Category: Events

The Stranger Genius Award Goes To Family Homelessness Film Fellow

Drew Christie drawing by Haley
Drew Christie, as seen by Seattle University student Haley Jo Lewis.

Congratulations to our Film Fellow Drew Christie, winner of a coveted Genius Award from The Stranger! At the ceremony Saturday night, Oct. 18, Drew was named as winner of the Film category for his impressive body of work, including more “op-docs” for the New York Times than any other artist.

The nominations were announced in June, just after Drew had completed his work on “The Beast Inside,” the animated short film he co-directed with Amy Enser (produced by Lindy Boustedt). That film is the main reason we were rooting for him.

In the nomination write-up, Charles Mudede of The Stranger wrote:

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StoryCorps Finding Our Way — Tacoma stories painful, uplifting, sincere

Our StoryCorps project, “Finding Our Way: Puget Sound Stories of Family Homelessness,” has completed its recordings in Pierce and Snohomish counties. In this post from the StoryCorps blog, our partner Michelle Bova reflects on the first recordings in Tacoma. Check it out!

 

 

StoryCorps Tanya Mettlen and Jordan Kemper Tacoma

Tacoma mom Jordan Kemper talked to Tanya Mettlen of Catholic Community Services of Western Washington for her recording. Photo by Jonathan Ross of CCS.

 

For another view on the StoryCorps week in Tacoma, read this wonderful column by Larry LaRue of the News Tribune.

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Project Cool: Supplying a Brighter Future for Children who are Homeless

Written by Krista Kent, Digital Design Assistant, Seattle University Project on Family Homelessness and senior at Seattle U

crayola-markers-

As a child I always loved buying new school supplies, and there was perhaps nothing better than a brand-new case of Crayola markers. Having worked in a first-grade classroom this past year, I have seen that students are still excited to have new supplies. But for families who can’t afford to buy supplies, local supply drives play an important role in the community.

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in Project Cool for Back to School, which gathers supplies and creates backpacks for local school-aged children who are homeless. Volunteers came together at Columbia City Church of Hope earlier this month to help assemble and pack backpacks full of school supplies and dental kits.

Presented by the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Project Cool prepared more than 1,300 backpacks with the help of 130 volunteers over the course of five days. The backpacks will be distributed to nonprofit organizations in August, just in time to get them to students all over King County.

Behind the scenes of a major effort

When I first arrived, I signed in, created a nametag, and then was led downstairs to where all the supplies were set up. There were big signs clearly marking where each station was located, including a first-aid station and a table set with coffee and donuts; it was clear that Project Cool really appreciates their volunteers.

During introductions I learned that there were volunteers from differing backgrounds: staff from the Salvation Army, YWCA, YMCA, even students who are currently in the youth program at the YMCA. Regardless of whether this was our first or fifth year with Project Cool, we all arrived with the same intention of making sure that every student comes to class with school supplies.

After introductions, the 11 of us split into groups and set off to different stations. Some prepared dental kits, some took out the recycling, and others cut ribbon that would be used to mark backpacks ready for distribution. For the two hours that I was there, I removed the plastic encasing from the backpacks and took out the small silicone sanitary packs that were inside.

 

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by Categories: Collaboration, Events, Family Homelessness, Homelessness Among Schoolchildren, Youth PovertyTags: , , , 2 Comments

Guest Post: One Night in a Car, Our Family’s Story

Watching her child and grandchildren struggle with homelessness drove Diane to action. Read about their experiences and how Diane created a fantastic advocacy event scheduled for Aug. 22-23 in Pierce County.

Lisa Gustaveson's avatarSeattle University School of Theology and Ministry's Faith & Family Homelessness Project

Diane is a devoted wife, mother of two daughters and grandmother of three. She and her husband are entrepreneurs and have owned their own business for over 30 years. Diane has participated in 60-mile cancer walks, Kiwanis, Lions, and has volunteered with St Jude’s and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She is a passionate advocate for better programs to prevent and eliminate family homelessness.

This is her family’s story.

One Night in a Car

Over the past year I’ve dreamt of being involved in an event where others can learn what it is like, just for one night, to sleep in your car. If nothing else, the event would increase community awareness around the many children who call the family car home. These kids wake up in their car and head off to school to return to a car that may or may not be in the same place. My family has…

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“Just A Chapter In My Life”: Tacoma Mom Previews StoryCorps for News-Tribune

Tacoma mom Jordan Kemper says that being homeless with her kids “was a chapter in my life; it doesn’t define me.” She talked to News Tribune columnist Larry LaRue about why she’ll be sharing her experiences with StoryCorps later this month. Read the column below.

To find out how you can share your story in King, Pierce or Snohomish counties this summer, contact findingourway@storycorps.org or call us at 206/398-4457.

Read more about the project here. 

News Tribune Logo

Larry LaRue: The homeless have their stories — and now they can tell them

BY LARRY LARUE

Staff writer, Tacoma News Tribune

July 1, 2014

 

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Hack to End Homelessness: Tiana’s Take (New Video)

What was the role of Seattle University faculty, students and staff in the Hack to End Homelessness? They were planners, community liaisons, hackers and volunteers.  This awesome new video by our project assistant, Tiana Quitugua, tells the stories of the many folks in red at the Hackathon.

Tiana is one of the stellar Seattle U students graduating this weekend, and this is one of her final projects for us.  Thank you, Tiana, for capturing this experience and telling it from the SU perspective, and for all your great work for us.

For more about the Hackathon, read our recap.

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StoryCorps and Gates Foundation Launch “Finding Our Way” Project

NOTE: This blog post is about our StoryCorps project launch. For more recent information, see our StoryCorps page.

