Chronicles of an Empowered Intern on a Mission to End Homelessness

Written by Cecilia Branson

Life as an Intern

This summer, I am virtually interning with Homeless Entrepreneur, an NGO headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. The primary objective of this organization is to combat homelessness in Europe through a range of initiatives, including the HELP program, which focuses on fostering independence through employment opportunities. 

I began my internship in early June, I assumed the role of a policy researcher. 

Over the past five weeks, my responsibilities have centered around the comprehensive EU report,  which encompasses 12 cities. Frankfurt, in particular, has been the focal point of my research, as I gather statistics and reports on homelessness. Collaborating with fellow interns (In-person and virtual), we are working on this report, which will ultimately be presented to the esteemed European Parliament. 

My internship has been both gratifying and empowering. I have actively engaged with professionals across Europe, including politicians, students, NGOs, and representatives from the European Commission. Establishing these connections will contribute to the European Union Report, supporting Homeless Entrepreneur's relentless pursuit of eradicating homelessness. 

New Skills I Acquired

Within the realm of my internship at Homeless Entrepreneur, I have had opportunities to amplify my research capabilities and make valuable connections. Part of this enriching experience has been my engagement in two skill courses offered by IBM SkillsBuild, "Professional Skills" and "Soft Skills for Work." Through these courses, I have embarked on profound personal and professional development. I have honed and expanded my skill set empowering me to navigate the professional world with confidence. The "Soft Skills for Work" course has enhanced my ability to collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds even further.

For example, when I will conduct my interviews in the coming weeks. In successful completion of these courses, I received a certificate. I shared my certificate via Linkedln, which did not go unnoticed, as I even received a message of support from IBM on LinkedIn. 

As I reflect upon this experience so far, I am thankful that Homeless Entrepreneur has provided me with invaluable skills and opened doors to a vast network of professionals, this internship has truly been a push for personal and professional growth. 

RESEARCH ON FRANKFURT, GERMANY

In the course of three months, I researched homelessness in Frankfurt, Germany. The research has deepened my understanding but also the factors that are affecting homelessness in Frankfurt. My findings resulted in three factors; social housing has decreased, affordable housing costs have increased, and an escalating number of immigrants. 

In 2022, there were roughly 263,000 homeless people in Frankfurt, Statistiches Bundesamt (Destatis) reported 178,000 homeless people were accommodated. It's crucial to acknowledge that a considerable number of foreign nationals remained unaccommodated. The matter lies in the fact that in Germany, there are more migrants than non-migrants. The causes of why people are becoming homeless can range from separation/divorce, relocation, and conflicts in their living environments. 

The housing market has made it increasingly harder for individuals or families to find affordable housing. 

This prompts the question, "What avenues exist for those offering a helping hand? The city of Frankfurt has many organizations, restaurants, and municipalities setting out to help the homeless population. These avenues encompass a wide range of assistance from providing access to medical care, job training, housing, and counseling. 

As a policy research intern, I noticed a trend that these programs are oriented towards assistance rather than empowerment. While these services are beneficial it is also crucial to empower homeless people. The goal is not to have temporary or emergency accommodation, but instead, permanent housing and needs-based support. The winters are Germany are terribly cold and many end up dying on the streets. In Germany, the municipalities bare all the costs of providing assistance for the homeless and accommodating persons and families without housing. 

Homeless Entrepreneur has incorporated a program "Housing Empowerment Program" which is designed to provide housing access and rental support. Access to housing can seem impossible to some since it requires a steady job, income, and stability. Homeless Entrepreneur works with each individual to access housing and become active, working citizens again. The Homeless Entrepreneur program reduced administration costs, reduced stress for municipalities, and shortens the waiting list for homeless families, persons, and facilities, which are funded by the local administration. 

Empowerment forms a bridge to overcoming homelessness but cannot be done without assistance along the way. 

Inspiring Talks to Simulated Work Opportunities: Connecting Colombia, Spain & Nigeria

Written by Ben Cutler

My name is Ben Cutler and my ex-wife, Ana, and I founded Project Family in late 2022 with the intention of helping individuals and families in economic crisis, who need and want help. Our intention was to provide temporary housing and work assistance program for families experiencing homelessness. A lot has happened since then: My wife and I separated upon soft launching the idea.

