For many University students, homelessness may bring to mind images of bums on the Corner, but fourth-year College student Garrett Trent has a different perspective. Trent has played soccer, attended festivals, created art and worked alongside the homeless for years. Today Trent volunteers with the HOPE Community Center to find innovative ways for University community members to interact with Charlottesville's homeless community.\nThis summer, Trent worked with fourth-year Nursing student Amy Sikes and third-year College student Trigg Brown to organize HOPE's "Meet Your Neighbor" Program, a series of community festivals held in local parks. With themes ranging from dance to healthy living to photography, the series not only offered the homeless an opportunity to engage in different activities but it also brought several community members together. This past weekend, "Meet Your Neighbor" concluded its summer program with its final event, the "End of Summer Celebration and Symposium," at the Charlottesville Pavilion on the Downtown Mall.\nFor Trent, creating meaningful relationships between people of different backgrounds is his ultimate goal.\n"In connecting my friends and fellow students with helping the homeless I see over and over again what I already had discovered: we don't just help the homeless, they help us," Trent said. "We need each other."\nMore than 50 University students learned just how rewarding it is to help the homeless when they played alongside the Street Soccer CVL team founded last year by Brown. Team members must have been homeless at one point in their lives to participate. The team is one of 16 in the nation and competed in the U.S. Street Soccer Cup in Washington D.C. this summer, finishing 5-3. Although no one from the Charlottesville team will participate, a Homeless World Cup will be held in Milan this month.\nWhether on the field or at the HOPE Center itself, there are many different ways for students to help out. Sikes has found a number of ways to become involved, ranging from after-school tutoring to celebrating "Christmas in July" with families in need.\nSikes also volunteered for "Factory Fridays," in which she helped participants create and sell ornaments and other crafts. Half of the profit went to the individual craftsmen and the other half to the HOPE Center. Sikes said her experiences "help the homeless feel human," adding that she is eager for other students to join in this effort.\n"Whatever you're passionate about, we find a way to plug you in," she said.\nSikes was referring to more than helping the city's homeless - HOPE also offers students a way to become engaged in public life in Charlottesville. A group of 15 first-year students found a way to get involved at the final "Meet Your Neighbor" festival this past weekend on the Downtown Mall. As part of the University's Project SERVE, the students walked from the steps of the Rotunda to the Pavilion, picking up trash along the way.\n"This is a fun activity and a good way to meet new people," first-year participant Katie Brown said.\nActivities such as these help underscore that "Meet Your Neighbor" is not only about providing a helping hand to the homeless, but about helping community members interact as well.\n"We believe that everyone is everyone's neighbor," Trent said. After one look at the booths of participants at the event one can't help but agree. Groups such as Food Not Bombs, the "Shades of Blue" Jazz Ensemble from Albemarle High School, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Charlottesville Health Access and a variety of chefs, environmentalists and families collaborate to put on the festivals.\nOne particular group from last weekend's event was the "Jersey Boys," a hip-hop/break dance team that awed the crowd with routines to the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow," and other popular numbers. HOPE Community Center Director Josh Bare said these community events "give people the stage to show off their talent."\nTwo members of the "Jersey Boys," Tahj "Showoff" Brookins and younger brother Shadee "Shine," have been dancing since they were little and although they recently moved to the area, the brothers have joined several other dancers to perform at local events to become a part of the Charlottesville community.\nIn the midst of the melting pot of community members and organizations at "Meet Your Neighbor," it is almost hard to tell who is homeless and who is not. The idea that homelessness is simply the man on the Corner asking for your change is lost here. What Trent and others hope is that University students will take the time to become acquainted with those around them, including the homeless they might not see everyday.\n"When people become passionate about those in need around them and develop a vision for how they specifically can give back, the opportunities are endless and hope can thrive," he said.
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