By: Zoe Melnyk
As children, we’re taught that anything is possible and that if you work hard enough and if you dream big enough, you can achieve anything.
If you ask a classroom of elementary school kids what they want to be when they grow up, you would probably find a plethora of answers: doctor, teacher, president, veterinarian, dancer, etc. Personally, when I was asked that question in third grade my answer was a dog rescuer.
We nurture children’s imaginations and tell them to reach for the stars and then right around high school we basically chop off their arms and tell them that now the most important thing is money.
You can’t be a dancer are you kidding? Who’s going to pay the bills?
Suddenly dreams are shattered and new “goals” are put into place. First, you have to get into a good school. Then, you need to pick a good major because once you graduate with $50,000 of debt you’re going to need a high paying job to pay that off. Whether you like the job or not doesn’t really matter because you just really need the money to support your average $30,000 wedding, your mortgage, and 2.1 kids that also want to go off to college.
It’s a vicious cycle and it’s a daunting path that seems inevitable when you see literally everyone around you following in its discouraging footsteps.
However, every once in a while, there is a flicker of hope that restores just a little bit of faith in humanity, and in yourself. A recent example of this is Social Bite.
Social Bite is a business in Scotland but surprisingly enough, the main goal is not to become rich. The main goal of the business is to help homeless people by giving them the resources they desperately need to get back on their feet.
Originally, the idea began as a coffee shop that hired the homeless as their employees. However, after receiving large amounts of support from the community and even celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney, they’ve decided to expand their business into making a “homeless village.”
The plan is to build ten different eco-friendly homes near a town called Granton, just north of Edinburgh next year. Each home will cost roughly £30,000 to build according to Tiny House Scotland.
The “village” will host around 20 people for a year, offering useful resources such as counseling, and budgeting advice to help rehabilitate the residents and give them the necessary tools to enter back into the “real world.”
“The Social Bite Village plan hopes to create a full-circle solution to the issue of homelessness – from housing to support to employment.” According to the firm’s co-founder Josh Littlejohn.
What a thought, instead of focusing on the money, this business is focusing on helping people that need support the most.
