Carson's Story
Carson Kekoa Dipo is taking a whopping 25 credits this quarter at Eastern Washington University, where he is working on a Communications degree. He also waits tables to pay the bills. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Carson is a modest person (so he’d never tell you so) but on most Saturdays—rain or shine—you can find him helping a friend or neighbor. You might find him taking a disabled neighbor to a movie or shoveling snow for an elderly couple across the street. Whether he’s helping a widow from church keep her yard looking nice or loading boxes as he helps a family move—it’s all in a day’s work for Carson.
Carson is Mormon—a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and serving others is a big part of his faith. It’s a habit he developed at a young age. He has held many volunteer leadership positions in his church and in the process of earning his Eagle Scout he completed dozens of service projects in his teenage years, including a book drive for kids that he coordinated himself.
Carson is the kind of guy who is always ready to give of himself. He’s never off duty from doing good. “There’s always something good to do,” he says when asked what he does when he’s not volunteering. “Even if it’s just giving blood.”
Maybe that’s why Carson was drawn to a class called “Communication, Community & Citizenship.” The course, designed by EWU profession Heather Robinson, is intended to help students develop critical thinking skills while finding a public voice that will help them advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves.
“The class explores how we perceive other people in our community,” explains Carson. “It’s about how we can work positively with marginalized populations by using our communication skills to give them a voice.”
In the past, Professor Robinson had trouble finding good service learning opportunities for male students. When she heard about Flaherty House—where formerly homeless young men (ages 18-21) live in a three-bedroom house as they prepare to live successfully on their own—it seemed like the perfect fit.
“I was excited to have these students get involved. But only if they could really put in the time and get to know the boys,” says Collen Perron who runs Flaherty House.
“These young men aren’t just trying to overcome homelessness. Some have just come out of the foster system, others are battling addiction or dealing with major family conflict. This needs to be a safe, supportive, consistent place for them.”
Typically, volunteers at Flaherty House have a background in social work or psychology. Yet, Colleen was a communication student herself.
“There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t use communication in this program,” laughs Colleen. So a partnership was formed on a trial basis—to see if Professor Robinson’s students could both meet the requirements of the class and also enrich the lives of the clients at Flaherty House.
“I definitely felt some pressure,” says Carson. “Knowing that if I made this work, my classmates and I might be just the first in what could be a really good partnership. So, I wanted to make a good impression.”
Carson first reported to Flaherty House on a cold winter afternoon. When he knocked on the door, a young man answered and quickly welcomed him into the house. Inside, he introduced himself as Smitty, the current intern at the program, and walked Carson into the living room.
Something smelled great. Through the doorway, Carson could see a woman in the kitchen, leading a group of young men (none of them much younger than himself) in making dinner. Smitty and Carson chatted politely for a few minutes until the woman emerged from the kitchen.
Wiping her hands with a kitchen towel, she stretched her hand out to Carson in greeting.
“Hi, I’m Colleen. Welcome to Flaherty House.”
The woman was Colleen Perron, director of Flaherty House. She turned to give the group in the kitchen a few more instructions and then invited Carson into her office. She offered him a chair and closed the door.
She explained the basics of Flaherty House—the program provides a home environment for homeless young men between the ages of 18 and 22.
“You’ll be working with young men who have experienced sexual abuse, domestic violence and abandonment issues. Most of them have had run ins with the law,” explained Colleen. “But they are here to find their strengths and to overcome those barriers—so they can get an education, a job, an apartment of their own.”
She explained what is required of the boys living there—school, work, chores, meeting with a case manager—and that his job as a volunteer would be hanging out at the house a few hours a week—helping with independent living classes or dinner or cleaning as he hung out with the guys.
But she also warned Carson that the boys often put up a pretty defensive attitude with new people. Especially if they think he’s just there to fulfill a class assignment.
“Colleen was very diplomatic about everything,” recalls Carson. “She was kind and welcoming. But at the end of the talk, she kept giving me a chance to back out if I’d like to.”
And most people as busy as Carson might have walked away.
Although he felt apprehensive about how the boys would react to him, Carson told Colleen he was committed to volunteering at Flaherty House.
“We went out into the kitchen where she introduced me to all the boys,” says Carson. “The next thing I knew we were all sitting around the table and they were asking me about college and telling me their personal stories. They opened up pretty immediately.”
As a communication student, Carson sees the need for listening to the young men’s stories. “It didn’t take long to see that they just want to be heard. Even if it's just talking about a job they applied for or a school application they filled out. They need people to share these positive things with.”
In the following weeks and months, Carson spent a lot of time at Flaherty House. In fact, he spent way more time than the 20 hours required for the class. The time included lots of chatting and sharing stories with the boys. They watched movies or went to NorthTown Mall to play pool. On one of the first warm days of the year he helped the boys clean up the Flaherty House yard. One night, one of the boys from Louisiana taught Carson how to make Gumbo. Another boy taught him how to skateboard.
In the short time Carson has been volunteering at Flaherty House he has seen one young man get kicked out, another move in and another finally get on his feet and move into his own place.
“It has been such a good opportunity to see changes—most of them positive. I got to see one kid move out on his own. And I have met many former clients who have successful gone through the program and now live independently on their own. They still stop by to see Colleen and other staff members,” Carson says. “It’s good to see the former clients that have benefited from Flaherty’s. You can see that the program works.”
During his first few weeks at Flaherty House, Colleen lent Carson books about street culture and working with homeless youth. The philosophies he read piqued his interest even more in this young male population.
“My view before was that homeless youth were homeless just because they didn’t want to live by their parents’ rules, they didn’t want a job, or they were just being lazy,” says Carson. “The boys at Flaherty shared with me their experiences of homelessness—about the hunger, fear, and excruciating boredom that comes with living on the streets” These were aspects of homelessness Carson had never thought about before.
“It’s sad to see the stacks and stacks of applications of clients looking to get into the Flaherty House program. It shows how unaware our society is on the need that exists for this demographic since there is no shortage of clients looking to get in and only one Flaherty House in the area,” says Carson.
“Looking back, I can see how inaccurate my perception of street youth really was before I volunteered at Flaherty House. Now, I can think, ‘who in their right mind would really choose to be homeless?’”
“Really, the hardest part of volunteering here is when I have to leave,” says Carson. “It pulls at my heart to see some of the clients struggling with depression or the uncertainty of what comes next in life after Flaherty’s or lacking family support. And yet, at the end of the day I have the privilege of leaving all that. The guys there don’t have the option of walking away from it.”
He is quick to admit his volunteer work there does not leave him feeling depressed though, just grateful for what he does have in his own life.
For his final project for Professor Robinson’s class, Carson made a video about Flaherty House. The boys and Colleen helped him by agreeing to be interviewed and helping him shoot the project. With the approval of Colleen and the boys, he showed it to the rest of his class and the video will soon be used on Facebook and YouTube to educate people about the program and recruit new volunteers.
There are currently three new communication students volunteering from Professor Robinson’s class. And Carson still comes to Flaherty House once a week even though he finished the class long ago.
“I’m just glad to know my work here kept the door open for future volunteers.”