A Journey of Dignity

Lynne Collins-Prillerman knows all too well what it’s like: The lack of self respect. The sense of shame and failure. The dehumanization and degradation. Being treated like you’re dirt – or worse, like you’re invisible.

“Experiencing homelessness personally is a loss of self and a loss of humanity,” she says. She also knows what it means to regain that sense of dignity. “Having experienced homelessness and now having transitioned to a place of being a homeowner, dignity for me is about having a sense of self and being true to who you are as a human being.”

In her work as a staff member of our Outreach Coordination Center, she is grateful for the opportunity to give back what was given to her. “It gives me an ongoing sense of purpose and helps to keep my dignity intact.”

We have chosen for our theme during this special anniversary year “Journey Home: Celebrating 25 Years of Dignity, Community, and Transformation.” The taproot of everything we do at Project HOME is what we call in our mission statement “our strong spiritual conviction of the dignity of each person.”  It infused our earliest outreach to people on the streets and our first shelters and residences, and today, that commitment continues to inspire every member of our community, in all of our many residences and programs. 

The affirmation of dignity has a healing, therapeutic quality. It is a balm to the dehumanization that often accompanies homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Even many agencies and shelters purportedly seeking to help can send subtle signals that contribute to the degrading of a person’s dignity (which is why some persons choose on a given night to remain on the streets).

It is gratifying to hear, after so many years, when residents talk of how they immediately felt they were treated differently when they first came into Project HOME. They frequently acknowledge the long, hard struggle to regain self-respect – and claim that the affirmation of dignity is one of the most important things they get from their experience of Project HOME.  But dignity is far more than an ingredient in a recipe to overcome homelessness – it is something we all need.

“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen,” writes author Laura Hillenbrand. “The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man’s soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.” We have learned that it is not a matter of privileged and well-intentioned do-gooders affirming the dignity of poor and homeless folks – it is about discovering common dignity. 

As our Executive Director Sister Mary Scullion told the graduating class of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice last May, “Our experience at Project HOME is that even in the most devastated lives, the fundamental dignity of the human spirit persists. And as we touch that spark of human dignity in those who are battered by their circumstances, we come to know our own dignity, and even our own brokenness and communal strength in a new way.”

We also believe that the affirmation of a core, inviolable dignity in each person represents a fundamental challenge to some of our deepest societal values. We live in a culture that often bases people’s value on materialism and false externals. We are seduced by a subtle meritocracy that elevates some who are deemed wealthy, beautiful, productive, powerful – and marginalizes those who fail to live up to these illusory standards.  On a daily basis, Lynne Collins-Prillerman lives out that deeper meaning of dignity, and works to help those still on the streets find that spark within themselves. 

“When I can help someone gain that sense of self again, it reminds me of how grateful I am. When you can watch someone else transform his or her life, it lets you know that you are fulfilling your purpose in life.”

The Journey Home we have been taking these past 25 years is one in which we are learning to be free of false notions of worth. We continue to experience the delight and freedom that come when we touch that genuine core of dignity within ourselves and in each other. That is a journey worth continuing.