StoryCorps Tierra Jackson John Horan
One of the most memorable StoryCorps segments for the family homelessness community is the story of Tierra Jackson, who with her former principal John Horan reflected on what it was like to be homeless in high school. Photo credit: StoryCorps.

Every Friday morning at around 7:30 a.m., millions of people around the country are entranced by a weekly public radio segment in which everyday Americans tell the stories of their lives.  It’s the beloved StoryCorps, and it’s coming to our region in summer 2014 to find stories about families who have experienced homelessness.

While only about 50 of its stories per year make it onto National Public Radio, StoryCorps has actually recorded more than 50,000 stories in its 10 years. The stories are archived in the Library of Congress.

This July and August, people in Western Washington who have experienced family homelessness will be able to tell their own stories as part of the new StoryCorps project, “Finding Our Way: Puget Sound Stories about Family Homelessness.” The project is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who asked our Project on Family Homelessness to serve as the local coordinator.

We’ll be working with local host partners to find stories from among their current and recent clients, and also reaching out to the public to find people who have experienced family homelessness in their past. The stories will also be available for our advocacy efforts to end family homelessness in Washington state.

Find out how service providers can help us find the stories and use them to advocate. Got a story? Click to jump to the details.

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2014 Conference on Ending Homelessness, Yakima, WA

Written by Graham Pruss, Project Coordinator, Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness

red lion hotel restaurant and lounge billboard welcome ending homelessness
The Red Lion Welcomes Ending Homelessness

On May 21 and 22, 2014, Yakima hosted the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance’s 24th Annual Conference on Ending Homelessness, a dynamic combination of speakers and workgroups attended by more than 600 service providers, non-profit organizers and advocates for low-income people. I attended the Conference with colleagues from Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness, and because of my own research around income inequality, direct outreach, vehicle residency, advocacy and service provision. This was my second year at the CoEH and my first not presenting, allowing the time and lack of pressure to appreciate the Conference fully. I was looking forward to participating in workshops such as “Does Class Matter In Homeless Advocacy?,” “Reduction In Federal Affordable Housing Funding & The Re-Emergence Of Contemporary Homelessness,” and “Finding The Forgotten: Engaging The Chronically Homeless.”

Alan Peterson, managing director of Real Change on Class in Homeless Advocac
Alan Preston, managing director of Real Change, on “Class in Homeless Advocacy”

I arrived at the Conference excited to see friends, colleagues and acquaintances from throughout Washington state. After lunch, we broke into workshops prepared by the Conference – all were very well organized, with clear goals and information to take home and follow up on. In particular, Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) Executive Director Paul Boden’s presentation on the “Reduction in Federal Affordable Housing Funding” was an eye-opening experience for the packed room. Boden spent an hour and a half frenetically describing the effect of reallocating housing funding from established U.S. community cornerstones such as the departments of Veterans Administration (VA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to general “homeless” services such as the current McKinney-Vento federally funded programs. On this, Boden remarked, “The impact of de-funding housing was that ‘poor’ people became ‘homeless’ people. But, they’re still people. Housing, health care and education are not homeless issues, they are social justice issues.”

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Seattle International Film Festival “American Refugees” Premiere (Haley’s Recap)

Seattle University, four animated shorts, and a determination to change the way people see family homelessness

Written by Haley Jo Lewis, Student Project Assistant for the Seattle University Project on Family Homelessness

Seattle University: empowering leaders for a just and humane world. But what does that really look like?

It was a sold-out show on May 19 at the Harvard Exit theatre. While a sold-out show is not necessarily unusual, the content of the films made it remarkable. The films, titled collectively as American Refugees, are four animated shorts that tell the stories of families, homelessness and their resilience against all odds.

siff harvard exit theatre
Marquee at the Harvard Exit theatre. Photo by Steve Schimmelman.

Seattle University’s Film and Family Homelessness Project had recruited five professional filmmakers to create these films. Seattle University students were involved throughout the process — assisting the filmmakers as Student Fellows, helping to develop discussion guides, designing collateral and finally, volunteering at the event itself.

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Mark Horvath Hacking to End Homelessness: May 1-4, 2014 (Haley’s View)

Written by Haley Jo Lewis, Student Project Assistant, Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness

After months of working with Seattle University’s Project on Family Homeless, I knew just how influential Mark Horvath is in efforts being made to end homelessness. His passion and energy are contagious, even through the computer screen. I was eager to meet the man behind the film @home and the Invisible People movement.

On May 1, partners from the three Seattle University projects on family homelessness welcomed e-activist Mark Horvath (@hardlynormal) to Seattle. We had invited Mark to join our partners at Impact Hub and Hack to End Homelessness (@hack2end) to motivate and educate Hackathon participants on homelessness and its solutions. After watching the documentary about his work, @home, multiple times and following his passionate work on Twitter and Youtube, I was anxious and excited to meet Mark.

Mark’s work could be said to manifest in the documentary @home. This new film followed Mark on a cross-country journey as he talked with homeless people and filmed their stories to share with the world. Read my reaction on Firesteel to this moving, inspiring, and beautiful documentary.

Not only had I written a blog post in reaction to @home, but I had also created some art inspired by his film. I was excited to meet the man behind the camera, and to give him the art I had created for it.

mark horvath haley lewis twitter drawing @home film
I (@peopleneedhomes) tweet a photo to Mark of one of the drawings I did for him a few days before our meeting.

 

Mark was kind, compassionate, and grateful. I knew from the get-go that Mark was a storyteller, but in person it was a whole different ball game. Every story he told was captivating, and when he spoke, people listened. There is something about the way Mark tells stories that is especially moving. Once homeless himself, Mark is dedicated to his work in ways that other people aren’t. Mark’s vulnerability and closeness to the issue is what makes his stories so powerful and moving.

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