Over the past few months, the X Committee has continued to confirm its voice and power in the community.
For those who don’t know of this group, the X Committee defines themselves as of, by, and for the homeless. They work to create systems change while at the same time taking on tangible projects that improve the lives of the homeless community at large. Essentially, they help others help themselves.
In terms of community grassroots organizing, the X Committee has become well established in the St. Paul community. Over time, and specifically in recent months, members have seen tremendous growth of the organization occurring right before their eyes and continue to envision ambitious goals for the future.
In the last three months, about twenty-five new lockers have been built by members of the X Committee at The Family Place in downtown St. Paul, where ten lockers had been built previously, and the Payne Avenue Salvation Army.
At the latter project the group assembled twenty lockers in all — eight bench style and twelve stacked. This project proved to be more complicated than other projects in the past because the lockers were customized to what was needed at the facility.
The Storage Locker Project attempts to address the barriers that hinder stability and foster frustration for people in the homeless population. The goal is to provide people experiencing homelessness with space to store their belongings. In addition, lockers have proven to be necessary places for one’s possessions when hunting for jobs or looking for housing.
The X Committee’s Speaker’s Bureau has started to grow tremendously. A few key members have been working on creative ways to be influential and make a lasting impression through this program. As of now, the focus is on ways to reach out to diverse communities and how to get the community more involved in combating homelessness.
The group has spoken at a number of colleges in the area and hopes to become more connected to various congregations and social justice groups. They anticipate that through personal stories and active discussions about homelessness, the X Committee will create awareness on the issue that will illicit action on the part of our audience.
In the future, the Speaker’s Bureau plans to create some sort of resource guide that details how people can get more involved with helping the homeless community and The X Committee. They are also exploring ways to team up with college students to produce a documentary focused on homelessness that can be used when visiting different community groups.
Perhaps one of the most exciting upcoming ventures of the X Committee is the search for office space. The X Committee was recently awarded a grant from the Self-Development of People fund through the Presbyterian Church.
This grant is awarded to groups that are oppressed by poverty or social systems, want to take charge of their own lives, have organized or are organizing to do something about their own conditions, undertake ventures that produce long-term changes, and control the programs they own and will benefit from them directly.
The X Committee was a perfect fit! They were chosen to receive this grant and plan to use the money to develop their organization and fund office space, which will be primarily used for program operations and small subcommittee meetings.
As an added bonus, the attempt to secure space has opened up an opportunity for new members to step up as leaders and rise to the challenge.
Outlined here are just a few of the activities currently occupying the X Committee. The group has certainly become a solid influence in the community and is now attempting to map out their future goals.
“One thing is for sure,” said Doug Fountain, current chair of the group. “The X Committee is in a powerful mode. We are trying to move forward with confronting issues of homelessness. We want to be heard.”