Design for CHS will kick off the year with Our Streets, Our Stories. This project will help the community view the homeless in a new light, by seeing them socially as equals. According to club sponsor Jan Mitchener, Design for CHS is starting off the year with great enthusiasm and there is a strong importance in participating within the community.

            “With this year being the third year I’ve been a part of this club, I personally think every year just gets better and better in terms of organization and ideas. These students come up with their own projects and sincerely have a passion for helping out the community,” Mitchener said. “I think being involved in the community is good for kids mainly because it’s a great opportunity to open positive channels between students and the society.”

            Our Streets, Our Stories will take place around 1 to 5 p.m. (only lasting for one day), in various homeless shelters, one being the Dayspring Center in downtown Indiana. The club has yet to announce other shelters. There is no currently announced information regarding what day this project will begin on. Design for CHS will contact a variety of homeless shelters across Indiana. The club members will then go and visit a select few to interview a variety of homeless people, asking about their life experiences and what is important to them. After, the interviews will be compiled into a book.  Find further information about this project here. According to senior Vikas Maturi, co-president of Design for CHS, the hope is  as people read the book, they will become more aware of the plight of the homeless and not see them as lesser people.

            “We’re just trying to help give the homeless a voice that everyone can hear,” Maturi said. “This project is going to show people that homeless people are not lesser than others by any means just because they are homeless. We want everyone to know that we must treat them like equals because after all, they’re human beings too.”