This week I was visiting Northwest Arkansas for The Farm’s Harvest Festival [ and my friend Mike Rusch connected me with Marian Riner, Families in Transition Coordinator for the Fayetteville Public Schools.
Being honest, when we walked into Marian’s office I didn’t expect a food pantry or large clothing room. That’s not what you think of when you envision a public school. But the truth is in today’s world we are seeing more and more homeless families with school-aged children.
To put a little bit of perspective Fayetteville is a pretty affluent community. Bentonville, the neighboring community, is the home of Walmart, and there are maybe more millionaires in and around Fayetteville than any other communities in America. But there is also extreme poverty. When I first visited three years ago the homeless count was 1287. Now the homeless surveyed reaches well over 2,000. And please remember, any statistic relation to homelessness is a best a good guess. Homeless people, and especially homeless families are not raising their hands to be counted.
Last year this school district of about 9,000 students 264 of them were homeless. That is unacceptable!
Please watch this educational video on homeless children in the public schools
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Since its launch in November 2008, Invisible People has leveraged the power of video and the massive reach of social media to share the compelling, gritty, and unfiltered stories of homeless people from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The vlog (video blog) gets up close and personal with veterans, mothers, children, layoff victims and others who have been forced onto the streets by a variety of circumstances. Each week, they’re on InvisiblePeople.tv, and high traffic sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, proving to a global audience that while they may often be ignored, they are far from invisible.
Invisible People goes beyond the rhetoric, statistics, political debates, and limitations of social services to examine poverty in America via a medium that audiences of all ages can understand, and can’t ignore. The vlog puts into context one of our nation’s most troubling and prevalent issues through personal stories captured by the lens of Mark Horvath – its founder – and brings into focus the pain, hardship and hopelessness that millions face each day. One story at a time, videos posted on InvisiblePeople.tv shatter the stereotypes of America’s homeless, force shifts in perception and deliver a call to action that is being answered by national brands, nonprofit organizations and everyday citizens now committed to opening their eyes and their hearts to those too often forgotten.
Invisible People is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the way we think about people experiencing homelessness.
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