Advocates for homeless in Pinellas pay tribute to 33 who died in 2009 - St. Petersburg Times
Posted using ShareThis
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Forgotten no more
By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
Published Monday, December 21, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAMPA
Their names were typed on little slips of paper and handed out to those who gathered in a downtown park to remember them on one of the coldest nights of the year.
They died homeless in Hillsborough County within the last year. Some could be identified only by a nickname. Others, as John Doe.
Most of their deaths went unnoticed by everyone but the Medical Examiner's Office — until Monday's annual Homeless Persons' Memorial service in the Joe Chillura Courthouse Square.
Some of the people who clutched the slips of paper were family members of those who died. Some were homeless friends. Some were strangers.
They listened to Amazing Grace.
They listened to the words of Billy Daniel of St. John's Episcopal Church: "Remember those whom this ever-moving society has left literally stranded on the side of the road. We are here to rejoin, to regather, to remember all those who have been dismembered from humanity."
Then, they passed around the microphone, and one by one, they read the list.
There was Anthony Chatterton, 40, stabbed in the torso. Roosevelt L. Byrd, 61, trauma to his upper body. Murphy, of an unknown age, beaten to death.
There was an unidentified 63-year-old man, killed by a drunken driver. Melissa Sjostrom, 33, whose death made headlines because a teenage driver hit her and left. And Greg Billings, whose death made none.
A truck hit Billings as he crossed the street on Christmas Eve, said friend Joseph Mitchell. Friends called him "Crunchy."
Billings told jokes and sang songs. His family didn't know he was homeless.
Stanley Morse, 56, drowned in the bay. His 8-year-old daughter read his name.
There were 40 men, eight women. The youngest was 33.
With every name, someone lit a candle. By the end, there were 48 flames.
Last year, there were 53.
Since 2004, there have been 284.
Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.
Census of homeless in Hillsborough lists men, women, children
According to the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, this county has the largest homeless population in the state of Florida. Almost a fifth of the state's homeless live here. And while census data show only a slight increase in the county's homeless population since 2007, the coalition thinks the numbers are too low and the data do not reflect the true total.
According to the coalition's 2009 census:
9,566 men, women and children are homeless in Hillsborough County.
23 percent are children.
61 percent are male; 39 percent are female.
17 percent are veterans.
40 percent have a source of income; 25 percent of those are employed.
81 percent do not have a drug or alcohol addiction.
63 percent do not have a mental illness.
3 percent have the AIDS virus.
38 percent have a physical disability.
88 percent became homeless in Florida.
41 percent are homelessness for the first time.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Is homelessness on your mind today...
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, to speak at the launch of Tampa Bay Homeless Resource
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, to speak at the launch of Tampa Bay Homeless Resource Wikifrom Events organized by Julia Gorzka and Hillsborough County Homeless Coalition
When:
Friday, November 20, 2009 from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (ET)
Where:
Teatro
1600 7th Ave
Ybor City, FL FL
Hosted By:
Julia Gorzka and The Hillsborough County Homeless Coalition
Register for this event now at :
http://wikilaunch-atom.eventbrite.com
Event Details:
Announcing the launch of the Tampa Bay Homeless Resource Wiki
with special guest Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia and Co-Founder of Wikia will be speaking and inviting folks to volunteer and contribute to the project.
Following the talk we will have a reception with Hors d'oeuvres and cash bar.
Who should attend? Wiki-curious, wikipedians, social media enthusiasts, homeless advocates & anyone who wants to volunteer to help with this project. Press and bloggers who can help us get the word out about the project.
We are also looking for local wikipedians who can help us train folks who want to get involved.
Cost: $25 donation at the door
About the wiki: The Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, the lead agency in training, education, and advocacy on behalf of the homeless population, joined forces with Julia Gorzka (Julia Gorzka, Inc.) and Jimmy Wales (Founder of Wikipedia) to launch the Tampa Bay Homeless Resource wiki - a collaborative website for advocates, service providers, government and citizens to share and find information on services, resources, news and volunteer opportunities to help end homelessness in Tampa Bay.
Hillsborough County is home to the largest homeless population in the state of Florida with almost 10,000 homeless citizens on the street every day. The wiki provides an innovative solution to an old problem: the need for a central location where comprehensive, current and accurate information on homeless services can be easily found. The wiki format provides us with a dynamic resource where any citizen can contribute to or access information regarding homelessness.
“I kept hearing about the need for a ‘one-stop shop’, a central location where citizens in need could go and get direction on how to get help. With huge obstacles like funding, making it impossible to realize a physical central location, we got the idea to create a virtual community resource.” - Julia Gorzka
“The great thing about a wiki is that it provides a tool for quality organization without central planning or top down control. Anyone in the community who wants to help out, can help out. Every service provider can check and update their own entry to make sure the information is timely and accurate. Ordinary community members who are Internet savvy can help improve the wiki as a way to get involved.” – Jimmy Wales, Founder Wikipedia
“We are thrilled to be able to offer this new resource to the community, specifically for our homeless neighbors and those working to improve the quality of their lives. This wiki will provide up to date information that printed publications cannot.” - Rayme L. Nuckles, Chief Executive Office, Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.
Questions? Call Julia 813.690.2100 or email Julia-at-juliagorzka.com
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Ex-Homeowners to Turn to Shelters
October 19, 2009
Foreclosures Force Ex-Homeowners to Turn to Shelters
By PETER S. GOODMAN
CLEVELAND — The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished houseplants on the floor. She used her backyard as a restroom.
The second night, she stayed with a friend, and so it continued for more than a year: Ms. West — mother of three grown children, grandmother to six and great-grandmother to one — passed months on the couches of friends and relatives, and in the front seat of her car.
But this fall, she exhausted all options. She had once owned and overseen a group home for homeless people. Now, she succumbed to that status herself, checking in to a shelter.
“No one could have told me that in a million years: I’d wake up in a homeless shelter,” she said. “I had a house for homeless people. Now, I’m homeless.”
Growing numbers of Americans who have lost houses to foreclosure are landing in homeless shelters, according to social service groups and a recent report by a coalition of housing advocates.
Only three years ago, foreclosure was rarely a factor in how people became homeless. But among the homeless people that social service agencies have helped over the last year, an average of 10 percent lost homes to foreclosure, according to “Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009,” a survey produced by the National Coalition for the Homeless and six other advocacy groups.
In the Midwest, foreclosure played a role for 15 percent of newly homeless people, according to the survey, reflecting soaring rates of unemployment — Ohio’s reached 10.8 percent in August — and aggressive lending to people with damaged credit.
At a shelter for women and children run by the West Side Catholic Center in Cleveland, where Ms. West now lives, foreclosure accounted for zero arrivals in 2007, the center’s executive director, Gerald Skoch, said. Last year, two cases emerged. This year, the number has already reached four.
