William Spalding

THE WELCOME HOME PROJECT is a student started, student driven fundraising and awareness campaign focused on providing financial outreach for Middle Eastern refugees, particularly those of Syrian descent. Our primary goal is to start conversations about the humanitarian crisis by humanizing the issue for those who are disconnected from and unaffected by the crisis. Our financial goal is to raise at least $10,000. We will relaunch the fundraiser if our goal is met. Proceeds will be donated to… Show more

THE WELCOME HOME PROJECT is a student started, student driven fundraising and awareness campaign focused on providing financial outreach for Middle Eastern refugees, particularly those of Syrian descent. Our primary goal is to start conversations about the humanitarian crisis by humanizing the issue for those who are disconnected from and unaffected by the crisis. Our financial goal is to raise at least $10,000. We will relaunch the fundraiser if our goal is met. Proceeds will be donated to IRCO (Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization) to help the refugees in our local communities across the nation. After conducting some interviews and connecting with individuals in our local Middle Eastern community, we produced a small film to highlight the displacement, loss, and hardships caused by the war.

Please watch our film and share it with your friends and family. Encourage them to donate. Talk about the crisis. Spread awareness.

YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS Show less

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Distinguished Honors in Action Project Award (2016)
- Excellence in academic research into honors study topic "Frontiers of Human Expression"
- Demonstrated Leadership Roles, Leadership Development Activities, Service Learning & Collaboration

Partners:
Because People Matter, Portland, OR (previously known as Bridgetown Inc.)
Liberation Street Church, Portland, OR

As the Vice President of the Beta Epsilon Gamma chapter of Phi Theta Kappa… Show more

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Distinguished Honors in Action Project Award (2016)
- Excellence in academic research into honors study topic "Frontiers of Human Expression"
- Demonstrated Leadership Roles, Leadership Development Activities, Service Learning & Collaboration

Partners:
Because People Matter, Portland, OR (previously known as Bridgetown Inc.)
Liberation Street Church, Portland, OR

As the Vice President of the Beta Epsilon Gamma chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, I served as the co-lead project manager and co-writer of our Honors in Action project, 'Wear It Forward'.

The project was researched under the theme "Quests of Human Expression" exploring the Frontiers and the Spirit of Exploration. The project focused on concepts such as enclothed cognition, embodied cognition, and simply 'dressing for success', while also diving into the psychological impacts homelessness has on humans; a lack of dignity, respect, confidence, security, Maslow's, etc.

Through our research, we built a case for empowering humans through clothing and expression by using fashion. Our goal was to build a dignified shopping experience for the houseless community in Portland and help encourage their human expression, their confidence, their dignity, and their motivation and mere ability to pursue opportunities for socio economic advancements, through clothing.

The project was titled 'Wear It Forward'. We quantified our research through a pop-up clothing boutique for the houseless community to have a dignified shopping experience. Instead of a monetary exchange, we handed out cards as 'receipts' that had a list of acts of kindness we kindly requested them to pay the acts forward to their community. These acts required zero monetary resources and encouraged human interaction; listen to your friend, give someone a compliment, show an animal some love, share a story with a friend, etc. Show less