Nicholas Dobkowski's Blog
Yes, I Live Here / 05.22.08, 01:55 PM
Sometimes people ask me why you need to live in the neighborhood that you serve. Especially when that neighborhood is potentially dangerous. Here are a few reasons why:
We live in a separated society. Rich apart from poor. Black apart from white (although there are exceptions, each ethnicity has a section of Chicago which they call their own). We live with little knowledge of how those who are not us live. We may read about it in the paper or a magazine, but these depictions often fall laughably short. In reality, the only way to know what’s really going on in a certain neighborhood is to live there. You experience the highs and the lows, the problems and the pain. And you build bridges.
Additionally, we receive no lack of credibility for living where we do. Often, the homeless men and women that we work with often think that we live in some suburb or on the Northside, and that we just happen to work in the neighborhood. When they here that we live on California and Madison, something changes about how they perceive us. They begin to realize that we’re not in this to feel good, but that we care about the people here. They start to understand that we live with them in order to love them and to love this place. We’re not here because we’re required to be; we’re here because we want to be. Holla :)
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thats whats up.
By sarah / May 23, 12:31 PM / #