Similar increases have been reported at shelters in California, Michigan and Florida, where a combination of joblessness and the real estate bust have generated unusually severe rates of foreclosure.
Most people who become homeless because of foreclosure had been low-income renters whose landlords stopped making their mortgage payments, leaving them scrambling for new housing with little notice and scant savings, according to the survey and interviews with shelters.
But in recent months, there has been a visible increase in the number of former homeowners showing up in shelters. Like Ms. West, most have landed there after months trying to stave off that fate.
“These families never needed help before,” said Larry Haynes, executive director of Mercy House in Santa Ana, Calif. “They haven’t a clue about where to go, and they have all sorts of humiliation issues. They don’t even know what to say, what to ask for.”
Many start off camping out in cars, particularly in warmer places.
“We’ve seen a rise in people sleeping in their cars,” said Rick Cole, city manager in Ventura, Calif., which recently allowed car-camping in designated areas. “Some are foreclosed former homeowners, and some couldn’t afford their rent. People will give up their house before they give up their car.”
Those with means try to rent homes or apartments, though tainted credit often makes that impossible. Growing numbers are landing in motels that rent by the week, cramming whole families into single rooms and using hot plates as kitchens. But as unemployment expands, many are losing the wherewithal to remain.
Many take refuge with families and friends, occupying extra bedrooms, basements and attics. But such hospitality rarely lasts.
So, as lean times endure and paychecks disappear, homeless shelters are absorbing those who have run out of alternatives.
For Ms. West, whose youthful appearance belies her age, in her mid-50s, the nights spent on couches in other people’s homes were uncomfortably familiar. She grew up an only child in a housing project in Neptune, N.J., where her mother slept in the lone bedroom, and she occupied a pullout sofa in the living room.
“I’ve always had this dream of doing better,” she said. “I always wanted to own my own house.”
She realized that dream shortly after arriving in Cleveland with her husband and two children in the early 1990s. At first, they rented. But one fall afternoon, Ms. West found herself on a block lined with leafy trees in Mount Pleasant, a neighborhood east of the Cuyahoga River that was a magnet for middle-class black families like hers. Red brick homes with wooden porches sat on ample lots. Public schools were a few blocks away.
When she saw an ad in the Sunday paper offering a house on that very block, she bought it for $45,000; for the $9,000 down payment she used the savings her mother had left her when she died. She and her husband assumed the mortgage from the previous owner, with affordable payments of less than $400 a month.
Ms. West then had a job as a maintenance worker at an apartment complex for about $9 an hour. Her husband earned about $10 an hour as a truck driver. As the years passed, they added shrubbery to the front yard and photos of children’s birthday parties to the walls.
“I thought that was going to be my house,” she said.
She tapped her inheritance to buy another house on nearby Union Street, paying $15,000 in cash for a light-blue, vinyl-sided A-frame. She turned the house into a home for five homeless people. She did their laundry, reminded them to take their medications and cooked meals, while collecting payments of up to $750 a person each month from the agencies that placed them.
Over the years, Ms. West and her husband spent more than they earned. They used credit cards to finance restaurant meals. They bought a new S.U.V.
At the group home, Ms. West’s compensation slipped as the state limited benefit payments. Yet every month brought the same thicket of bills — water, electricity, gas, plus food for the people under her charge.
In 2001, Ms. West and her husband took out a $67,000 mortgage on the Union Street house — which had increased considerably in value — to refinance high-interest debts, assuming payments of nearly $700 a month.
Two years later, her husband left her.
“It just took the life out me,” she said. “I was in a very bad state, a very depressed situation. Things just kind of went downhill. I just didn’t care anymore.”
By 2005, she was broke. She sold the brick house to her cousin, disbanded the group home and moved in. She paid what bills she could through temporary jobs as a signature collector for petition drives. But as many months passed without work, the bills piled up past due.
By the next year, terse letters were coming from the mortgage company — notices of delinquency, then threats of foreclosure. Much of the neighborhood was in a similar state. Broken windows sat unrepaired at a two-story apartment block across the street, where tattered curtains flapped in the breeze. The city boarded up abandoned homes to deter vagrants, drug addicts and prostitutes.
Ms. West wrote to her mortgage company, seeking lower payments. But with tainted credit and no full-time job, she was not a candidate for a deal. Fliers beckoned with relief as companies offered to negotiate with her lender for lower payments. But when she called, the companies demanded upfront payments as high as $500.
“I told them, ‘if I had that money, I wouldn’t be going into foreclosure,’ ” she said.
In the spring of 2008, Ms. West accepted an offer from the mortgage company: move out, hand over the keys and collect $2,500. She sold what furniture she could and put the rest on the street — tables, beds, a couch.
Her uncle had said she could stay with him for a while. But when she called him to say she was on the way, he told her that his girlfriend was uncomfortable with the arrangement. Ms. West’s daughter was in a cramped rented house with her boyfriend and her two children. Her son was in a rooming house.
So Ms. West, a stylish woman with a penchant for shiny lipstick and glittering jewelry, wound up camping in her car. She listened to the radio to drown out the voices of prostitutes trawling the street. She meditated. (“Just blank out everything in your mind,” she said. “Just go to a place that’s peaceful, like a beach.”) She prayed.
“It was scary,” she said. “Here I am, alone, and I don’t have nowhere to go.”
The next day, she moved in with a friend, remaining there for about three months. For several more months, she stayed with the cousin who had bought her old brick house and was living there with her husband and seven children. Toys lay scattered across the floor. The walls vibrated with music, television and the sounds of children. She lay awake on the couch, a vagabond in the one place that had once felt so solid.
“I was losing my mind,” she said.
She was grateful to be inside — particularly during the Cleveland winter — yet never comfortable or stable enough to plan beyond the next day.
“You know in the back of your mind that people don’t really want you there,” she said.
Sometimes, she lived out of her car, spending days at the public library, where she washed up in the restroom and used a computer to scan meager job listings.
Finally, a woman she met on the street took her in and helped her formulate a recovery plan. She signed up for food stamps. She enrolled at a community college in a three-month, state-financed training program that would give her a certificate for an entry-level job in biotechnology, putting her in position to earn as much as $16 an hour.
In September, she got a bed at the homeless shelter, reluctantly accepting that she needed her own space to re-establish her life.
“I never wanted to go to the shelter because of the stigma,” she said. “I’m a very independent person. I felt like I got myself into this situation, and I’ve got to get myself out. But I knew I couldn’t just keep going back and forth and staying with these people and not moving forward with my life.”
She sleeps in a twin bed with a flower-print duvet, in a small room painted lavender. Her plants line the windowsill. She keeps to herself, reading motivational books, as she prepares to start classes next month.
She is working again, taking care of senior citizens in their homes part time, and saving money.