We started Project Family thinking about a large project, but what has evolved is a bigger vision of many smaller (more manageable) projects and the organization is seeking to empower people in many ways. Project Family was started though self-funding and we haven’t requested any donations to date, but we have received a few donations and we’ll continue to put 100% of what we receive directly into these programs.

In January 2023, we partnered with the Homeless Entrepreneur organization with the goal of collaborating on opportunities to empower people out of poverty and to promote awareness around these them. I was recently invited to participate in an event called “Inspiring Talks”, which is organized by Homeless Entrepreneur. This was the second event of its kind and this program aims to introduce one member of the Homeless Entrepreneur HELP Program to other entrepreneurs and executives to share stories and conversation.

I was invited to speak with Gabriel O. (beneficiary of the HELP program) and he and I had many things in common. We’re both about 40 years old; we both have daughters; we’re both living in developing economies; we’ve both seen firsthand the challenges presented by extreme poverty; and we’ve both been crushed by family ruptures. Gabriel is a priest in his local community and aspiring to start a remote career in technology. I am just getting out of an intense remote career in technology, and I’m very passionate about helping people, both personally and professionally.

I offered to help Gabriel and I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to do so, but I knew he was earning very little money as a Pastor and had accumulated about 6 months’ worth of earnings in debt. I knew money was a concern for him and so were his temporary living quarters. He was participating in the HELP Program with Homeless Entrepreneur, and he was working with a career coach towards starting a career in web development. I spoke with Andrew Funk at Homeless Entrepreneur, and we agreed to offer Gabriel simulated remote work opportunities, compensated at a fair rate, and designing the activities to benefit his learning and development process.

We decided to offer simulated client engagement opportunities representing simple market research tasks. Gabriel struggled a bit at first but once properly coordinated, Gabriel’s career coach (Sara Jurado) was able to help steer the process. After completing the first activity, Sara reported that she observed Gabriel with an improved attitude or outlook towards the development process. The goals of these simulated work opportunities were to help Gabriel to learn and to experience remote work in a “safe” environment, to challenge his mind and commitment, and to compensate him for his efforts. These tasks were designed to lift his spirits and to challenge his assumptions about his own perceived limitations.

The reader might be wondering, why do you need to challenge his own assumptions about his own perceived limitations? To that I would say that hope is powerful and so is information. Life is incredibly complex and people often need more “hand-holding” in life. People often need incentives to learn new things and tend to search for jobs in their profession (ex. customer service) but they don’t realize how many different ways they can search for jobs. They don’t realize how many different job seeking resources exist. They don’t realize that if they change keywords, they will get different results. They don’t realize that there are so many opportunities readily available to them! In Gabriel’s case, I think it was helpful for him to see a number things he’ll need to learn and practice, and that there are so many smaller steps that he can take along the way, to move closer to his goal.

Gabriel and I have spoken many times and it’s clear that he is facing hardships. It can be very difficult to have faith and to always be your best when facing such difficulties. After completing the tasks assigned to him, Gabriel communicated to me his desperation in such times, and his gratitude for these programs, and his renewed sense of strength, even if it was fleeting.

We’re very happy with the success of this program with Gabriel and we have started conversations with the Homeless Entrepreneur organization to provide additional opportunities to Gabriel and to others.

Please email info@projectfamily.info or funk@homeslessentrepreneur.org to learn how to get involved in a similar way.

Accidental Homelessness... (Um Sem-Abrigo Acidental) (English/Português)

Luis Felipe Salgado Franqueira in Portugal.

By Luis Felipe Salgado Franqueira

History often puts us in situations that we could never dream of until the moment of experiencing them. Something unusual happened to me, for someone who had a childhood considered normal for the time, a structured and happy family within Western standards, but which, through twists and turns that fate weaves, happened to stumble in the History of Humanity when, on April 25, 1974, the Carnation Revolution changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of families, especially those who, like us, lived in a Portuguese colony. We were not rich, nor did we live at anyone's expense: my mother was dedicated to sewing and my father operated a sugar cane property on the banks of the Pungué River in central Mozambique, which is next to a sugar company located in Mafambisse.

I was at a technical agricultural teaching school 200 kilometers from home. I lived in that boarding school for five years and, strange as it may seem, that was precisely why I gained a capacity for resilience and a status of autonomy that allowed me to go through the moments that followed the revolution.

The world, with the independence of the colonies, was turned upside down for all those who had to face it. At 20 years old, nothing scared me!

