Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Outreach/Identifying Community Needs/R4

4. With an adult sponsor, take an awareness walk of or drive around a specific part of the selected community with the goal in mind of seeing human needs. List all of the needs you see such as yards and public areas that could be cleaned up, litter that could be picked up, lonely or aged people that could be helped, low-income families with children that could be assisted, etc.

This requirement will have to be planned well ahead of its execution. You will need signed permission slips for all the Pathfinders as well as a plan for transportation. Transportation could be as simple as walking around the neighborhood outside your church, or it could mean loading everyone up into vehicles and driving around.

If your club participates in a can collecting drive, you could do your awareness walk as you collect food.

When you are out looking around, here are some things to note:

• Homelessness
  • Tents pitched in public places, in wooded areas along roadsides, etc
  • Disheveled people sitting on park benches, etc
  • People holding signs saying "Homeless" at street corners
  • Panhandlers
• Unattended children
• Houses in disrepair
  • Broken windows
  • Houses needing paint
  • Overgrown lawns
• Litter
• Graffiti
• Unmaintained parks