On Saturday, February 21 a group of about 30 people from five parishes and the surrounding neighborhood gathered at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York City for the first Cabrini Cares Day. The topic was helping the homeless. Pietro Bartoli of the Community of Sant’Egidio spoke about the scope of the housing problem in New York, its causes, and how everyday people can engage those who are, in his words, “Having the worst day of their life almost every day.”

Questions flew almost as fast as practical tips and ideas. Pietro noted that the most important thing we can do is to live up to our Christian calling to look at each person as a human being. “Yours may be the only smile that person receives all day,” he said. Tips offered by other participants included:
• If you offer someone a granola bar and they refuse, don’t be offended. You wouldn’t take it personally if you offered a friend food and they said no. And you don’t know if the person has already eaten ten granola bars in the past two days.
• Set yourself a policy on how you’re going to handle requests and stick to it. That way you’re not faced with a decision (and temptation) every time you’re asked.
• If you choose to give money, do it without strings or judgment attached.

At the close of the session participants put together 100 hygiene kits and 100 warming kits. Everyone took as many kits as they thought they could hand out. The remainder were given to the Community of Sant’Egidio, which does outreach to the homeless twice a week.

The group will meet again to do role-playing on how to engage the homeless, and to create additional kits.