By December, she will exhaust the shelter’s 90-day limit, so she is hurrying to line up a house to rent while arranging a subsidy through the West Side Catholic Center.
She is still shaken by the past and anxious about the future, but she is again looking ahead.
“I do want to eventually own a house again,” she said. “That’s the American dream. That’s what everybody wants.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Foreclosures Force Ex-Homeowners to Turn to Shelters
By PETER S. GOODMAN
CLEVELAND — The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished houseplants on the floor. She used her backyard as a restroom.
The second night, she stayed with a friend, and so it continued for more than a year: Ms. West — mother of three grown children, grandmother to six and great-grandmother to one — passed months on the couches of friends and relatives, and in the front seat of her car.
But this fall, she exhausted all options. She had once owned and overseen a group home for homeless people. Now, she succumbed to that status herself, checking in to a shelter.
“No one could have told me that in a million years: I’d wake up in a homeless shelter,” she said. “I had a house for homeless people. Now, I’m homeless.”
Growing numbers of Americans who have lost houses to foreclosure are landing in homeless shelters, according to social service groups and a recent report by a coalition of housing advocates.
Only three years ago, foreclosure was rarely a factor in how people became homeless. But among the homeless people that social service agencies have helped over the last year, an average of 10 percent lost homes to foreclosure, according to “Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009,” a survey produced by the National Coalition for the Homeless and six other advocacy groups.
In the Midwest, foreclosure played a role for 15 percent of newly homeless people, according to the survey, reflecting soaring rates of unemployment — Ohio’s reached 10.8 percent in August — and aggressive lending to people with damaged credit.
At a shelter for women and children run by the West Side Catholic Center in Cleveland, where Ms. West now lives, foreclosure accounted for zero arrivals in 2007, the center’s executive director, Gerald Skoch, said. Last year, two cases emerged. This year, the number has already reached four.
Similar increases have been reported at shelters in California, Michigan and Florida, where a combination of joblessness and the real estate bust have generated unusually severe rates of foreclosure.
Most people who become homeless because of foreclosure had been low-income renters whose landlords stopped making their mortgage payments, leaving them scrambling for new housing with little notice and scant savings, according to the survey and interviews with shelters.
But in recent months, there has been a visible increase in the number of former homeowners showing up in shelters. Like Ms. West, most have landed there after months trying to stave off that fate.
“These families never needed help before,” said Larry Haynes, executive director of Mercy House in Santa Ana, Calif. “They haven’t a clue about where to go, and they have all sorts of humiliation issues. They don’t even know what to say, what to ask for.”
Many start off camping out in cars, particularly in warmer places.
“We’ve seen a rise in people sleeping in their cars,” said Rick Cole, city manager in Ventura, Calif., which recently allowed car-camping in designated areas. “Some are foreclosed former homeowners, and some couldn’t afford their rent. People will give up their house before they give up their car.”
Those with means try to rent homes or apartments, though tainted credit often makes that impossible. Growing numbers are landing in motels that rent by the week, cramming whole families into single rooms and using hot plates as kitchens. But as unemployment expands, many are losing the wherewithal to remain.
Many take refuge with families and friends, occupying extra bedrooms, basements and attics. But such hospitality rarely lasts.
So, as lean times endure and paychecks disappear, homeless shelters are absorbing those who have run out of alternatives.
For Ms. West, whose youthful appearance belies her age, in her mid-50s, the nights spent on couches in other people’s homes were uncomfortably familiar. She grew up an only child in a housing project in Neptune, N.J., where her mother slept in the lone bedroom, and she occupied a pullout sofa in the living room.
“I’ve always had this dream of doing better,” she said. “I always wanted to own my own house.”
She realized that dream shortly after arriving in Cleveland with her husband and two children in the early 1990s. At first, they rented. But one fall afternoon, Ms. West found herself on a block lined with leafy trees in Mount Pleasant, a neighborhood east of the Cuyahoga River that was a magnet for middle-class black families like hers. Red brick homes with wooden porches sat on ample lots. Public schools were a few blocks away.
When she saw an ad in the Sunday paper offering a house on that very block, she bought it for $45,000; for the $9,000 down payment she used the savings her mother had left her when she died. She and her husband assumed the mortgage from the previous owner, with affordable payments of less than $400 a month.
Ms. West then had a job as a maintenance worker at an apartment complex for about $9 an hour. Her husband earned about $10 an hour as a truck driver. As the years passed, they added shrubbery to the front yard and photos of children’s birthday parties to the walls.
“I thought that was going to be my house,” she said.
She tapped her inheritance to buy another house on nearby Union Street, paying $15,000 in cash for a light-blue, vinyl-sided A-frame. She turned the house into a home for five homeless people. She did their laundry, reminded them to take their medications and cooked meals, while collecting payments of up to $750 a person each month from the agencies that placed them.
Over the years, Ms. West and her husband spent more than they earned. They used credit cards to finance restaurant meals. They bought a new S.U.V.
At the group home, Ms. West’s compensation slipped as the state limited benefit payments. Yet every month brought the same thicket of bills — water, electricity, gas, plus food for the people under her charge.
In 2001, Ms. West and her husband took out a $67,000 mortgage on the Union Street house — which had increased considerably in value — to refinance high-interest debts, assuming payments of nearly $700 a month.
Two years later, her husband left her.
“It just took the life out me,” she said. “I was in a very bad state, a very depressed situation. Things just kind of went downhill. I just didn’t care anymore.”
By 2005, she was broke. She sold the brick house to her cousin, disbanded the group home and moved in. She paid what bills she could through temporary jobs as a signature collector for petition drives. But as many months passed without work, the bills piled up past due.
By the next year, terse letters were coming from the mortgage company — notices of delinquency, then threats of foreclosure. Much of the neighborhood was in a similar state. Broken windows sat unrepaired at a two-story apartment block across the street, where tattered curtains flapped in the breeze. The city boarded up abandoned homes to deter vagrants, drug addicts and prostitutes.
Ms. West wrote to her mortgage company, seeking lower payments. But with tainted credit and no full-time job, she was not a candidate for a deal. Fliers beckoned with relief as companies offered to negotiate with her lender for lower payments. But when she called, the companies demanded upfront payments as high as $500.
“I told them, ‘if I had that money, I wouldn’t be going into foreclosure,’ ” she said.
In the spring of 2008, Ms. West accepted an offer from the mortgage company: move out, hand over the keys and collect $2,500. She sold what furniture she could and put the rest on the street — tables, beds, a couch.
Her uncle had said she could stay with him for a while. But when she called him to say she was on the way, he told her that his girlfriend was uncomfortable with the arrangement. Ms. West’s daughter was in a cramped rented house with her boyfriend and her two children. Her son was in a rooming house.
