Aim (what for?)

Group (whom for?)

The facilitator tells the story of family Miller:

"Imaging in a house live Mr. and Mrs. Miller with their 20 year old son David. The family lives quite happily together in this house. One day a bad accident happens and father and mother Miller loose their lives. David inherits the house of his family and lives a single and satisfied life, until one day David looses his job. David is no longer able to afford the live in the big house by himself. With his last money he decides to split the house into separate apartments and puts them up "for rent" in the newspaper. There is also a garage apartment, separated from the house."

Now, imagine you are David and that you have to choose five tenants from the list of people applying to your add, in order to be able to keep the house.

Task for the participants:

1. GROUP in group of 5 to 6 persons choose 5 tenants that the whole group agrees on (approx. 20 min.)
2. GROUP – Choose the 5 bottom applicants or applicants that could not live there.

1. DEBRIEFING
   - Has the group found 5 common tenants? Yes /No? Why (not)?
   - How did the group work together to find those common tenants?

• Who will live in the garage apartment?
• What was difficult, what was easy?
• Discuss the reasons why you decided for these persons.
  

This exercise shows very well the impact of prejudices and different pre-conceptions we have about other people. To have no prejudices is almost impossible, the most important is to understand that these are prejudices and that discussions about differences and getting to know people better can change opinions.

Attention!

Source: SALTO-YOUTH

1. A single mother with a 3 year old child whose father is Tunisian. He visits his son occasionally and sometimes bring along a few friends.
2. A Yugoslavian migrant worker family with 5 children between 1 and 12. Father works in steel industry (and makes excellent wages), mother would work to help in managing the apartments since she is home regularly...the children would be in tow.
3. A family with a 17 year old daughter attending 11^th grade at a secondary school. Father is an accountant in a bank, mother is a teacher.
4. A single 70 year old lady living on minimal retirement payment.
5. A group of 7 Spanish-speaking men, all working in the kitchen of a large restaurant and are not concerned with space in their apartment.
6. A group of 5 young people living an alternative life-style rejecting the materialistic ideology of consumption. They smile often and easily, sometimes giggling to themselves.
7. Three Palestinian students who are politically engaged. They have regular political meetings at their home, inviting others like them who become audibly outraged at what they call injustices.
8. A Middle Eastern man who carries many packages in and out of his apartment. He drives a Mercedes Benz and travels often, but will pays his advance when leaving town.
9. An American couple without children. The husband is working at the International Atomic Energy Authority, wife is taking care of the household and 3 poodles.
10. Two artists, approx. 40 years old who live rather a bohemian and unconventional lifestyle and have many artist friends.
11. A girl studying piano and singing opera, who has to practice regularly in the afternoons...not always in tune.
12. A black American with his Austrian girlfriend. She is trying to get work permit as an engineer.
13. A religious Muslim family, which lives strictly according to the Koran, the mother leaving the house only veiled. The children are not allowed to talk to other children in the apartment complex.
14. A gay man who’s single, but invites a lot of men during the week in his apartment.
15. A young man, he’s a wheelchair user and lives with his 76 years old mother. The mother is extremely verbal in the care of her son and points out every single injustice that cause a "person with special abilities" challenges. She insists that his apartment be altered, causing the major remodeling plans.
16. A girl, who is blind, she lives alone with her dog.
17. A man who has a housing recommendation from a substance abuse recovery facility. He was mandated to be there for three weeks and is now on supported-release to find his own housing with funds from the program (paying for 70% of his rent).
18. A 16 year old girl who is legally emancipated because she has two children. She is visited regularly by child protective services (the reason is not known) but the worker sometimes leaves with a child and sometimes arrives bringing a child back.
19. An older man who teaches at the University. He sometimes brings students to his apartment who stay late.
20. A pretty girl who is looking for waitress jobs until her singing career takes off. She is polite and smiles genuinely.
21. A sickly looking man who has a home health caregiver who comes to the apartment. The caregiver smokes often inside the apartment and does not come regularly (and sometimes comes only for a signature, then leaves). When the caregiver does not visit, trash builds up outside the door of his apartment door.
22. A registered sex offender who has proclaimed that he has to go to his group four times a week and attends classes so will not be home to bother other tenants.