A Way To Help The Homeless
This storyteller hopes video diaries will help people empathize with those experiencing homelessness. The founder of Homeless Stories spoke to Brut about the creative way the company is providing meaningful change to the community. đ„
A non-profit in the UK is allowing the homeless tell their own personal stories.
âAnd I think when youâre homeless I think people shun you, you can sit outside places and people can go past you and theyâll throw you money, or they can throw you a sandwich, they can put you a cup of tea, but not many of them actually get down beside you and say âhow are you?â
Mattie â âI was evicted and didnât have anywhere else to go. I kind of packed up my stuff and left at about 10.30pm on a Saturday night. Didnât really know what I was going to be doing but I just thought, Iâm gonna go to Kings Cross, because thereâs always lots of places to stay here.â
Eddie â âYou donât know how one act of kindness can change somebody, itâs like throwing a pebble in a river, we donât see where the ripple ends, you know thatâs what kindness is to people. Somebody said to me that humanity is one act of kindness and we donât see where it goes.â
Glenn Cooper is the founder of Homeless Stories --video diaries from people living on the streets which are then shared with organizations that can provide shelter and work opportunities.
âI'm a storyteller always looking at digital marketing, digital media and social media and how to tell authentic stories with our artists and it's just something that I'm getting to a certain age where I wanted to start doing something to give back. I don't really have the solutions to homelessness. It's such a broad issue but I wanted to try and apply my knowledge my skills to the problem and see what I could do to try and build awareness.â
The stories are shared by thousands across social media --allowing people to listen and empathize with struggles of people living on the streets.
âWe had a first charity we work with, Glassdoor who are based in southwest London. We shot six films for Glassdoor. When we sat down, and they shared with us that directly and indirectly on the back of our films they had raised over forty thousand pounds and that was amazing to us to hear. But when we actually went into detail they said that forty thousand pounds is equivalent to basically having sixty five homeless people giving shelter for a month and counseling which is enough to a quite a period of a month is enough to make a difference and get them off the street and get them rehoused.â
150 million people worldwide are homeless.Cooper hopes Homeless Stories will remind people to treat each person with empathy and care.
âJust acknowledging people just even if you haven't got if you don't have any money on you just acknowledge these people sometimes, they don't get spoken to for days on end. They feel anonymous. They feel invisible. So just either places stopping sitting down and having a conversation if you have time if you don't. Maybe buy them a coffee. Just something simple like that. It means a hell of a lot.â
BRUT.
A non-profit in the UK is allowing the homeless tell their own personal stories.
âAnd I think when youâre homeless I think people shun you, you can sit outside places and people can go past you and theyâll throw you money, or they can throw you a sandwich, they can put you a cup of tea, but not many of them actually get down beside you and say âhow are you?â
Mattie â âI was evicted and didnât have anywhere else to go. I kind of packed up my stuff and left at about 10.30pm on a Saturday night. Didnât really know what I was going to be doing but I just thought, Iâm gonna go to Kings Cross, because thereâs always lots of places to stay here.â
Eddie â âYou donât know how one act of kindness can change somebody, itâs like throwing a pebble in a river, we donât see where the ripple ends, you know thatâs what kindness is to people. Somebody said to me that humanity is one act of kindness and we donât see where it goes.â
Glenn Cooper is the founder of Homeless Stories --video diaries from people living on the streets which are then shared with organizations that can provide shelter and work opportunities.
âI'm a storyteller always looking at digital marketing, digital media and social media and how to tell authentic stories with our artists and it's just something that I'm getting to a certain age where I wanted to start doing something to give back. I don't really have the solutions to homelessness. It's such a broad issue but I wanted to try and apply my knowledge my skills to the problem and see what I could do to try and build awareness.â
The stories are shared by thousands across social media --allowing people to listen and empathize with struggles of people living on the streets.
âWe had a first charity we work with, Glassdoor who are based in southwest London. We shot six films for Glassdoor. When we sat down, and they shared with us that directly and indirectly on the back of our films they had raised over forty thousand pounds and that was amazing to us to hear. But when we actually went into detail they said that forty thousand pounds is equivalent to basically having sixty five homeless people giving shelter for a month and counseling which is enough to a quite a period of a month is enough to make a difference and get them off the street and get them rehoused.â
150 million people worldwide are homeless.Cooper hopes Homeless Stories will remind people to treat each person with empathy and care.
âJust acknowledging people just even if you haven't got if you don't have any money on you just acknowledge these people sometimes, they don't get spoken to for days on end. They feel anonymous. They feel invisible. So just either places stopping sitting down and having a conversation if you have time if you don't. Maybe buy them a coffee. Just something simple like that. It means a hell of a lot.â
BRUT.