ASU senior advocates for Tempe’s homeless neighbors

ASU senior Hannah Olsen began working with people experiencing homelessness when she was in seventh grade, going with her mother to volunteer with a local charity in her native Austin, Texas. Olsen volunteered with this organization throughout high school and was later selected to intern there in the summer after her first year of college. This ignited Olsen’s passion for service. 

Upon arriving at ASU, Olsen began looking for other opportunities to help and joined a local outreach group, The Diamond Project, which takes coolers full of food and water to the homeless population on Mill Avenue every Friday.

“It was really fruitful because we were able to meet specific needs because we got to know the people in a very tangible, specific, relational way,” Olsen said.  

ASU Senior Hannah Olsen leads The Diamond Project, a group that aims to help local homeless populations.

By her sophomore year, Olsen became the leader of this group, which she soon began looking to expand. The next year, The Diamond Project was a recipient of Changemaker Central @ ASU’s  Woodside Community Action Grant to host events that would serve homeless populations and bring organizations together to combine service efforts. 

In January 2020, Olsen and her group also participated in the annual Point-in-Time count for Maricopa county. The Point-in-Time count is an annual, government-mandated count that happens in each county all over the country. Volunteers like Olsen go out and gather data about how many unsheltered individuals reside in each county by interviewing them about their experiences and needs. The PIT count helps determine how much government funding each county receives to help its homeless population. 

Olsen and her team not only helped collect data for this year’s count but they also used their grant to put together about 200 hygiene kits to distribute during the event.  

Olsen is currently studying business communication and supply-chain management while minoring in nonprofit leadership management. She believes that change happens systemically, and she hopes to help create change through her efforts in the business world. 

When asked about what her community service involvement means to her personally, Olsen told the story of Jack, a homeless U.S. Army veteran who uses a wheelchair. She regularly encountered Jack while volunteering with The Diamond Project to serve the homeless in downtown Tempe. Over time, she said members of the group befriended Jack. 

“It's a lot for someone out on the streets to learn to trust again, and Jack learned to trust us. We started helping him meet really specific needs, and he started coming to church with us,” Olsen said. 

In addition to providing companionship, the volunteers were able to connect Jack with various resources available to him through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Jack is no longer homeless and was able to get an apartment, perhaps in part because of the help Olsen and her team provided. 

“I kept doing this for people like Jack and the other people I've met on the street and have formed relationships with. I do it for people,” she said.