Using the Game / Tools

We want you to get the most impact possible from Home Sweet Homelessness, so we’re providing some tools.  If you have developed tools and techniques of your own, please email them to us and we’ll post them! email HomeSweetHomelessness@gmail.com

Who Is Using the Game?  There are many different users in many different settings.  What specific uses do they make of the game?

How is the game being used to meet different objectives?  Here’s a chart of objectives supported by play with different combinations of housed/homeless players.

Who is Using the Game?

Volunteer Coordinators in homeless shelters and soup kitchens, to help their volunteers “get out of the kitchen” and sit down with their guests.  The easy, engaging play helps them get past self-consciousness and situational differences, and discover their shared humanity.

Homeless Education professionals of McKinney-Vento-funded education programs, to train teachers whose students include many whose families are without homes. For the teachers besieged by the challenges of working with these challenged students and parents, the game is an enjoyable way to share with their peer teachers what they have learned.  These trainings provide a bright spot in often routine pre-school-year preparation.

Court Administrators, as a basis for strategic planning.  Joined by guest players from a local shelter, they began their half-day program by engaging their minds and hearts through the simulation and relationship that the game provides.  Based on that experience, they worked in small groups including these clients without homes to plan improvements in court procedures and practices.

High School and University Faculty and Service Coordinators, as a way to make it easier for their students to get to know the people they are serving in shelters and soup kitchens.  Playing first in their classrooms, the students are able to experience the added richness of playing later with the people who they’d otherwise only look at over a cafeteria line or a service counter.

Church Leaders, to engage and enrich the engagement of their congregants who serve or consider serving the needs of those without homes.  Because play of the game evokes feelings of compassion and the struggle for justice that are preached from the pulpit, a synergy is developed between faith and service.

Youth Leaders in churches and community centers, to enrich the learning of their participants, opening them to the realities of those experiencing homelessness.

Agency Directors to help develop their management, staff, and donor base by taking advantage of the compassion and understanding generated by playing Home Sweet Homelessness with their clients.

Community Organizers and Poverty Reduction Advocates to bring community members with homes and those without, to facilitate relationships and engagement in sustainable and sensitive planning and development in their shared community