Homelessness not Hopelessness

There are roughly 2 million youths who experience homelessness every year.

Many of these kids are on the street due to issues beyond their control.

Girls that are being sexually molested by their fathers and boys who are being physically abused by their supposed loved ones, run away and are left on the streets because of the harsh card life has dealt them.

Roughly 2 million youths…

Let that sink in for a moment before watching this:

I found out about this campaign via Mark Horvath.

I’ve talked about Mark Horvath and his great work with Invisible People before. And I even had the chance to hang out this year IRL at SxSW and it was awesome to see that even in the midst of all that was going on (parties, events, etc.) – he still carried a backpack full of fresh socks (or freshies) to hand out to those on the streets of Austin.

As part of his own work to end homelessness, Mark kicked off a cross-country tour last month and he’s been highlighting the stories of homeless youth across the country. And this week he announced his partnership with Virgin Mobile, RE*Generation and Sevenly to help raise funds to help keep teens off the street.

“I understand where these kids are coming from. I was homeless myself but with the help and kindness of others, I was able get out of my dire situation. Our homeless youth deserve that chance and much more,” said Horvath. “These kids need compassion, guidance and care. With Sevenly.org and The RE*Generation, I believe we can really make a significant difference.”

To raise funds, Sevenly is selling some great shirts and for every shirt sold, $7 will go towards RE*Generation. And as a bonus… if 3,000 people share the Sevenly website this week (they’re at 1600 shares currently) Virgin Mobile will throw in an additional $50,000 to support RE*Generation.

So buy a shirt and share the site and do something to help end youth homelessness… and next time you’re out, grab an extra bag of socks to handout yourself. I know many would appreciate a clean pair of socks as much (if not more) than your spare change.

To see some of the teens already helped visit InvisiblePeople.tv or Mark’s Tumblr.

Open Our Eyes – an interview with Kevin Hendricks

Kevin D. Hendricks
Kevin D. Hendricks

Last week, I told you about Kevin Hendrick’s latest publication – Open Our Eyes: Seeing the Invisible People of Homelessness.

The book officially releases today but I ordered an “advance” copy and loved reading it over the weekend.

Kevin and the other collaborators did a great job to help share the message Mark Horvath has been sharing at invisiblepeople.tv since 2008 — and all the proceeds from the book go straight to helping Mark continue his great work.

Plus – I believe it’s the first book (other than my own) to make mention of our podcast… so that makes it cool in it’s own right :-).

Kevin graciously agreed to take time away from writing his next novel to do a short interview with me via e-mail. Here’s what he had to say… Continue reading Open Our Eyes – an interview with Kevin Hendricks

Proposed “intake center” for homeless looks scary

Marni passed along an article regarding the homeless in Dallas and a proposed intake center for the city. It also focuses a lot on Austin Street where we go “almost every week.” The article is from the Dallas Observer, March 2004.

We need to back down and take a deep breath about this, all of us. I believe the mayor’s motives are good, but she has also shown remarkable
insensitivity. I don’t think the real estate guys are even required to have
good motives.
You and I are required. This is a legitimately tough issue. But rendering
human beings nameless and faceless, treating them all as round pegs to be
shoved into identical round holes, loading them on buses and putting them in
camps: You and I don’t want to have any part of that.

It’s a great insight into some of the issues involved.