Traveling museum brings awareness and hope

At first glance, Catholic Charities USA’s traveling People of Hope Museum – parked outside the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland June 3 – looks like little more than a semi-truck lined with video screens and images of people waiting to share their stories.

But step inside and touch one of those screens and a world opens up: statistics about homelessness in every state, data on average credit card debt and real-life accounts from both volunteers and people whose lives have been changed by Catholic Charities USA’s services.

“People have been extremely moved,” said Andy Wayne, director of communications for Catholic Charities of Baltimore. “The goal is not just to learn, not just to emphasize, but to inspire action.”

The interactive museum visited Baltimore for two days, June 2 and 3, as part of a three-year journey across the United States. This year’s route covers the eastern half of the country; next year the western half; and in 2028, the museum will return to communities it missed or that requested a second visit.

“It is an opportunity for Catholic Charities to highlight who we are and what we do,” Wayne said.

Nearly 200 people attended between the two days the museum was at the cathedral, he said. Among them the following day was Chuck Breschi, visiting with a men’s group from Church of the Nativity in Timonium.

“I thought the interaction was just amazing, bringing everything to life and not just reading stories,” Breschi said, adding that he came away with a deeper understanding of homelessness and poverty.

Retired Catholic Charities USA board member Neal Black, who helped shape the museum’s concept, said he believes “poverty is misunderstood” and that the exhibit helps correct that. One of its centerpieces is a poverty simulator in which participants take on the role of a single mother, a senior citizen, a former convict and others, confronting the difficult choices that come with a limited budget: pay the bills, feed the family or buy necessary medicine.

“This helps you understand all the different types of poverty,” Black said.

Kelly Anderson, director of Sarah’s House – an emergency shelter run by Catholic Charities of Baltimore – found the simulator hitting close to home as she worked through questions about choosing between rent and food.

“This feels like my job,” she said. “It is such a tangled web. If you don’t pay credit cards, your credit score drops and you are no longer qualified for so many things. Such difficult decisions. Anything you pick has consequences.”

For Wayne, that sense of recognition is exactly the point.

“This gives a deeper understanding,” he said. “Maybe it makes people think a little more about what people are going through and how to help.”

For the traveling museum’s tour itinerary, visit peopleofhope.us/tour-stops.

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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