Gradual at first. Then, oh so obvious. Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College senior Skyla Turner began noticing people apparently living on the streets of Tifton, an issue that she also saw in her hometown of Blakely and in Dothan, Ala., where her family now resides. Then, she turned her concern into action.

That was the impetus for the ABAC Homelessness Project, which became an official ABAC organization in May. The purpose of the group is simple – to promote awareness about homelessness among ABAC students and to contribute to resources already available to those in need.

“After seeing it, really everywhere, I became more aware of the problem,” Turner said. “And through education, I became more understanding. I think it’s easy for some people to say that people are homeless because of something they’ve done or bad choices they made. That's not always the case."

Turner, a Writing and Communication major who plans to graduate in December, was also moved to action by a couple of course assignments. She studied the book, “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,” about the phenomenon of older Americans who lived transient lives following seasonal work. In another class, she researched news articles about the subject which increased her knowledge base.

After Turner began discussing the issue with ABAC students who shared her passion, they began working on small projects to help other organizations. Volunteers set up a table outside of ABAC’s John Hunt Town Center with items from the school’s food pantry and clothing closet along with information pamphlets about the resource that she feels too few students are even aware that it exists. The group continued to meet informally before deciding to become an official organization in the spring.

“At first, I was a little hesitant to do that because I thought it would be a lot of red tape and would limit what we could do,” she said. “But one of our members approached Dr. (John) Cable about being our advisor and he agreed immediately. It has been a good thing.”

On Nov. 7, the group will make a presentation at a Tifton City Council workshop, and Turner plans to discuss ideas that ABAC students have to make a difference going forward. The group has been working with City Councilman M. Jay Hall to help assess the problem locally and discuss ways they can work together.

“They have a lot of good ideas, and there are some things that we can help each other with,” Hall said. “Our first responders are usually the ones that come into contact with that population the most, and we’re working on cards to give them that has information about shelters, services that are offered locally, and agencies that can assist them.

“We’ve been working on ideas for a little while now and really, I just wanted them to introduce themselves to the Council and the community.”

Also, as a part of Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, ABAC students will host a “Camp Out for the Homeless” on Nov. 17 at the college’s intramural recreation fields.

“We just want to let people know what we’re doing and raise some awareness,” Turner said. “The poverty rate all across this area is high so there are a lot of people who aren’t that far away from being homeless if something were to happen to them. We just wanted to do something to help.”

For more information on the ABAC Homelessness Project, interested persons can email [email protected] .