Self-advocacy Class

United States
June 17, 2010 7:53pm CST
A few years ago my daughter and I found ourselves temporarily homeless and staying in a homeless shelter run by the Saint Vincent DePaul Society. They were a little irritating because they assumed that if you were homeless you lacked the skills to care for yourself. They required all residents to take one of their "classes". They offered two classes: Parenting and "Self-Advocacy". Since my daughter was over 10, I did not qualify for their parenting class and was summarily summoned to the self-advocacy class. I didn't see the point. I was not going to be there more than a few weeks, but I was a good girl and did what I was told I had to do. There were a wide range of different people in this class, most of which smoked and drank, some did drugs and used foul language. Now, I am for the most part tolerant but when someone starts using language that is sexually assaulting, I put my foot down. There was one lady there who started using such language. I told her point blank that if she used that word again, I would leave. I had asked her politely a couple of times not to use that word around me and she apologized, then two minutes later she was using it again. I gave her three chances, then got up and walked out of the class. The next week the same thing happened and I walked out again. The next day the manager of the shelter came to me and informed me that I didn't need to go to that class again. I guess they decided I already knew how to advocate for myself, after all. I could have told them that! LOL ;-D
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