Firesteel – Page 3

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.

How can stories help end family homelessness? Firesteel explains.
Read the news release about the project.

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June 9, 2014July 14, 2016 by phungamy Categories: Collaboration, Events, Family HomelessnessTags: Catholic Community Services, Firesteel, Gates Foundation, homeless advocacy, King County, Pierce County, Seattle U students, Snohomish County, StoryCorps, Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, YWCA 9 Comments

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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May 27, 2014 by phungamy Categories: Collaboration, Events, Family Homelessness, Films about HomelessnessTags: American Refugees, Animated Films, Film and Family Homelessness Project, Firesteel, Home for Sale, homeless advocacy, homelessness films, Seattle U students, SIFF, Super Dads, The Beast Inside, The Smiths, YWCA 6 Comments

New Films on Family Homelessness Premiered, Available for Download

Our sister program, the Film & Family Homelessness Project, has created four new animated short films about real families, homelessness and resilience.

“American Refugees” premiered to great acclaim last night, and now you can watch these remarkable films online at http://www.americanrefugees.org.

Visit our Facebook page to see photos from the Firesteel green screen booth and photos from the screening and after-party.

Then, watch the films and share them with your friends, family, colleagues, church, school group — anyone who needs to hear about how important it is to end homelessness among families. Download a discussion guide too!

May 20, 2014 by phungamy Categories: Family Homelessness, Films about Homelessness, Youth PovertyTags: American Refugees, Animated Films, Film and Family Homelessness Project, Firesteel, Home for Sale, homeless advocacy, homelessness films, Super Dads, The Beast Inside, The Smiths 1 Comment

Firesteel Blog: Hacking to End Homelessness

More from inside the Hackathon! Our partners at Firesteel have documented their Hack to End Homelessness experience in this great blog post. It describes Erin’s experiences working on the “Maptastics” super-team, features one of Denise Miller’s trademark awesome videos about the weekend and also includes an interview with our special guest, Mark Horvath.

Read it here: Firesteel / Blog / Hacking to End Homelessness.

May 16, 2014 by phungamy Categories: UncategorizedTags: @hardlynormal, @home, Firesteel, Hack to End Homelessness, homeless advocacy, homelessness films, YWCA Leave a comment

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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May 13, 2014 by phungamy Categories: Collaboration, Events, Family Homelessness, Films about HomelessnessTags: @hardlynormal, @home, Firesteel, Hack to End Homelessness, homeless advocacy, homelessness films, Mark Horvath, Seattle U students, Storify 3 Comments

“@home,” Mark Horvath and Three Wishes for Solving Homelessness

The many faces of Mark Horvath and his good friend, social media, as shown in the new film “@home.” Original art by Haley Jo Lewis.

Written by Haley Jo Lewis, Seattle University communications major and project assistant, Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness. Originally posted at www.FiresteelWA.org

If you had three wishes, what would they be?

Would you even think to wish for a home? Maybe a bigger one, perhaps, if you already have one.

While interviewing people who are homeless, social media pioneer and homelessness advocate Mark Horvath always ends his conversations with a question: “If you had three wishes, what would they be?”

In the new documentary about him, “@home,” the people Mark interviews, without fail, wish for a home.

April 25, 2014 by phungamy Categories: Family Homelessness, JournalismTags: @home, Firesteel, homeless advocacy, homelessness films, Mark Horvath, Seattle U students, YWCA 2 Comments