Blessings of the Burden: Reflections and Lessons in Helping the Homeless

by Alan R. Burt

In Blessings of the Burden Alan R. Burt shares his heart for people who are homeless. Full of personal stories drawn from almost two decades of firsthand experience working with the homeless, this book is a passionate plea for greater community involvement in confronting the pressing social problem of homelessness.

Unfolding in five parts, Blessings of the Burden includes Burt's own journey from apathy to advocacy, a moving interview with a formerly homeless man who is now the director of an organization that fights homelessness in Cape Cod, Burt's analysis of the fourteen main reasons why homelessness is such a massive problem in America, and an example of how one community developed an innovative and cost-effective approach to helping the homeless among them. Powerful and compelling, Blessings of the Burden will inspire readers to get involved with the homeless and to become advocates for their needs, believing that they can make a difference in their communities.

134 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2013

Reviews

[Sandy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a lot of statistics and studies, this isn't the book for you. However, having already read a lot of those kinds of books on this topic, I found Blessings of the Burden a refreshing change of pace, and very well done. Although it does include some statistics and studies, it is couched in stories--stories of real human beings facing real situations and sharing their very real responses. I found it a refreshing change of pace, and through reading the stories I was able to engage some of the information I'd learned from other sources in a new way. I do think this would be a great first book for someone to read on the topic--a way to grab their attention, humanize and individualize the topic in necessary ways, and then perhaps move them on to other books for further studies into the whys and wherefores. I will be recommending this book to others.