So Ms. West, a stylish woman with a penchant for shiny lipstick and glittering jewelry, wound up camping in her car. She listened to the radio to drown out the voices of prostitutes trawling the street. She meditated. (“Just blank out everything in your mind,” she said. “Just go to a place that’s peaceful, like a beach.”) She prayed.
“It was scary,” she said. “Here I am, alone, and I don’t have nowhere to go.”
The next day, she moved in with a friend, remaining there for about three months. For several more months, she stayed with the cousin who had bought her old brick house and was living there with her husband and seven children. Toys lay scattered across the floor. The walls vibrated with music, television and the sounds of children. She lay awake on the couch, a vagabond in the one place that had once felt so solid.
“I was losing my mind,” she said.
She was grateful to be inside — particularly during the Cleveland winter — yet never comfortable or stable enough to plan beyond the next day.
“You know in the back of your mind that people don’t really want you there,” she said.
Sometimes, she lived out of her car, spending days at the public library, where she washed up in the restroom and used a computer to scan meager job listings.
Finally, a woman she met on the street took her in and helped her formulate a recovery plan. She signed up for food stamps. She enrolled at a community college in a three-month, state-financed training program that would give her a certificate for an entry-level job in biotechnology, putting her in position to earn as much as $16 an hour.
In September, she got a bed at the homeless shelter, reluctantly accepting that she needed her own space to re-establish her life.
“I never wanted to go to the shelter because of the stigma,” she said. “I’m a very independent person. I felt like I got myself into this situation, and I’ve got to get myself out. But I knew I couldn’t just keep going back and forth and staying with these people and not moving forward with my life.”
She sleeps in a twin bed with a flower-print duvet, in a small room painted lavender. Her plants line the windowsill. She keeps to herself, reading motivational books, as she prepares to start classes next month.
She is working again, taking care of senior citizens in their homes part time, and saving money.
By December, she will exhaust the shelter’s 90-day limit, so she is hurrying to line up a house to rent while arranging a subsidy through the West Side Catholic Center.
She is still shaken by the past and anxious about the future, but she is again looking ahead.
“I do want to eventually own a house again,” she said. “That’s the American dream. That’s what everybody wants.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Friday, October 16, 2009
Facebook | Unexpected Faces, Unexpected Places Speakers' Bureau
• Rising Rates of Homelessness among Female Veterans--Female veterans are swelling the ranks of the homeless. There are already more than 13,000 homeless female veterans nationwide. And existing programs for these homeless female veterans aren't cutting it. Adding to the challenge is the increasing number of female veterans with families in need of homeless services. Almost a quarter of female vets in the VA's homeless programs have children under the age of 18, creating a ripple effect that will impact people for generations to come.
More than 140 years ago, President Lincoln pledged America's obligation, "To Care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." It is time for the nation to renew this commitment to our women warriors. After honorably fighting overseas, female veterans, like Cara Hammer, shouldn't have to wage new battles once they get home. And they should be treated like heroes, not candy stripers.
This week, IAVA launched its latest Issue Report, "Women Warriors: Supporting She 'Who Has Borne the Battle," on the unique and urgent service and homecoming challenges facing female troops and veterans. The report is the cornerstone of IAVA's first annual "Week of the Women Warriors," a multi-faceted effort to honor the courage and sacrifice of female servicemembers. Visit www.iava.org/womenwarriors to download the full report and find out more ways to get involved on behalf of our nation's women warriors.
Women Warriors: Supporting She 'Who Has Borne the Battle'
By Paul Rieckhoff - October 15, 2009, 11:50AM
More than 140 years ago, President Lincoln pledged America's obligation, "To Care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." It is time for the nation to renew this commitment to our women warriors. After honorably fighting overseas, female veterans, like Cara Hammer, shouldn't have to wage new battles once they get home. And they should be treated like heroes, not candy stripers.
This week, IAVA launched its latest Issue Report, "Women Warriors: Supporting She 'Who Has Borne the Battle," on the unique and urgent service and homecoming challenges facing female troops and veterans. The report is the cornerstone of IAVA's first annual "Week of the Women Warriors," a multi-faceted effort to honor the courage and sacrifice of female servicemembers. Visit www.iava.org/womenwarriors to download the full report and find out more ways to get involved on behalf of our nation's women warriors.
Women Warriors: Supporting She 'Who Has Borne the Battle'
By Paul Rieckhoff - October 15, 2009, 11:50AM
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Elle Magazine Offers Internship To Homeless Girl
Not just a random homeless girl either but one of our very own, Bri, today heard that she was to be given the opportunity to work with Elle Magazine’s advice columnist E. Jean. So, just how does a homeless girl get to become an intern at one of the world’s most prestigious fashion magazines?
The story goes back to April when she came across an ad last looking for writers/fashionistas to do an advice columnist competition.
“I believe they were specifically looking for ‘the Next Carrie Bradshaw’. OK, I have to admit, I’ve never seen a single episode of ‘Sex and the City’. Yes, I’m a traitor to my gender.”
It was more a shot in the dark than anything and she was quite certain she would never hear anything back from them but figured she would send in a quick letter with her story and see what happened.
“I mean, I’m less of a writer than a blogger, but I do love writing, and I love fashion, especially vintage and retro clothing. I bet I could out-cute SJP and her super-overpaid stylist any day, haha.”
Only she did hear back from them:
“…a certain chika was called in for a screen test this week. Guess who? (hint: me!!!!!)”
Of course now she found out what she was actually getting herself into. She discovered that the little competition she thought she had entered was in fact a reality tv show, produced by Freemantle Media of American Idol/America’s Got Talent fame.
“And the prize? An internship at Elle magazine, being mentored by a very funny, slightly crazy, super-awesome columnist whom I’ve read for years.”
Everyone remembers Chris Gardner, subject of the movie Pursuit Of Happyness, right? For those that don’t know the story, Chris Gardner earned a high-profile internship while living homeless - an internship which enabled him to go on to become a giant in the financial sector and multi-millionnaire.
However, it was too early to start thinking about movie deals just yet as this was certainly not to be the end of the story. On the day of the screen test, nerves got the better of her and in her own words, “I bombed it.”
Now regular readers here who know Bri also know how spirited and determined she can be and that she is not one to give up on something easily. She then took it upon herself to write in to E. Jean herself via her column at Elle.
Dear E. Jean: I’m currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I’m educated, I have never done drugs, and I am not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I’m rocking it as best as I can. Recently I stumbled across a job notice (a reality show casting call for executive assistants) and was intrigued enough to apply. It was a shot in the dark, and I assumed I’d never hear back. Surprise! I was called in this week! And I promptly bombed it. When I found out who was involved in the show I got kind of starstruck and completely froze up. My usual personality did not radiate. My question: How does one get another shot when one screws up a job interview? —Homeless, but Not Hopeless
Once more, Bri never expected to receive any response so you can imagine her surprise when she discovered not only that her letter had been published in Elle Magazine but also to the response that E. Jean had written to her.
