If my bed were cardboard and my blanket was the night sky...

A lot of people don’t have anywhere to live. There’s homelessness in America and all around the world.  Homelessness is an issue that touches us where we live… and where they don’t.

Whether abandoned, orphaned, poverty-stricken, drug-addicted, ill, taken advantage of, unfortunate or otherwise, no one likes to be homeless. Everyone has a different story of how they got there, but no one likes to stay there. People need help.

Get together a group of friends and go around to local stores and collect cardboard boxes. Take them apart and cut them into large slabs (large enough to sleep on). You will be hosting a night of homelessness on your college campus lawn. Make sure that this is okay with your college and you may want to get some chaperones that can take turns staying awake too.  

Oh, and don’t plan this in the winter. Seriously. I know hypothermia would really drive the point “home”, but we don’t need to be excessive to be effective.

Contact your professors and see if you can speak in the beginning of their classes about homelessness and what you’re doing to act against it. Keep it to 10 minutes at the longest. Speak at chapel too, if you have one (for most students, chapel and class are fairly mandatory so it guarantees you a captive audience! Might as well make good use of it!)

Be sure to have some type of an informational session or documentary showing on homelessness before your event takes place. There are lots of documentaries available on homelessness, so take advantage of it! Visual aides make a powerful resource! Do it on campus so it will be convenient for everyone and so you can get a larger audience! You may also want to see if you can offer chapel credit or extra credit from some professors for those that attend.

Put up lots of posters and flyers before your event. Charge $2 or so a slab and have everyone sleep in the same general area so you can keep an eye on them. The next day provide the opportunity to volunteer at a local homeless shelter, where you will donate the money you’ve raised.

Try to schedule trips to the homeless shelter regularly, this can be a great kickoff to let kids know about this local outreach opportunity! It's not just raising awareness, it's actually doing something to touch the people God's placed around you!

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