This week, Catholic University students, faculty, and staff are participating in Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week events on campus alongside organizations across the country. Since 1975, beginning at Villanova University, volunteers at universities, churches, schools, and organizations have gathered their local communities the week prior to Thanksgiving for advocacy, prayer, service, and education to end hunger and homelessness. Groups across CUA have collaborated with the Charitable Services arm of the Office of Campus Ministry to organize events to shed light on and combat these critical issues.
On the evening of “Testimonial Tuesday,” the Pryz Great Room doors opened for a panel lecture titled “From Displacement to Dignity: Supporting Unhoused Residents in DC” featuring CUA’s own Meg Hannigan Dominguez of the National Catholic School of Social Service as moderator. The panel consisted of Wesley Thomas, formerly unhoused in D.C. himself and now a mentor of homeless addicts through Miriam’s Kitchen; Amanda S. Chesney, Executive Director of Homeless and Housing Services at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington; Shannon Clark, a member of the advocacy team at Miriam’s Kitchen; and Benn May, a second-year Master’s in Social Work student at CUA.
The panelists spoke about their personal paths to working to combat homelessness, as well as sharing advice about how to get involved in the efforts and commenting on recent actions by the Trump Administration that have impacted the homeless population in D.C.—notably, ICE raids, the government shutdown, and, primarily, the executive order placed on July 24 of this year vacating homeless encampments from the streets of D.C…