“Of course, the cleverest way to land a good job (and get an apartment) is to already have a good job/internship/volunteer position. This strategy permits you to impress the interviewers with the superhuman passion you have for your current projects.”
“This is what you did with your letter: You knocked me out with your courage and spirit. I am therefore, Miss Not Hopeless, offering you a four-month internship……. If you accept this internship, you’ll telecommute to my East Coast mountain office one hour a day, six days a week. At the end of the four months, if you don’t have a job and an awesome place to live, I will become your intern.”
There was one more small potential problem, the article was a month old already and Bri only found out today. Some frantic emailing and a little cyber-stalking later though and Bri was able to make contact and verify that the position was still available to her. She starts September 1st.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/25/elle-magazine-offers-inte_n_268605.html
The story goes back to April when she came across an ad last looking for writers/fashionistas to do an advice columnist competition.
“I believe they were specifically looking for ‘the Next Carrie Bradshaw’. OK, I have to admit, I’ve never seen a single episode of ‘Sex and the City’. Yes, I’m a traitor to my gender.”
It was more a shot in the dark than anything and she was quite certain she would never hear anything back from them but figured she would send in a quick letter with her story and see what happened.
“I mean, I’m less of a writer than a blogger, but I do love writing, and I love fashion, especially vintage and retro clothing. I bet I could out-cute SJP and her super-overpaid stylist any day, haha.”
Only she did hear back from them:
“…a certain chika was called in for a screen test this week. Guess who? (hint: me!!!!!)”
Of course now she found out what she was actually getting herself into. She discovered that the little competition she thought she had entered was in fact a reality tv show, produced by Freemantle Media of American Idol/America’s Got Talent fame.
“And the prize? An internship at Elle magazine, being mentored by a very funny, slightly crazy, super-awesome columnist whom I’ve read for years.”
Everyone remembers Chris Gardner, subject of the movie Pursuit Of Happyness, right? For those that don’t know the story, Chris Gardner earned a high-profile internship while living homeless - an internship which enabled him to go on to become a giant in the financial sector and multi-millionnaire.
However, it was too early to start thinking about movie deals just yet as this was certainly not to be the end of the story. On the day of the screen test, nerves got the better of her and in her own words, “I bombed it.”
Now regular readers here who know Bri also know how spirited and determined she can be and that she is not one to give up on something easily. She then took it upon herself to write in to E. Jean herself via her column at Elle.
Dear E. Jean: I’m currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I’m educated, I have never done drugs, and I am not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I’m rocking it as best as I can. Recently I stumbled across a job notice (a reality show casting call for executive assistants) and was intrigued enough to apply. It was a shot in the dark, and I assumed I’d never hear back. Surprise! I was called in this week! And I promptly bombed it. When I found out who was involved in the show I got kind of starstruck and completely froze up. My usual personality did not radiate. My question: How does one get another shot when one screws up a job interview? —Homeless, but Not Hopeless
Once more, Bri never expected to receive any response so you can imagine her surprise when she discovered not only that her letter had been published in Elle Magazine but also to the response that E. Jean had written to her.
“Of course, the cleverest way to land a good job (and get an apartment) is to already have a good job/internship/volunteer position. This strategy permits you to impress the interviewers with the superhuman passion you have for your current projects.”
“This is what you did with your letter: You knocked me out with your courage and spirit. I am therefore, Miss Not Hopeless, offering you a four-month internship……. If you accept this internship, you’ll telecommute to my East Coast mountain office one hour a day, six days a week. At the end of the four months, if you don’t have a job and an awesome place to live, I will become your intern.”
There was one more small potential problem, the article was a month old already and Bri only found out today. Some frantic emailing and a little cyber-stalking later though and Bri was able to make contact and verify that the position was still available to her. She starts September 1st.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/25/elle-magazine-offers-inte_n_268605.html
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Commentary: Beating the homeless is cruel, not cool
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Over the last two calendar years, more Americans in the United States were killed in a little-noticed spate of unprovoked attacks than were killed by terrorists, in large commercial jet crashes or in racial hate crimes.
Since 1999, more than 240 vulnerable homeless Americans have been stabbed, beaten, drowned, shot or burned to death in a revolting display of one of the last socially tolerated prejudices, this one based on class.
Despite being prime targets of prejudice and violence, particularly in today's youth subculture, the homeless are routinely excluded from lessons related to tolerance, as well as from official data collection and hate-crime penalty enhancement laws.
A newly released report from the National Coalition for the Homeless documented 27 unprovoked, apparently bias-related homicides by attackers in the United States last year, down one from the previous year and the second-highest number of killings since 2001.
After bottoming mid-decade, the number killed has not dipped below 20 a year since 2005. In contrast, the FBI documented only 12 hate-crime homicides nationally for the two most recently available calendar years combined.
According to the NCH and the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, nearly 2 1/2 times more homeless people in America have been killed over the past 10 years in apparent unprovoked bias homicides than the total for all the other hate- crime homicides -- on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability and sexual orientation -- combined.
Like other hate crime perpetrators, these attackers are typically young male "thrill offenders" seeking excitement, with 58 percent of assailants over the past 10 years falling in the 13-19 age range. In 2006, three teenagers out for fun attacked homeless people in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with baseball bats, killing one of their victims, 45-year-old Norris Gaynor. One pleaded guilty and the two others were convicted of murder last September after the jury saw graphic surveillance tape of one of their nonlethal beatings from earlier in the evening.
These attacks exclude the large number of other types of crimes involving the homeless, such as personal disputes, homeless-on-homeless violence, robbery, drugs or murder for life insurance proceeds.
The August issue of Maxim, a youth-oriented magazine targeted at college-aged males, joked about last weekend's National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa, in a blurb titled "Hunt the Homeless." The journal quipped "Kill one for fun. We're 87 percent sure it's legal."
In previous violent attacks, some assailants have referenced degrading and violent depictions in popular culture such as "Bumfights" either during their crimes or in subsequent interviews with authorities, with some even filming the events.
"Bumfights" is a popular violent video series that sold hundreds of thousands of tapes and DVDs before going viral on the Internet. The film series sets a new low in American popular culture, featuring fights between homeless men plied by the producers with alcohol, as well as sadistic parodies of the late Australian conservationist "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin.
These "skits" feature terrified sleeping homeless people who are startled awake and forcibly restrained with duct tape by "hunters" narrating their attacks with feigned Australian accents. Samuel Bowhay of Grinnell College found almost 86,000 videos on YouTube last month with "bum" in the title, thousands more than videos with other derogatory prejudiced epithets.
