IMMERSIONS
Students experience what it is to grow relationships through daily engagement, discussion of current issues, and reflection. Immersion experiences put learning in a new light, moving classroom learning into a context that brings the abstract to life.
Learning in the Tenderloin
Immersions include creative arts, including Theater of the Oppressed, with Tenderloin artists as a way to learn about critical issues.
Students from Santa Clara University exercise with neighbors at Boeddeker Park
With a piano, guitars, and percussion instruments of all kinds in the great room of the Fools Court, students often make music as part of just enjoying life in the community.
Immersions include creative arts, including Theater of the Oppressed, with Tenderloin artists as a way to learn about critical issues.
I learned about some causes and effects of drug addiction and homelessness. I still don’t totally understand it, and I hope to grow in that understanding in the future. There are certain parts of immersion that I’m still processing.
St. Ignatius College Prep
Student
2019
Before I came on this immersion, I always thought that people who were poor had just made bad decisions. But now I realize that any of us could end up here, even if we made all the right decisions and worked hard.
College of St. John Student
2016
Faithful Fools collaborates with a variety of educational institutions and programs from high schools to medical schools. We do curriculum development and we offer a limited number of immersions each year.
If you would like to work with us, please email us at fools@faithfulfools.org
How is your wellbeing bound up with ours?
The purpose of immersion experiences with Faithful Fools
is to connect with people whose wellbeing is often disregarded. We asked ourselves, "How is my wellbeing bound up with those living in SROs (single rooms with shared kitchen and bath) and those living on the streets?"
When we spend time getting to know people one by one and learn their stories, we begin to understand that poverty is not a matter of poor choices. When we recognize that there are teachers and single parents whose lives were changed by an illness or a landlord's desire for higher rent, we begin to understand that we are all subject to forces beyond our control. In this process, we explore how our wellbeing is bound up with the man begging on the corner and the teenager seeking warmth in an alcove.
While living or studying in the Tenderloin, groups can participate in activities like these:
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Street Retreats
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Theater of the Oppressed
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Neighborhood Activities
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Harm Reduction Workshops
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Safe Passage
