Many established social service agencies have long embraced the notion that the community must divine new methods of dealing with homelessness. The group began to meet every Friday to design and paint a mural that now livens up the RAPP headquarters on Toole Avenue. At the completion of the mural the Union saw the first flowering of its beliefs in people like Bob Simons. Simons was a Vietnam veteran whose struggle with drug addiction and manic depression left him chronically homeless. Simons credits his art apprenticeship as the impetus for his recovery.
Volunteers prepare beds for herbal and vegetable gardens.
I started to document the whole thing, because things were changing all the time in me. They feel that the community must instead provide an environment in which learning can evolve. Simons is adamant that the opportunity to make art ignited something that traditional programs were not able to spark in him. I started investing in it. The art got me involved with people, and now I'm teaching art classes.