PHOENIX - Sorting Fridays is an event intended to aid those experiencing homelessness with clothes, shoes, and toiletries. Project Humanities holds the event at the ASU Community Services Building.

A consistent group of interconnected, in some cases generational, volunteers attend the event every Friday. The rooms within Project Humaities’s space are set with a specific purpose: there is the women's room, the men’s room, the underwear room, the shoe room and the toiletries room.

Donations are welcomed and sorted between the event time, 2 - 4 p.m. Within these donations there are demands or critical needs that must be met, at the current time they are tampons and men and women' shorts.

Needs for these items are constantly in high demand for homeless persons. When donations are low, items are bought from GoodWill with the organization's funds to meet this demand.

Sorting Fridays feeds into the Service Saturdays event that occurs every two weeks. Selected inventory, racked and binned, are taken on 12th Avenue in Phoenix where the event is held.

“Talking, listening, and connecting,” is the hallmark of Project Humanities, said Founding Director Neal Lester. Project Humanities is based on programming and critical conversations. 

According to organizers, Project Humanities and organizations who cater to those experiencing homelessness have received continuous disapproval of city representatives. The City of Phoenix, through law enforcement, have threatened these organizations with tickets and arrests.

Just last week, on August 28, Sophia Dancel, a volunteer for Unsheltered PHX, was pinned down and arrested while providing aid to the homeless in a Phoenix encampment called the “The Zone.”

The Phoenix Police Department has what was described by some as animosity towards those who aid unsheltered persons. Officers have been seen by organizers aiding homeless persons sitting and watching volunteers, waiting to ticket them.

 Organizations, like Project Humanities, will continue to persist in their effort assisting those who are unsheltered. “It’s about just being present in the community in which you are helping to serve,” said Santiago Griffin Todd, a political science major.

Sorting Fridays and Service Saturdays provide an extension of humanity for those who are unsheltered, explained Lester. Clients who attend the event are often helped by volunteers acting as one-on-one shoppers. 

“I think there's a certain kind of dignity when people can make choices and choose what they want. So there's sort of a community that has been created. We know who comes back regularly”, said Lester.

Attendance for Service Saturdays can range from 100 to 250 clients. Clients claim a ticket to the event that allows them to get a set amount of items and toiletries. 

Jane Nesdill, a volunteer at Project Humanities for a year, explained knowledge of the recurring event is spread through word of mouth. “Clients spread the word are the ones, they tell each other. It has really grown,” said Nesdill.

Both events are a privilege for the volunteers and clients. There is a mutual appreciation and gratitude shared that has created a community. Most everyone involved keeps coming back, said by members of Project Humanities.

“It’s definitely a joyful experience,” said Todd, “but it’s very human.”

- Interview Conducted by Claire Le Gallo, a Student Reporter at Cronkite