Yesterday, several members of the Skid Row Running Club participate in a showing of the documentary, Skid Row Marathon at UCSB, benefiting the New Beginnings program there.
It was a packed house with many UCSB students in attendance.
At the beginning of the screening, the moderator, a university professor said something that I found extremely profound, yet obvious. She said, "addiction and homelessness are caused by relationships and they must be healed through relationships."
Although I have intuitively known this from my time in the Skid Row Running Club, I've never heard it summarized so eloquently.
Many students followed up with great questions and one common theme which emerged was the issue of trust.
There were a lot of varied answers and discussions about trust, but it came down to the same basic principle: relationships, good ones.
When dealing with homelessness and addiction, we are often disgusted, embarrassed or look away because we simply don't know what to do.
The answer has always been right up in front of us: engage and form relationships. You will be pleasantly surprised with what you will find.