CWRU Hosting Sock Drive

Socks from Spartans and Common Reading Program

The Students at Case Western Reserve University, as part of 2011 orientation, are doing a Common Reading Program with the book Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel. Professor Sandel teaches government at Harvard, and will speak at the Fall Convocation on Wednesday August 31 at Severance Hall regarding justice issues. As part of this presentation and orientation programming, students are collecting new socks to distribute in the Cleveland shelters and to those resistant to shelter in the area as a sign of their commitment to justice. NEOCH has put together a section of our website to assist the students with local resources. There are links all over our website to this page www.neoch.org/cwru.htm.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, one of the leading social justice organizations in the community, is partnering with CWRU and the "Socks from Spartans" program to assist with the distribution of this vital resource in the homeless community. NEOCH will also act as a springboard for discussion about issues of justice in the area of housing and homelessness. The Coalition for the Homeless has year round volunteer opportunities or internships for students, information about homelessness/social justice and we also have developed ways to weave the knowledge learned during orientation into the day to day college experience while working on solutions to big community problems. The Justice Harvard website has recent interviews with Professor Sandel and a discussion section.

NEOCH have already begun distributing the socks. Yesterday we took a large bag over to the Cosgrove Center to distribute. Thanks to the students for all their help. There is nothing like putting on a new pair of socks especially after having to walk all day interviewing for jobs, trying to find food, and looking for housing in the community. We would be interested in hearing from CWRU students about the orientation, about the book Justice:What's the Right Thing to Do? or about the collection of items to distribute to homeless people in the comments section.

Brian Davis
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