While homeless advocates lack the political and financial infrastructure often needed to institute policy reform, the frequency and brutality of the bias attacks have renewed focus on the nature of this violent form of prejudice and ways to address it.
Last week, District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty signed legislation adding homeless status to the district's hate-crime law. Maryland, an early adopter of such measures in the 1980s, will join Maine in adding homeless status to its hate-crime law on October 1.
Other jurisdictions such as Alaska; Puerto Rico; Los Angeles County, California; and Seattle, Washington, also have taken various steps to recognize homeless status in their laws, data collection, educational efforts or procedures.
In almost a dozen other states, including California, Texas, South Carolina and Florida, legislation has been introduced over the past three years to add homeless status to their hate-crime laws as well. Nationally, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas has introduced legislation to add homelessness to federal hate-crime laws and data-collection efforts.
These efforts are long overdue. A primary purpose of hate-crime laws is the targeted deterrent message to would-be offenders that they face real punishment and social disapproval. Moreover, the key criminological criteria for coverage in hate-crime law apply seamlessly to homeless status as well:
1. a significant additional risk of violent victimization;
2. discriminatory selection;
3. established prejudice against a socially identifiable class;
4. identical offenders such as bigoted skinheads or young male thrill offenders who share identifiable characteristics and motivations.
Arguments against including provisions in hate-crime laws for the homeless are recycled ones that were initially used unsuccessfully against other groups, like gays and lesbians. Too many additional groups dilute the laws, or homelessness is a changeable condition that most people wouldn't want, they argue. The fact is, millions of Americans have changed their religious affiliation and yet, just about all hate crime laws cover faith. Disability is a characteristic that, like homelessness, most people would not seek out, yet it too is covered.
Adding the homeless to hate-crime laws, tolerance education and data-collection efforts must not be obstructed. When hate makes a fist, the laws of a civilized society must decisively block the blow in the most forceful and unambiguous way possible.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brian Levin and Michael Stoops.
Since 1999, more than 240 vulnerable homeless Americans have been stabbed, beaten, drowned, shot or burned to death in a revolting display of one of the last socially tolerated prejudices, this one based on class.
Despite being prime targets of prejudice and violence, particularly in today's youth subculture, the homeless are routinely excluded from lessons related to tolerance, as well as from official data collection and hate-crime penalty enhancement laws.
A newly released report from the National Coalition for the Homeless documented 27 unprovoked, apparently bias-related homicides by attackers in the United States last year, down one from the previous year and the second-highest number of killings since 2001.
After bottoming mid-decade, the number killed has not dipped below 20 a year since 2005. In contrast, the FBI documented only 12 hate-crime homicides nationally for the two most recently available calendar years combined.
According to the NCH and the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, nearly 2 1/2 times more homeless people in America have been killed over the past 10 years in apparent unprovoked bias homicides than the total for all the other hate- crime homicides -- on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability and sexual orientation -- combined.
Like other hate crime perpetrators, these attackers are typically young male "thrill offenders" seeking excitement, with 58 percent of assailants over the past 10 years falling in the 13-19 age range. In 2006, three teenagers out for fun attacked homeless people in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with baseball bats, killing one of their victims, 45-year-old Norris Gaynor. One pleaded guilty and the two others were convicted of murder last September after the jury saw graphic surveillance tape of one of their nonlethal beatings from earlier in the evening.
These attacks exclude the large number of other types of crimes involving the homeless, such as personal disputes, homeless-on-homeless violence, robbery, drugs or murder for life insurance proceeds.
The August issue of Maxim, a youth-oriented magazine targeted at college-aged males, joked about last weekend's National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa, in a blurb titled "Hunt the Homeless." The journal quipped "Kill one for fun. We're 87 percent sure it's legal."
In previous violent attacks, some assailants have referenced degrading and violent depictions in popular culture such as "Bumfights" either during their crimes or in subsequent interviews with authorities, with some even filming the events.
"Bumfights" is a popular violent video series that sold hundreds of thousands of tapes and DVDs before going viral on the Internet. The film series sets a new low in American popular culture, featuring fights between homeless men plied by the producers with alcohol, as well as sadistic parodies of the late Australian conservationist "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin.
These "skits" feature terrified sleeping homeless people who are startled awake and forcibly restrained with duct tape by "hunters" narrating their attacks with feigned Australian accents. Samuel Bowhay of Grinnell College found almost 86,000 videos on YouTube last month with "bum" in the title, thousands more than videos with other derogatory prejudiced epithets.
While homeless advocates lack the political and financial infrastructure often needed to institute policy reform, the frequency and brutality of the bias attacks have renewed focus on the nature of this violent form of prejudice and ways to address it.
Last week, District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty signed legislation adding homeless status to the district's hate-crime law. Maryland, an early adopter of such measures in the 1980s, will join Maine in adding homeless status to its hate-crime law on October 1.
Other jurisdictions such as Alaska; Puerto Rico; Los Angeles County, California; and Seattle, Washington, also have taken various steps to recognize homeless status in their laws, data collection, educational efforts or procedures.
In almost a dozen other states, including California, Texas, South Carolina and Florida, legislation has been introduced over the past three years to add homeless status to their hate-crime laws as well. Nationally, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas has introduced legislation to add homelessness to federal hate-crime laws and data-collection efforts.
These efforts are long overdue. A primary purpose of hate-crime laws is the targeted deterrent message to would-be offenders that they face real punishment and social disapproval. Moreover, the key criminological criteria for coverage in hate-crime law apply seamlessly to homeless status as well:
1. a significant additional risk of violent victimization;
2. discriminatory selection;
3. established prejudice against a socially identifiable class;
4. identical offenders such as bigoted skinheads or young male thrill offenders who share identifiable characteristics and motivations.
Arguments against including provisions in hate-crime laws for the homeless are recycled ones that were initially used unsuccessfully against other groups, like gays and lesbians. Too many additional groups dilute the laws, or homelessness is a changeable condition that most people wouldn't want, they argue. The fact is, millions of Americans have changed their religious affiliation and yet, just about all hate crime laws cover faith. Disability is a characteristic that, like homelessness, most people would not seek out, yet it too is covered.
Adding the homeless to hate-crime laws, tolerance education and data-collection efforts must not be obstructed. When hate makes a fist, the laws of a civilized society must decisively block the blow in the most forceful and unambiguous way possible.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brian Levin and Michael Stoops.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Deputies raid Hillsborough homeless camps
Updated: Friday, 31 Jul 2009, 6:04 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 30 Jul 2009, 10:55 PM EDT
Gloria Gomez
BRANDON - Is it picking and piling on the downtrodden, or keeping the community clean and safe?
Every few months the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office conducts raids on the homeless in the county.
Businesses and residents nearby complain about the crime and the mess that litter makeshift campsites that the homeless set up.
