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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Students Conduct Social Experiment Doubling As Homelessness Awareness Campaign In The Uptown

They were holding handwritten cardboard signs and silently sitting on steps and sidewalks in the uptown. 

Four groups of college students posed as though they were homeless in what was partly a social experiment and partly a homelessness awareness campaign. 

Alicia MacDonald, a nursing instructor at the New Brunswick Community College in Saint Andrews tells CHSJ News that they wanted to observe the way homeless people are treated in this city.

She tells us that the reception they received depended on the location of the group. The students heard some negative comments about their messages with people even saying that they're disgusting and some saying homelessness is a choice.

MacDonald says that was balanced by other people who stopped to ask questions and try to donate money. She says they didn't accept any donations, they were just asking people to support their community's homelessness and mental health initiatives. She says that people are a community's best resource.