Materials for Activity

• Refrigerator box or another large, cardboard appliance box
• Utility knife
• Colored paper, markers, and tape or glue sticks

Preparation for Activity

• Arrange a place in your congregation to display the finished "box home" at your congregation.
• Research homelessness in your area: the number of people without homes, the percentage of the homeless who receive services, how many children are homeless, how many families are housed in cars or other shelters. Prepare a fact sheet for participants' reference so they can decorate the box with information about homelessness. See the Find Out More section to start an online information search.
• Arrange for the group to have access to the Internet or provide relevant, printed materials so participants can gather additional facts.
• Use a utility knife to cut a door in the cardboard box, to suggest a house.

Description of Activity

Participants will work together to raise awareness in your congregation about homelessness. Decorating a "box home" with information about homelessness highlights the fact that some people have nothing more than a box to live in.

Distribute paper, fact sheets, and markers at work tables. Suggest participants choose facts you have gathered, rewrite them on the colored paper, cut the paper into shapes, and glue or tape the paper to the box. If you have Internet access or other resource materials, invite some participants to find some additional facts.

Participants may also wish to write messages such as "What if this were all the home you had?" to draw attention to the needs of homeless people.

When the box home is completed, display it in a prominent location in your congregation.