(High school, college student audience)

 

INTRODUCTION

     Perhaps more than any other nation in the world, the United States represents an ideal to many people.  The ideal of equality---of opportunity, of legal rights, of protection against discrimination and oppression.  To a certain extent, this image has proven accurate.  But beneath this ideal lies a less idealistic fact---many segments of our society do not feel included in this vision of America.

     They are the outsiders---the homeless, the elderly, people with AIDS, teenage mothers, gang members, prisoners, and countless others.  When politicians and the media discuss society's ills, the members of these groups are defined as what's wrong with America; they are the people who need fixing, who need help, or increasingly, who need to take more responsibility.  And as these people become society's fix-it problem, they lose all identity as individuals and become part of an anonymous group.  In the media and in our minds these groups are identified by condiditon---a disease, crime, morality, poverty.  Their condition becomes their identity, and once this occurs, in the eyes of society, they lose their humanity.

 

[Insert speech, examples, A/V material here]

 

CONCLUSION

I have spent the last 8 years working with them.  At times their stories are painful, revealing individuals who are struggling to maintain their integrity, their humanity, their lives, in the face of fear, loss, and economic and spiritual hardship.  At other times, their tales are exasperating, demonstrating a litany of poor choices, shortsighted thinking, and self-gratification.  These people's circumstances are not all of one kind, and perhaps we, after all, are not so very different from them.  Before we can act to solve the problems, we must be willing to look down their path, to see their faces.  And perhaps in doing so, we may find a piece of ourselves as well.

 

[QUESTION & ANSWER PORTION OF PROGRAM HERE]

...handing out pamphlets with contact information and suggestions to help, even if you don't help OUR shelter.

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This speech will be given to large crowds.  Mostly people who have never heard of us or our work.  There will be a bio/info (where I was) section, from bad to good section (what I did), and where I am now section.  Then a sharing of the passion, blessings and appeal for support for the shelter.

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SPEECH

I. Explain the problem, giving the solution.

a) Why I'm here.
b) What I do.
c) Why I need from you.

II. What I do for:

a) MEN: Jail ministry, court advocate,
b) WOMEN: Help-in-crisis volunteer, women's shelter,
c) TEENAGERS: Runaways, street people, drug epidemic

III. What I need from you

a) Time: Volunteer
b) Hope: $ for programs
c) Love: Not just your money or time, we need your prayers.