Telling the stories of homeless people in the UK using social media – Mark Horvath is coming from over the pond

http://youtu.be/zkUzCWBfrQ8

Sometimes the difference we make is looking at things with fresh eyes.  It seems to me that that is what Mark Horvath plans to do when he visits Britain to gather and share stories of homelessness here.

He’s crowdsourcing funds in the USA for a project to spend a month in the uk helping homeless people tell their stories. British Airways have donated the flights and others are helping.  I’ve been watching Mark’s work and he comes withe the blessing of Beth Kanter. The video explain what a difference traveling can make for him.  As he says on his blog

The first signs of a serious homelessness crisis in England’s towns and cities are emerging, with increases in rough sleeping, street drinking, crime and antisocial behavior as a result of swingeing cuts to hostel and housing services. Charities have warned that official figures showing a 14% rise in people classed as homeless are just the “tip of the iceberg”, because they fail to capture huge numbers who have been displaced from their home and are living with friends, in hostels or on the streets. For 10 days early July Invisible People will tour the UK helping homeless people and homeless services tell their story.

A generous donor will be matching every donation up to $3,000 so your donations will be doubled.  Join us, be the one helping tell how the story turns out for so many of our homeless friends in the UK.

If you want to donate here is his chipin account:

 

2 comments

  1. Juli says:

    What a brilliant idea. I think we are just experiencing the tip of the iceberg as suggested in the report. We have mutual things to learn. Bradford where our project is based is seeing an increase. The past three years have seen “official figures” go from 3 to 23 to 30. Of course we all know that is not the case. Mark, please do get in touch and come and share some of our stories. Juli

  2. Kevin Curtis says:

    The autorities are wilfully turning their heads from reality – the economy is a fundamental contributor to the dramatically increasing problem but then so is many of their decisions to cut back on the funding available to the providers seeking to address the needs of the homeless. Of the 2106 beds lost to the homeless in ENGLAND over one third have been lost here in the East Midlands!
    We would be delighted to welcome you to the Midlands Mark.
    If you want to get a flavour of what the Canaan Trust, as an independent Christian charity, has sought to do since 1995 view our short video on YouTube (simply type in Canaan Trust).

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