(3/3) “We take a lot of stuff for granted…”

Courtesy: phillystreetmag.blogspot.com

For those who have been following along, you’re aware that I’ve been reflecting on the work of a former student of mine, Tyjae. I had Tyjae as a 6^th grade student back at the beginning of the 2010s. That moment of pride aside, another rose in its place.

His autograph and goals back in September, '09

Over the course of two weekends in November, Tyjae and his team of family and friends set out to provide food and clothing band aids to our homeless neighbors in Kensington. Ignoring the chitter chatter against engaging in these types of efforts believing they “enable” the homeless or those struggling with addictions, Tyjae’s goal was to provide clothes and something to eat at those particular moments in time; not at some future point in a possible shelter with maybe some services.

It’s an understatement to note that our neighbors were very appreciative and expressed as much! As one man put it, “Just a blessing you know, thank you…because we’re struggling ourselves. Thank you and God bless you!”

The foci of this final reflection are just a few of those who assisted Tyjae in putting these events together. When asked how important it was for them to be out there, doing what they were doing, here’s how they responded:

Rahsheen

“I feel as though this is important. All my life I wanted to do something like this because I see that a lot of people that got a lot of money don’t do stuff like this. And I don’t have a lot of money myself but I just always wanted to give back. I would like to do it again anytime.”

John

“Very important…come out here just to show love, to give back to those less fortunate, you know. We have donations and we have other donations from families and friends and we just tryna give back just on the positive, not tryna get any recognition…really from the heart.”

Jordan

“It’s good because it’s not a lot of young people out here doin’ stuff like this because they afraid at a certain image, like to do positive things, it’s not bad to give back, it’s a good thing, you gone get blessings from it.”

Ant

“Yeah, it’s a lot going on, you just gotta help people out, not everybody got it, some people don’t eat every day, some people really got real struggles that people really don’t understand. It’s a lot of people like that. Seeing people come through, they need stuff so it’s like good, so I thank Ty all the time, like “Bro this really heavy!””

[My bad bro, forgot ya name, hmu]

“It’s important to do this for our community because it’s important to lift each other up as a people and like he said it’s not a lot of people that are fortunate to do that. We take a lot of stuff for granted, even waking up every day. So to be able to wake up every day, have clothes on our back, somewhere to sleep, and not everybody has the opportunity to be able to provide stuff like this to people that don’t. Feels great!”

Tara

“Being a person who organized this event, I appreciate being able to see the people I’m helping. It’s a rawness about it being under the subway, people walking past, seeing their story on their faces, them telling me their story. It just reminds me of how pertinent it is to give back!”

To read more about Tyjae and his work, hit him up.

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Thank you to everyone who came out to support an help also thank you to anybody who donated anything 🙌🏾 we appreciate it. It’s was a great turn out for @phillystreetmagazine first day of our thanksgiving give back ‼️‼️ @psm.snipe put on a good event 🐐🐐🐐

A post shared by Creator @psm.snipe 🖊 (@phillystreetmagazine) on Nov 23, 2019 at 3:52pm PST

(2/3) "It hits the heart..."

Earlier this year the city and Penn released a study examining the process by which Philly closed the homeless encampments in Kensington along with the impact of the closures on those who were displaced and the surrounding communities where the encampments once were. According to the study, “57 percent [of the encampment residents] previously spent time in a homeless shelter; 40 percent of encampment residents surveyed were homeless for over one year, meeting the federal definition of chronic homelessness."

A little over a month ago, Philly Street Magazine, a group of 20-something-year-old entrepreneurs led by Tyjae Sullivan, a former student of mine, set out on a mission. Their goal? Play some role, great or small, in being a part of the solution. With several bags of donated clothes in tow and boxes on boxes of hot pizza along with hot coffee, and other drinks and snacks, twice they went out to feed and clothe their brothers and sisters from other mothers and misters.

When asked why doing this was so important to him, he responded...

“It’s something I always wanted to do when I was younger…and now that I have a business I’d like people to know I’m about my community.”

As important as it was for Tyjae to give back and to be a blessing to others, it also meant a lot to his co-organizers and most importantly, to those on the receiving end of the clothes and food. In this 2nd reflection on those two weekends in November,  I wanted to focus on the people served. Although the question was simple, the acts of kindness meant the world to them!

Me to them, “Why is this important?”

In their words…

“I mean it definitely is a little hard to afford stuff and it’s freezing out.”

“Very important, I didn’t have anything like last week and I came by here and I got boots, which I been tellin’ him I needed them and…clothes I got. I got a pair of jeans from here earlier and…gloves…it’s really important. It’s awesome.” Her opinion of the food? “Good, great! Thank you!”

“It definitely fills the need for warmer clothes, you know what I mean? I don’t really have pants. I was able to get some pants, some new shoes; my shoes were leaking. For her the boots, you know and for self-esteem to get some new clothes, we’re on the streets and to get something like that’s newer, nicer, it helps out, so it—thank you very much!”

“You see, when a person comes out and does something for the neighborhood like this, I think it’s important because it shows the love. It shows love for the fellow man and it shows respect too, because a lot of people feel like they don’t have respect. Sometimes you misunderstand what somebody’s tryna do, but when you find out what’s really going on, you appreciate it! I love you guys, man! Thank you for everything you doin’ and thank Philadelphia for all the good people in there!”

“It’s awesome!”

“Just a blessing you know, thank you…because we’re struggling ourselves. Thank you and God bless you!”

“It turns the tide because you have people that are lookin for positive things in the community and this is one of them. This shows that the youngsters don’t have to wrap up in negativity. This is a good thing!”

Photo courtesy of @phillystreetmagazine

In one of the more interesting interactions, there was one man who declined to take any clothes or food but came back to the site with clothes in his hand. I asked him the same question, why was this important?

Him, “It hits the heart. I grew up in this area. I been fortunate enough to get out. I ended up homeless where I was. So I know how it feels to be hungry, to be cold. I’m in a better situation now.

Me, “Can you tell us what you brought [back with you] today?”

Him, “Just whatever I had to access at the house A few jackets and a hoodie, some toothpaste, some soap, I’m ‘bout to go get some tampons and toilet paper.”

Allow me to insert, that one woman was just looking for a hoodie or jacket when he walked back up with one.

Me, “What motivated you to go back to the house and bring stuff back out here?”

Him, “Seeing you guys out here. Asking me if I was hungry when I walk by, First, I got offended because I thought maybe you thought I was homeless, but I talked myself out of it.”

Part 3 of this reflection will focus on Tyjae’s co-organizers and what these experiences meant to them.

Photo courtesy of @phillystreetmagazine