UNE School of Social Work project explores why people ‘fly signs’ in medians
University of New England School of Social Work student Katy Finch and Professor Thomas McLaughlin, M.S.W., Ph.D., are working on a project that delves into the reasons people stand on medians or along the street holding signs and asking for money.
Finch and McLaughlin spent three days in January 2017 interviewing people engaging in this practice, known as “flying a sign.” Finch wrote about the process in a “Maine Voices” piece in the Portland Press Herald titled, “For those standing on the median, ‘flying a sign’ is an exercise in humility.”
Those interviewed shared what they used the money for, how it felt to fly a sign and what circumstances led them to do it. “The experience of standing on the median or sidewalk with a cardboard sign and asking for money is a degrading one,” Finch wrote. “When we asked them ‘Have you ever had to ask for money?’ most of the people on the street said they had, and that it was hard. During the interviews, we heard passers-by yelling ‘Get a job!’ which only adds to the humiliation.”