Metro Center Association's "Welcome Home" program brought lively residents from the Friends of the Homeless shelter and housed neighbors to visit the Springfield Museum of Science. physical tour of the museum’s habitat section followed a virtual tour of the universe in the Seymour Planetarium. The habitat hike sparked a robust social connection between unhoused and housed neighbors – walking, talking, picture-taking, and sharing personal experiences with real flora and fauna.

Contact with the guests at Friends of the Homeless on Worthington Stree uplifts all residents and creates community as we enjoy our shared humanity. Residents living in houses have unique opportunities to learn that unhoused neighbors do not fit into one essentializing and alienating stereotype. The lives of the unhoused are enriched by being included and welcomed into cultural activities, not marginalized as has too often been the case.