Why were animal lovers from the Humane Society University, a Deputy Police Chief from Alexandria, Virginia, advocates for domestic violence victims, a gay men’s rights activist and a torture survivor from Ethiopia all gathered at TWC the morning of December 18th? They were enjoying a delicious breakfast and celebrating their partnerships with TWC’s Civic Engagement Projects on:

When Amélie Godefroid first arrived in Washington from Kortrijk, Belgium, she remembers being shocked by the number of homeless people she saw on the streets. “Homelessness is much more hidden in Belgium,” she observed. “I wanted to join the Homelessness Civic Engagement Project to learn about homelessness in the U.S., and to become an advocate for homeless children.”

The Homelessness Civic Engagement Project welcomed the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) to TWC's Residential Academic Facility on July 9th. NCH discussed attacks on the homeless throughout the United States and encouraged students to support H.R. 3528, also known as the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, which would include attacks against the homeless as a hate crime.