I embarked for Portugal alone, which at the time was called the Metropolis and populated the dreams of many young people who, like me, wanted to know the first world, where I was welcomed by an uncle, in a remote area of ​​Minho called Anissó, in Vieira do Minho! That was too much for me, a small village, with a delay in civilization that we, coming from Africa, weren't used to. In half a dozen months I got fed up with that and grabbed my backpack, plus 1,500 escudos in cash (today it would be €7.50) and went to Lisbon, finally getting to know the World at its best!

Arriving in Lisbon, with nowhere to stay or eat, I started to wander through those immense avenues and soon realized that I would have to take care of life alone!

At the time, the city of Lisbon was full of people coming from the former colonies, where there were funds, made available by many donor countries, to accommodate in hotels, pensions and other housing spaces those thousands of families who, while not eating or sleeping in these spaces, wandered around the city waiting for a job opportunity, a momentary "joke" to earn some change or a last minute "hitch" to satisfy their primary animal instinct, if only to be able to prove to themselves that they still maintained their abilities macho men in good shape.

My daily occupation became waking up at the entrance of a building, where I would lie down on a cardboard box and with a blanket on top, fill my belly with water from any garden tap and start walking around Lisbon from one side to the other! The first thing was to find someone who would give me a coin to at least eat some bread, then, in Praça do Rossio, in the center of the city, look for someone who I would eventually meet and buy me lunch. Sometimes they found me money, 20 escudos at the time was enough for lunch in a tavern, other times they even paid for lunch and still others it was the tavern keeper himself who offered the meal after the customers had finished it and, with what was left, there they filled our stomachs. At that time there were things that were extremely volatile, the rumor.

There was a rumor that in a certain place they were helping the returnees (a pejorative name given to people who came from the former colonies), except that that place was usually leagues from where we were, or that there was the possibility of manual work that would be enough for earning some change, but when we got there the vacancies were already occupied... and so the minutes, hours and days passed! Around 4/5 pm, and because it was autumn, it was time to look for cardboard, the thicker the better, discover a space where the cold would enter as little as possible and prepare the nest for another night!

After 15 days, I don't think anyone would approach me because of the nauseating smell it exhaled. As I was wandering around Rossio Square, I found a longtime friend from Mozambique, my friend Pequerruxo. It was a moment of immense joy, because he, in addition to having a good heart, was installed in a house with 40 or 50 other returnees, they all slept in a pile, but they had a roof, a bed, two meals a day and also a guaranteed bath! I still had the question of knowing if I would not be caught or if it would harm him for taking me to that house, relaxed, as he was, he told me that nobody there knows who goes in or out, nor is there any control of any kind, so I ended up settling there, I slept on the floor of his room and 10 or 15 more, but with that help I managed to push my way along paths that allowed me to find work, occasional it is true, but it helped me to give the next steps towards other stories, also exciting, and which have always made me believe that those who fight for a better life, those who do not give up on their dreams and that those who believe that they are part of a fantastic universe will always have all the opportunities to achieve a Complete Life in return!

*The pictures below were taken recently.

Um Sem-Abrigo Acidental...

Em Português

Luis Felipe Salgado Franqueira em Portugal.

 Por Luís Felipe Salgado Franqueira

Muitas vezes a História coloca-nos em situações que jamais poderíamos sonhar até ao momento de vivência-las.

Aconteceu-me algo inusitado, para quem teve uma infância considerada normal para a época, família estruturada e feliz dentro dos padrões ocidentais, mas que, por voltas que o destino tece, aconteceu tropeçarmos na História da Humanidade quando em 25 de abril de 1974 a Revolução dos Cravos alterou a vida de centenas de milhares de famílias, principalmente aquelas que, como nós, vivíamos numa colónia portuguesa. Não éramos ricos nem vivíamos à custa de ninguém, minha mãe dedicava-se à costura e meu pai explorava uma propriedade de cana-de-açúcar, nas margens do rio Pungué na zona centro de Moçambique e junto a uma empresa açucareira situada em Mafambisse.

Eu estava numa escola de ensino técnico de agricultura a 200 quilómetros de casa. Vivi nesse internato cinco anos e, por estranho que possa parecer, foi precisamente por isso que ganhei uma capacidade de resiliência e um estatuto de autonomia que me permitiu passar pelos momentos que se seguiram à revolução. 

