Opinion | Audra McDonald: Every homeless child is more than a statistic. Our treatment of them matters. - NBCNewsTHINK
I walked down to the Covenant House in between my matinee and evening performance on one Saturday to give them a check. But when I walked in, there were only two security guards there and they said,"Well, it's the weekend, so we don't have anyone on staff that could take a check from you. Our weekend staff is just with the kids here, but we'll look around and see what we can find.
And as they were making some calls and chatting with me, a young kid came in. He looked a little disheveled, and he had a trash bag that had a few items in it, I guess. And the two security guards who had been chatting with me in a lighthearted way suddenly jumped into action, as if they became Batman and Robin. They said to him,"Hey man, it's OK, we got you. Why don't you come over here, come sit down.
That's what the Covenant House does. It starts with the immediate sort of triage of,"What do we need to get you safe and healthy?" And then, from there, we can get them into a Rite of Passage Program where they have apartments or housing with us, we get them job training, we help them finish their high school diplomas, we have Moms and Babies to take care of a lot of these kids who have kids of their own.
A lot of people, especially in places like New York or San Francisco, they are judgmental or rude when they see homeless people or disheveled kids on the street. But it makes such a difference to people to just be treated with respect. The Covenant House president, Kevin Ryan, says all the time that the least interesting thing about these kids is that they are homeless. They are remarkable souls, each and every one of them — diamonds that have just been discarded for whatever reason.
You have to see the soul and see the whole person, and not just say,"This is just another statistic," feed a kid and wash your hands off them. Everyone is worthy. Everyone matters. They are who they are, and it's a beautiful, wonderful thing. As a society, we need everyone to find out all that they are, and achieve all of that potential that they have.Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winner Audra McDonald serves on Covenant House International Board of Directors.
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