Kicks Challenge #1 -How it went

Well, we took on the first Kicks Challenge with gusto, but it turned out to go a bit differently than we’d envisioned. This is a learning process and I’m not sure if the whole idea of a “Kicks Challenge” is misguided, or if the expectation that people will actually try them along with us is unreasonable, but it is worth trying in order to have a little fun and incorporate a good lesson for a child with an outside-of-the-box leaning experience.

I wasn’t sure if Shawn, my girlfriend’s 4-year-old son, was old enough to understand the concept of ‘being without home’ and frankly wasn’t sure if it was even an appropriate subject to approach with such a young person. This challenge was really designed more for kids 10 years old and up who are able to grasp the concept and become motivated to get involved in a community project.

So, we approached the subject delicately and didn’t make the lesson too intense. The point of this was not to be scary or uncomfortable or even mimicking a homeless way of life- it was really just an excuse to engage kids in an environment free of distraction. A way to separate your family from the television and the ipod, from work and videogames and computer/technology to spend quality time as a family talking about all that you have to be thankful for and come up with ideas for getting involved in helping your community.

I brought along activities and books and photos and facts, but as the night drew on that turned out not to be the focus. Instead we talked about what makes a house a home (the house or the people inside the house) and what sorts of dangers could cause someone to become homeless (storms, playing with matches). It was a good learning experience for everyone involved and certainly made us all appreciate that we had a home to retreat to the next night.

A few of you emailed me and expressed some questions as to the point of all this. “How is sleeping outside for one night supposed to help anyone?” someone wrote, “it’s not even like you’re sleeping on the streets, certainly not anything like what a homeless person actually experiences.”

This is true, on both accounts. I understand your questions of legitimacy, and truly appreciate the feedback. In order to understand the experiment, we need to first step outside of it and understand its purpose. The point is not to make your child feel what it is like to be homeless, that’s impossible to do and would be counter productive. Nor is the point to scare him or make him suffer in any way, on the contrary this was a fun and exciting event that he will no doubt remember with positive recollection when he grows up. The purpose was to create an opportunity to talk with loved ones without the distraction of the home.

It created the setting for a distraction free environment to talk about something that isn’t taught in schools: community involvement. You can go to school to be a scientist or a mathematician, or an engineer or a doctor or a lawyer; hell you can even go to school to become a basketball player- but nowhere in the curriculum is there reference to community involvement and youth leadership.

What we are trying to do with these Kicks Challenges is create a lesson with a fun ‘field trip’, or ‘challenge’ or ‘dare’ or whatever, to get kids excited about getting involved in the community and become leaders of change. It’s the same thing we do on Kicks Projects in other countries except instead of issuing a “Challenge”, we use a soccer ball.

I hope that you all found this Kicks Challenge worthwhile, even if participation was vicarious. Any and all feedback is welcome; please help us to make these challenges as effective as possible.

Thanks for participating and be sure to check in on July 1st for next month’s challenge!