O mundo, com a independência das colônias, ficou de pernas para o arpara todos aqueles que tiveram que o enfrentar. Jovem com 20 anos, a mim nada me metia medo!

Embarquei para Portugal, sozinho, que na altura era denominada como Metrópole e povoava os sonhos de muitos jovens que, como eu, desejavam conhecer o primeiro Mundo, onde fui acolhido por um tio, numa zona remota do Minho de nome Anissó, em Vieira do Minho!

Aquilo foi demais para mim, aldeia pequena, com um atraso civilizacional que nós, vindos de África não estávamos habituados. Em meia dúzia de meses fartei-me daquilo e peguei na minha mochila, mais 1.500 escudos em dinheiro (hoje seriam 7.50€) e fui para Lisboa, finalmente iria conhecer o Mundo no seu expoente máximo!

Chegado a Lisboa, sem ter onde ficar nem onde comer, comecei a vaguear por aquelas imensas avenidas e cedo percebi que teria que tratar da vida sozinho! 

Na altura a cidade de Lisboa estava repleta de gente vinda das ex-colónias, onde houve fundos, disponibilizados por muitos países doadores, para albergar em hotéis, pensões e outros espaços habitacionais aqueles milhares de famílias que, enquanto não comiam ou dormiam nesses espaços, vagueavam pela cidade à espera duma oportunidade de emprego, dum "biscate" momentâneo para ganhar uns trocos ou dum "engate" de última hora para satisfação do instinto animal primário, quanto mais não fosse para poderem provar a si mesmos que ainda mantinham as suas capacidades machistas em boa forma. 

A minha ocupação diária passou a ser, acordar na entrada dum edifício, onde me deitava sobre uma caixa de cartão e com um cobertor por cima, enchia a barriga de água, numa qualquer torneira de jardim e começava a calcorrear Lisboa de lés-a-lés! A primeira coisa era encontrar alguém que me desse uma moeda para, pelo menos comer um pão, depois, na Praça do Rossio, no centro da cidade, procurar alguém que eventualmente eu conhecesse e me pagasse o almoço. Algumas vezes arranjavam-me dinheiro, 20 escudos na época davam para almoçar numa taberna, outras pagavam-me mesmo o almoço e outras ainda era o próprio taberneiro que oferecia a refeição já depois dos clientes terem terminado o repasto e, com o que sobrava, lá nos enchiam o estômago. 

Nessa época havia coisas que que eram sobremaneira voláteis, o boato. Corria um rumor que em determinado local estavam a ajudar os retornados (nome dado pejorativamente às pessoas que vinham das ex-colónias), só que esse local ficava normalmente a léguas donde nos encontrávamos, ou então que havia a hipótese dum trabalho braçal que daria para ganhar uns trocos, mas quando lá chegávamos já estavam as vagas ocupadas... e assim se passavam os minutos, as horas e os dias! Por volta das 16/17 horas, e porque estávamos no Outono, era hora de procurar um cartão, quanto mais espeço melhor, descortinar um espaço onde o frio entrasse o menos possível e preparar o ninho para mais uma noite!

Ao fim de 15 dias, penso que já ninguém se aproximava de mim pelo cheiro nauseabundo que exalava, estando eu a vaguear em plena Praça do Rossio, encontrei um amigo de longa data de Moçambique, o meu amigo Pequerruxo. Foi um momento de alegria imensa, pois ele, além de bom coração, estava instalado numa casa com vais 40 ou 50 outros retornados, dormiam todos amontoados, mas tinham teto, cama, duas refeições por dia e também banho garantido! Ainda pus a questão de saber se não seria apanhado ou de prejudica-lo a ele por me estar a levar para aquela casa, descontraidamente, como ele era, disse-me que ali ninguém sabe quem entra ou sai, nem há controlo de qualquer espécie, de maneira que acabei por me instalar lá, dormia no chão do quarto dele e de mais 10 ou 15, mas com essa ajuda consegui impulsionar o meu caminho por veredas que me permitiram arranjar trabalho, ocasional é certo, mas ajudou-me a dar os passos seguintes rumo a outras histórias, também emocionantes, e que sempre me fizeram acreditar que quem luta por uma vida melhor, quem não desiste dos seus sonhos e que quem crê que faz parte dum Universo fantástico terá sempre como retorno todas as oportunidades de alcançar uma Vida Plena!

*As fotos abaixo foram tiradas recentemente.