"You'll see hundreds of beer cans, urine, feces – they're using these people's property as their restroom facilities," said Corporal Tracy Reeves.
But some of the homeless say they are easy targets.
"I'm being arrested because I'm homeless. Put that on the news," said Ross Thomas, as he was led away in handcuffs during Thursday's raid. Hillsborough deputies arrested him because they said he had an open container 500 feet from a business.
Harrold Prichard is on his way to jail for an outstanding warrant and solicitation charges. The deputy smelled alcohol on him and questioned him about it.
"How much have you had to drink today?" the officer asks. "Not very darn much. Officers like you been around all day," Prichard responded.
Deputies say there's a difference between homeless people who have lost their jobs and a homeless vagrant.
"The vagrants that are out here on drugs on alcohol, and stand on street corners, and are knocking on people's windows as they drive up to an intersection," said Corporal Reeves.
Deputies say their goal is to do a clean sweep of the homeless from Brandon to Seffner. They say residents deserve a clean, safe community to call home.
Published : Thursday, 30 Jul 2009, 10:55 PM EDT
Gloria Gomez
BRANDON - Is it picking and piling on the downtrodden, or keeping the community clean and safe?
Every few months the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office conducts raids on the homeless in the county.
Businesses and residents nearby complain about the crime and the mess that litter makeshift campsites that the homeless set up.
"You'll see hundreds of beer cans, urine, feces – they're using these people's property as their restroom facilities," said Corporal Tracy Reeves.
But some of the homeless say they are easy targets.
"I'm being arrested because I'm homeless. Put that on the news," said Ross Thomas, as he was led away in handcuffs during Thursday's raid. Hillsborough deputies arrested him because they said he had an open container 500 feet from a business.
Harrold Prichard is on his way to jail for an outstanding warrant and solicitation charges. The deputy smelled alcohol on him and questioned him about it.
"How much have you had to drink today?" the officer asks. "Not very darn much. Officers like you been around all day," Prichard responded.
Deputies say there's a difference between homeless people who have lost their jobs and a homeless vagrant.
"The vagrants that are out here on drugs on alcohol, and stand on street corners, and are knocking on people's windows as they drive up to an intersection," said Corporal Reeves.
Deputies say their goal is to do a clean sweep of the homeless from Brandon to Seffner. They say residents deserve a clean, safe community to call home.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Ending Violence by Putting a Face on Homelessness
The National Coalition for the Homeless recently launched a project in Florida with the goal of establishing Speakers Bureaus across the state. NCH has collaborated with the AmeriCorps*VISTA program, bringing 10 AmeriCorps*VISTAs to the state with 5 more joining in December. The Speakers Bureaus are to be modeled after the successful “Faces of Homelessness” Speakers Bureau, managed by NCH. They are comprised of homeless and formerly homeless speakers who communicate with audiences of youth, churches and civic groups. The ultimate goal of the project is to reduce the violent attacks committed against our homeless neighbors in Florida, which leads the nation for the third year in a row with nearly one-fifth of the country’s attacks. These attacks are overwhelmingly committed by youth. In 2007, 64% of the attackers were between the ages of 13-19, with 86% 25 and under.
The necessity for the Speakers Bureau project is made all the more apparent when one considers the trial of William Ammons, 20, Thomas Daugherty, 19, and Brian Hooks, 20. On January 12, 2006, Norris Gaynor, whose father expressed, “We always said he wasn’t homeless. He was just away from home,” was killed by the three aforementioned young men. In addition, the group severely beat two other homeless individuals, Jacques Pierre and Raymond Perez, in the course of their violent spree. Pierre’s beating was caught by surveillance cameras – it reveals smiling attackers pounding him with baseball bats. Ammons arranged a plea bargain that saved him from a possible life sentence in exchange for testifying against Daugherty and Hooks. Meanwhile, defense lawyers Michael Gottlieb and Jeremy Kroll worked to protect their clients from life sentences.
Gottlieb and Kroll built their clients’ defense by focusing on their intent that night, claiming that because the agreement among the young men was only to ''beat up some bums'' they should be spared and given lesser charges. This claim, quite simply, gives the green light to people who want to get intoxicated and attack homeless individuals. Shooting them in the head with paintball guns and beating them with baseball bats, golf clubs, or rakes follows, likewise, as perfectly permissible – as long as the intent, of course, is not to kill. The two were each found guilty of two counts of attempted second degree murder with a weapon and one count of second degree murder and are awaiting sentencing.
The defense’s logic and the lessened charges demonstrate the need to re-humanize our homeless neighbors. The statements of Kroll and Gottlieb would lead us to believe homeless individuals are less than human, a marginalized group against whom it is okay to discriminate, harass, and attack. Our homeless neighbors have been referred to as “vagrants”, “bums”, and “criminals” for far too long. It is just this sort of dehumanization that communicates to young people it is okay to harass and violently attack the homeless. Speakers Bureaus will help the public put a face on homelessness and remind youth that individuals without homes are human too.
It is not okay to attack or harass our homeless neighbors, whether or not the intent is to kill.
The necessity for the Speakers Bureau project is made all the more apparent when one considers the trial of William Ammons, 20, Thomas Daugherty, 19, and Brian Hooks, 20. On January 12, 2006, Norris Gaynor, whose father expressed, “We always said he wasn’t homeless. He was just away from home,” was killed by the three aforementioned young men. In addition, the group severely beat two other homeless individuals, Jacques Pierre and Raymond Perez, in the course of their violent spree. Pierre’s beating was caught by surveillance cameras – it reveals smiling attackers pounding him with baseball bats. Ammons arranged a plea bargain that saved him from a possible life sentence in exchange for testifying against Daugherty and Hooks. Meanwhile, defense lawyers Michael Gottlieb and Jeremy Kroll worked to protect their clients from life sentences.
Gottlieb and Kroll built their clients’ defense by focusing on their intent that night, claiming that because the agreement among the young men was only to ''beat up some bums'' they should be spared and given lesser charges. This claim, quite simply, gives the green light to people who want to get intoxicated and attack homeless individuals. Shooting them in the head with paintball guns and beating them with baseball bats, golf clubs, or rakes follows, likewise, as perfectly permissible – as long as the intent, of course, is not to kill. The two were each found guilty of two counts of attempted second degree murder with a weapon and one count of second degree murder and are awaiting sentencing.
The defense’s logic and the lessened charges demonstrate the need to re-humanize our homeless neighbors. The statements of Kroll and Gottlieb would lead us to believe homeless individuals are less than human, a marginalized group against whom it is okay to discriminate, harass, and attack. Our homeless neighbors have been referred to as “vagrants”, “bums”, and “criminals” for far too long. It is just this sort of dehumanization that communicates to young people it is okay to harass and violently attack the homeless. Speakers Bureaus will help the public put a face on homelessness and remind youth that individuals without homes are human too.
