[ed. -- Julia Hansford is a native of Boulder and attended Fairview High School, where she began volunteering for community service. She's currently a sophomore at Harvard concentrating in History and Science, and hopes to pursue a public service career. For eight weeks in the summer of '08 she did her SCSF with the Carriage House homeless day shelter in Boulder.]

I hadn't expected Andrew to give me a happy life history; but after hearing his story of chemical addiction in high school, followed by years of homelessness, petty crime, incarceration, and finally putting himself into a drug induced coma, I had begun to cry. "Don't worry, it gets better," he assured me. I was writing homeless peoples' stories for the Carriage House Homeless Community Center, a day shelter that helps people survive street-life day-to-day, and provides resources to help them get their lives on a better track. The executive director had picked me for this task because she knew how much I wanted to understand the real causes of homelessness, how some had escaped from that type of life, and how the resources at the Center were helping people change their lives.

There were so many services being offered, it took me weeks to understand them all. My first day as an intern had been hectic -- too many homeless people asking too many questions that I simply couldn't answer. Did I know anything about the gardening job on a flyer? Where was the dinner being held tonight, and at what time? Were we out of peanut butter again? When was the next shower available? It was overwhelming, to be sure! But, by the end of the summer, I knew the place inside and out.

I had started at the front desk; checking people in, signing them up for a shower or computer slot, sorting their mail, and filing their important personal documents. These "small details" made a huge difference in people's lives. They needed to be clean for any job interview, so having access to a free shower was crucial. By using the center's address they didn't have to put "homeless" on job applications, and we gave them a reliable place to receive important mail, such as Social Security and Disability checks. And knowing that the Carriage House had copies of their birth certificates and other documents added an element of security to their often unstable lives.

My days were busy and I would take on all sorts of small tasks: set up e-mail accounts, post job opportunities, help volunteers cook and serve in the kitchen. Despite the huge crowds, everyone was patient waiting in line and then grateful for the food that they received. I also helped case managers deal with clients' various individual needs: securing identification cards, navigating the maze of social service agencies, finding job openings, paying for medicines and bus tokens to get them to medical appointments, etc.

In addition to daily tasks, I worked on a couple of larger projects at the Carriage House. The first was compiling a list of all resources offered to homeless people in Boulder -- everything from women's health, to free meals, to legal advocacy. The list specified who qualified for each of the resources and how to obtain them. Then I organized everything into an easy-to-use binder that was available to anyone at the center.

My other big project, writing up peoples' experiences with homelessness, came towards the end of the summer. By transcribing these personal stories, I learned how many homeless people had actually used Carriage House's resources to regain control of their dangerous and difficult lives. As I finished interviewing Andrew, I realized how far he had come: not only was he clean, sober, and no longer homeless, but he also had kept a job for over two years. By sharing his story with others, he provided hope, support, and love to those still living on the streets.

I asked him one final question: why did he keep coming to the Carriage House after he had found housing and a job? "When the pressures of life are weighing me down, I come here, and it's like family," he responded with a twinkle in his eye. That's when it clicked -- my internship hadn't just been about keeping homeless people alive, it had been about building them a family. I will always be grateful to the Rocky Mountain Harvard University Club for giving me this chance to make a difference in the world and to shift and broaden my perspective.