Each year the JIW girls are invited to participate in Cardboard City, a fundraising and awareness event from our friends at Family Promise of Jacksonville. The event includes the building of a cardboard box shelter as well as a Social Services Maze where participants take their “family” through elements such as securing Housing, Employment, and Childcare. Below is a reflection of the event as written by a JIW high school student, JIW Shannel B.
Cardboard City is an event that brings awareness to the homelessness epidemic in Jacksonville, especially among young families. Family Promise of Jacksonville helps by providing supplies, opportunities, and shelter until families can get back on their feet. I had the pleasure of participating in this event with the JIW (Journey Into Womanhood) program.
When my fellow JIW sisters and I arrived at the site, we immediately started building our cardboard house. This was our main goal, as it simulates some of the conditions experienced by people facing homelessness.
Many girls and their siblings began unloading cardboard boxes from a van, and we started working on the foundation. We broke down and flattened the larger boxes, then I began interlocking them for support and stability. With the help of a younger girl taping up the floors, we moved to the walls, which was by far the hardest part of the project. We used medium-sized boxes for the first layer, taped them together, and worked carefully to keep everything stable. We added more boxes to reinforce the bottom layer, but this caused some stability problems. The boxes were floppy, and we ended up using quite a bit of tape to hold everything together. But eventually, it worked, and we had a small base with a tiny entrance we could call home. We were planning to add a roof but it was going to make the structure we had collapsed so we paused for dinner.
Dinner included chicken wraps, potato salad, fruit, and brownies. Some JIW girls and staff decided to eat inside the little house we built. It was a fun and memorable moment, and it felt good knowing our house was stable enough to sit in.
After dinner, the main activity of the night began: the Social Services Maze. Each participant received a card describing the scenario of a family experiencing or nearing homelessness, and the challenge was to navigate the social service system to complete the required tasks. The twist? We only had about twenty minutes, which was especially difficult because so much time was spent waiting in lines for services that were needed.
My card described a single father with two kids, a four-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. I partnered with a younger girl from JIW, and we got started. We tried to find employment first, but we were told we needed housing to get a job. At the housing station, we were told we needed employment. This was the start of many loops. When stuck, we had to visit the Social Services Station, where I was eventually able to get birth certificates for my kids. That allowed us to stay in a shelter, which then allowed me to get a job and income. After running around many different stations trying to find the right resources, I ran out of time with only three tasks completed. Participants could try again, but I chose not to.
Cardboard City was a humbling experience, especially in this season of giving. It made me, and many of the other JIW girls, feel grateful for the lives we live and the things we have. It also gave me a deeper appreciation for the social services and organizations that help people who need support to get their lives back on track.
Author: JIW Shannel B.