It is not okay to attack or harass our homeless neighbors, whether or not the intent is to kill.
Faces of Homelessness are Soon to be Everywhere
“I brought a homeless friend, Ben, with me to a Rotary Club in 1979. I planned to let him eat my free meal while I spoke. We both got free meals. And when I got up to speak, I invited Ben to join me. I spoke for a bit and then Ben told his story. Ben held the audience at rapt attention. The audience seemed more interested in Ben than me. He got asked more questions. Henceforth, I always took at least one homeless friend with me whenever I went to meetings, lobbying visits, speaking engagements, etc.” It was a risky thing to do, but Michael Stoops, now Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), did it anyway. The idea for a speakers’ bureau comprised of homeless and formerly homeless speakers was born from that risk.
Since then, NCH’s “Faces of Homelessness” Speakers’ Bureau based in Washington, DC, has grown from an idea to a movement. The Bureau currently has 26 speakers whose stories and experiences reached over 17,000 individuals from 40 states across the U.S. in 2008 alone. The face of homelessness are often surprising to those who hear the stories of the speakers and audience members usually vow to never treat homeless individuals poorly again. “The Speakers’ Bureau is a powerful educational tool in the fight to end homelessness. I have witnessed more than a few audience members fight back tears as they listened to speakers share their personal stories. The presentations move many people to action in their own communities”, explained Dana F. Woolfolk, one of the speakers from the National Coalition’s Bureau.
In 2007, NCH partnered with AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) to put VISTA volunteers at local coalitions and service providers across the state of Florida to create speakers’ bureaus. They focused on using Florida as a starting place for the project because the state had the highest number of violent attacks against homeless individuals for the past three years in a row. These bureaus are modeled after “Faces of Homelessness” and reach out to the same audience as NCH: youth, civic groups, all faith groups and college students. The 11 VISTAs and one VISTA Leader in nine cities across the state share the same commitment to dispelling the myths, stereotypes, and misperceptions people with homes have about those without homes. David, a speaker from the Orlando Speakers’ Bureau said, “We get looked at as the enemy, there might be some bad people on the streets but there are people in suits and ties doing worse every day.” As of April 2009, the VISTAs have recruited 95 speakers across Florida who are taking the chance to advocate on behalf of themselves and others who are in similar situations. In the past six months the speakers reached 15,273 people; 7,701 adults and 7,572 youth.
The National Coalition for the Homeless hopes to nationally expand the Speakers’ Bureau project and is currently taking steps toward that goal. By June 2009 there will be 25 VISTAs and two VISTA Leaders in 16 cities across Florida; 10 VISTAs and one VISTA Leader pioneering the project in all major cities across Georgia; and three VISTAs located in major cities in South Carolina. The projects in Georgia and South Carolina will closely mirror the project in Florida by utilizing VISTAs at various homeless service agencies and coalitions. NCH hopes to hire two staff people to help manage the rapidly expanding project; a Trainer to teach the VISTAs best practices and other methods for creating successful, sustainable Speakers’ Bureaus at their site, and a Program Director/ Administrator to manage the project in Florida.
The stories of homelessness in newspapers, blogs, and television news demonstrate the need for dialogue between homeless and housed individuals to work toward solutions to end homelessness. Who better to advocate for increased resources to help homeless men, women and children and educate communities on the need for treating our homeless neighbors with dignity and respect than those who have experienced it? As one of the Florida Speakers, Steve Z., from the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County Storytellers said, “I have a Masters Degree in [homelessness]. If there is one thing I know it would be that.” If you are interested in hosting any of the Speakers Bureaus check out NCH’s website at www.nationalhomeless.org
Cherly DeFlavis is an AmeriCorps*VISTA who served on the speakers bureau project for the National Coalition for the Homeless at the office of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.
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Since then, NCH’s “Faces of Homelessness” Speakers’ Bureau based in Washington, DC, has grown from an idea to a movement. The Bureau currently has 26 speakers whose stories and experiences reached over 17,000 individuals from 40 states across the U.S. in 2008 alone. The face of homelessness are often surprising to those who hear the stories of the speakers and audience members usually vow to never treat homeless individuals poorly again. “The Speakers’ Bureau is a powerful educational tool in the fight to end homelessness. I have witnessed more than a few audience members fight back tears as they listened to speakers share their personal stories. The presentations move many people to action in their own communities”, explained Dana F. Woolfolk, one of the speakers from the National Coalition’s Bureau.
In 2007, NCH partnered with AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) to put VISTA volunteers at local coalitions and service providers across the state of Florida to create speakers’ bureaus. They focused on using Florida as a starting place for the project because the state had the highest number of violent attacks against homeless individuals for the past three years in a row. These bureaus are modeled after “Faces of Homelessness” and reach out to the same audience as NCH: youth, civic groups, all faith groups and college students. The 11 VISTAs and one VISTA Leader in nine cities across the state share the same commitment to dispelling the myths, stereotypes, and misperceptions people with homes have about those without homes. David, a speaker from the Orlando Speakers’ Bureau said, “We get looked at as the enemy, there might be some bad people on the streets but there are people in suits and ties doing worse every day.” As of April 2009, the VISTAs have recruited 95 speakers across Florida who are taking the chance to advocate on behalf of themselves and others who are in similar situations. In the past six months the speakers reached 15,273 people; 7,701 adults and 7,572 youth.
The National Coalition for the Homeless hopes to nationally expand the Speakers’ Bureau project and is currently taking steps toward that goal. By June 2009 there will be 25 VISTAs and two VISTA Leaders in 16 cities across Florida; 10 VISTAs and one VISTA Leader pioneering the project in all major cities across Georgia; and three VISTAs located in major cities in South Carolina. The projects in Georgia and South Carolina will closely mirror the project in Florida by utilizing VISTAs at various homeless service agencies and coalitions. NCH hopes to hire two staff people to help manage the rapidly expanding project; a Trainer to teach the VISTAs best practices and other methods for creating successful, sustainable Speakers’ Bureaus at their site, and a Program Director/ Administrator to manage the project in Florida.
The stories of homelessness in newspapers, blogs, and television news demonstrate the need for dialogue between homeless and housed individuals to work toward solutions to end homelessness. Who better to advocate for increased resources to help homeless men, women and children and educate communities on the need for treating our homeless neighbors with dignity and respect than those who have experienced it? As one of the Florida Speakers, Steve Z., from the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County Storytellers said, “I have a Masters Degree in [homelessness]. If there is one thing I know it would be that.” If you are interested in hosting any of the Speakers Bureaus check out NCH’s website at www.nationalhomeless.org
Cherly DeFlavis is an AmeriCorps*VISTA who served on the speakers bureau project for the National Coalition for the Homeless at the office of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.
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