D.R.E.A.M. Homelessness and Poverty Working Group in Need of Volenteers

Bryan Kellam
DSS Press
Dunnville

The DREAM Program has been a familiar face to Dunnville for quite some time now, and its various working groups have been growing and evolving to help better the community with each coming year.

But there is one thing that any community-oriented organization needs to work: Volunteers.

The Homelessness and Poverty (HAP) group, led by students at Dunnville Secondary School (DSS) has been running dangerously low on volunteer support, according to group mentor and DSS student Randy Koster.

Koster, a member of HAP since 2010, explained how originally there were about 30 members at the start of September last year, but the group has now dwindled down to about three to five committed students.

“The group’s current status is very slow. As a mentor I would like to see our group doing much more than it has been able to this year,” said Koster, while commenting on the work she did with the group in past years.

HAP centers on examining the status of poverty in and around Dunnville, and encourages students to be proactive and empathetic towards those who are less fortunate. While homelessness may not seem like a very large issue at hand in the community to some, the group promotes and informs students with the knowledge and awareness about how common poverty is in Dunnville.

Aside from spreading awareness, the group promotes positive action. Students have made trips to Toronto to make sandwiches for the homeless, worked with the Salvation Army soup truck program, assembled Christmas hampers, and crafted their own project at the high school: The DSS Breakfast Program.

The Breakfast Program was created by HAP in 2010, and is a way to provide healthy food in the mornings for everyone in the school. Koster, a member who helped create the program with HAP, is very adamant about getting volunteers to help cook and prepare food for the Breakfast Program.

Every Wednesday, the HAP group would meet to prepare food for the morning program, but ever since the number of volunteers dropped it hasn’t been so easy. “This year has been a great struggle to even get more than five group members to attend meetings and cooking dates.”

Koster continued to explain, “We want the students to be passionate about this cause, but with the lack of involvement and commitment, it seems nearly impossible to achieve as much as we did before.”