I spent part of my Thanksgiving with the women, staff and volunteers of the Dwelling Place. Being there and sharing this holiday with them gave me a better sense of this community. The women who live at the shelter and those that came for the Thanksgiving dinner all shared their stories with each other and with me.
This community of women that come togther every week respect, care and give each other stength to meet their challenges.
In order to understand their struggle, I decided to focus on a couple of the women. I interviewed “Dorca” last week. She shared with me some of her painful adolescense, drug abuse and her everntual diagnosis with mental illness which led to her being homeles. “Dorca” spent much of the last 15 years going in and out of hospitals while she struggled with her mental illness. There is a lot more of her story that I would like to capture and for this I have asked her to take me to her old neighborhood on the Lower Eastside so that I can take picutres of her visiting where she used to live…
I will be going to the shelter tonight and hope to be able to take picutres. This has been the most challenging part of the proeject. I need to figure out a way to captute this community in images.
Yes, Diana, we’re waiting for those pictures with bated breadth! Meanwhile you’re getting some good info.
Hi, Diana. I like your choice of communities and hearing the discussions in class about your progress, I am anxiously awaiting your photos. I think you did a great job in becoming a part of the community. I can tell you spent a lot of time and energy in your research.