phone calls and brainstorming we came up with two ideas that fit perfectly with a Uni student's busy schedule: a clothing drive and various food sales to raise money that would then be donated to a specific cause.

Helping the Center for Women in Transition

When we visited the Center for the Women in Transition, we were really affected by what we saw. Though the CWT does a great job to help out families (by providing housing, food, and sometimes even job opportunities), they can't do everything.

Upon visiting the center, we went on a tour where we saw the small rooms that families have to share, and the recreation rooms that certain organizations can "adopt" and fix up (these include an exercise room, a computer room, and a game room).

On our tour, when we got to the game room, our guide told us: "This room is for the kids. We wanted it to be kind of like a hang-out place for the older kids — so they have a safe environment to be together. Unfortunately, for them at least, they usually end up having to play with their little brothers and sisters. We would really like to get like a Wii or an Xbox for the older kids — but we just don't have the funds."

Upon questioning we were informed, "Well, we want a Wii because it's one of the few video game consoles that don't have any violent games associated with them — which is good because the last thing these kids need when they are at home is violence."

This really struck us. Something as simple as a Wii could really make a difference in their lives. We decided then that we wanted to raise the funds to buy the CWT a Wii.

To raise the money, we decided to hold two food sales at school. The first would be a bake sale, the second a dumpling/ice cream sale. The bake sale went well and raised us about $100. We hoped the dumpling/ice cream sale would get us to our goal (about $250). It went exceedingly well — selling out of everything before lunch ended and then still sold more when we offered just the ice cream toppings in cups.

In the end, we surpassed our goal. We ordered and received the Wii, which we donated to the center.

Helping Restoration Urban Ministries

Although there are many ways to volunteer at the Restoration Urban Ministries — e.g., building houses and helping out with several other day-to-day tasks — we didn’t have the availability that was needed to work there as group.

While thinking of what we could do to help them out, one thing that was said on our tour of the facility resonated with us. The Restoration Urban Ministries provides clothing for the people they help. People can come and take as many clothes as they need for their families.

However, one age group that has always had issues with the clothing is the adolescent group. Most clothes donated are for older generations and are unflattering and unappealing to younger people. We felt like the kids were entitled to have clothes designed for people their age, so we decided to hold a clothing drive.

We didn't specifically ask for "teen"-appropriate articles of clothing, but because the drive was to take place at Uni, we were fairly confident that we would get enough. The outcome was amazing. We received appropriate, nice-looking clothes for people of all ages, and altogether collected more than 12 boxes of clothes. We really wanted to do this because we didn't feel it was fair for kids to have to wear outdated and ill-fitting clothes just because they couldn't afford to go shopping.

"[Teen clothes] will be really beneficial," said Kevin Boyd of Restoration Urban Ministries. "Everyone wants to look good, especially during those high school years.”

So, even though we couldn't help build a house, we feel that we really helped make a change (no matter how superficial) for some underprivileged kids.

Helping The Salvation Army

When we visited The Salvation Army, we learned that they provide temporary housing and many forms of counseling (including alcoholism and drug counseling, and even job counseling).

The Salvation Army also has a "store" with everything from clothes to toys to furniture for those in need. When we inquired as to what we could donate to the organization, we were told "anything really. We always welcome more things."

We decided that we would donate the adult clothes from our clothing drive, because The Salvation Army's needs were pretty open ended and we figured that there is always someone in need of clothing.

Learning about St. Jude Catholic Worker House

One of the other places we visited was the St. Jude Catholic Worker House. This is an organization that has a soup kitchen that provides a free lunch to people who need it.

The staff members at the house also hand out care packages that contain toiletries and other necessary items. The majority of the food they serve is donated, but sometimes supplementary items are needed that have to be bought.

One afternoon part of the class from Social Advocacy went over to learn how this organization functioned. There was a group of people lined up outside waiting for food.

When we got inside we went into the kitchen to see what kind of food was being served. To our surprise it was a very balanced meal, which we learned was one of their goals. The meal consisted of chicken, spaghetti, potatoes, and green beans. We weren't able to volunteer because of school and our previous commitments, but we contacted a group of college students who volunteer there.

"It's very open and friendly, and there are a bunch of us college students who volunteer together," commented Annie Bellatone, a student at the University of Illinois. "The atmosphere is relaxed, and everyone works together very well. It gets stressful once in a while when there are a lot of people and only a few volunteers, but even then everyone works very hard to keep things under control. It's actually pretty fun most of the time."

She found it an easy place to volunteer because they accept people under 18, and the application process is simple and not drawn out.

Final thoughts

As a whole class, Social Advocacy is now working on a packet outlining how youth can get involved. The collective projects have been dubbed "Youth Advocacy" and describe in detail the easy but very beneficial ways that youth can get involved in their communities.