THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE / ACTIVIST BLOG

“My life was a wandering; I never had a homeland. It was a matter of being constantly tossed about, without rest; nowhere and never did I find a home.”

― Jan Amos Komenský,

 Blog description and purpose

One issue that has always been to my concern was the numerous amount of homeless people there are in Rhode Island. The purpose of my activist blog is to explain the reasons why people become homeless in the first place and also the solutions to end homelessness before it get’s worse than it already is. One of the main reasons why people become homeless is because of poverty. Other reasons are due to medical expenses, living in already impoverished area, and coming from a poor family. People often become homeless when their housing and economic issues collide with other crisis such as domestic violence, physical or mental illness, addiction, transition into adulthood and relational strains.

This is a topic that has always been to my interest and concern since I was very young and I’ve always tried doing my best in participating and being more involved in community services to help with the homeless. This is a very hard topic to write about because there are many aspects that go into play while dealing with this issue that affects everyone in the Rhode Island community. I feel as if there is a lot to address here and a lot that hasn’t really been done by our government into making more shelters available for the homeless. I feel that this is a very challenging topic and since it’s something that I’ve been interested in for such a long duration, that I will invest a lot of my time into solving this matter .

I hope that with this blog I can achieve many goals. I hope that I can get feedback from my audience, especially from people who used to be homeless and they aren’t anymore. With their feedback this can help not only make my blog stronger but it will also help me and my audience to live a better and healthier life. This blog is for people who care about this subject matter and invest in a lot of time in helping our their community. I hope that I can get people’s attention and to get them more involved with this issue since it hasn’t been known as a major issue till now. I hope that with my knowledge of this subject I can have people help make a difference each day, whether it’s working at shelters, soup kitchens, or cleaning up the environment to make it a safe and cleaner place. The more help they get, the more I feel as if this issue will be taken more seriously. “Unless action is taken, hundreds will be without a place to sleep this winter. With the recession showing few signs of abating, we expect the homeless crisis to continue to worsen unless we intervene” ( Rhode Island Coalition for the homeless) .

About Me Statement

I am Laura Fortunato, a junior at the University of Rhode Island and am majoring in communication. I am native Rhode Islander, and the reason why I choose to write about the homeless people specifically in this state, is because even though Rhode Island is the smallest state, it still has numerous amounts of homeless people living in it.Over the past years I have done a lot of community service for my church. It was a really rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to work in soup kitchens all over the city. I helped prepare meals and the best part was serving them. Knowing that I could put a plate full of food on to their tables made me feel good. I also donate a lot of my clothes and equipments to the Salvation Army. I still donate to them as often as I can. Especially during this time of year where it starts to get cold. Winter in Rhode Island is terrible so by giving them enough supplies will help make a big difference this season.

My goal after college is to become a world news broadcaster. Ever since I was a little girl, I would always practice in front of the mirror as if I were talking in front of the camera. My typical day is to wake up and read the morning newspaper and it would end with me being glued to the couch watching the nightly news. So far I have been interning at FOX News, In East Providence, Rhode Island. My work at the news station consist of going out for breaking news, experiencing how the camera works, and interviewing and writing stories for the reporters. It’s a stressful job because you are always on the move, but that’s the life of a news reporter and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I love reporting stories and I plan on giving my audience the most out of my blogs.

Homeless Woman Gets Masters Degree

drug abuse and homless; her story, her recovery.

3 important questions to ask yourself

1. Are homeless people always homeless? No

2. Have homeless people always been homeless? No

3. Will homeless people always be homeless? No

On my other blog’s, I will post video’s about homeless people who have had masters, and graduating degrees but who are now living in shelters, and also videos about homeless people who manage to get out of the rut. The questions that I posted up above prove a point as do the video’s. I hope everyone learned something new today! I’ll keep you posted on more information very soon. Stay tuned!!!

55 year old Homeless Man carries 2 Masters Degrees ( Maurice Johnson )

 

55 year old Maurice Johnston lives in Boston, by way of Cleveland. He has a Masters Degree in Plasma Physics from Dartmouth College, and a masters in Electrical Engineering and acoustics from Purdue University. He’s worked over 10 years at Lockheed Aerospace & Aerodyne Research Corp. Maurice has taught in Science and physics, and took care of both his parents in their time of need. Maurice is very well spoken, (he sounds like Obama) and is very kind, so why is Maurice homeless…..

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A day in the life of a homeless person

• 

  In this blog, I have put together information that I have researched coming from a homeless person and a person working in a homeless shelter of the positive and negative aspects of being homeless. To make this easier, It is already understandable that their will be more negative views than positive views about being homeless. To start off I will list a few of the many negative sides that homeless people have to run into everyday. Two of the main common reasons why people choose not to sleep in homeless shelters is because most homeless people are drug users which is against shelter rule policies, and secondly people will refuse to follow homeless shelter rules. Coming from a person who worked in a homeless shelter this is what he had to offer:

•  homeless people carry a lot of different types of parasites due to their moving around all the time. By staying in the homeless shelter, another person is more likely to catch the parasites as well.
• Many homeless people do have jobs. The check in for shelter is really difficult and the process for waiting in line for checking in usually takes hours, many working homeless people can not use them.
• One of the many scariest homeless shelter dangers is rape and assault. Homeless shelters and the areas around them are often hunting grounds for human predators.
• Diseases spread easily in homeless shelters. Many of those with chronic coughs have chronic illnesses and transmissible diseases.

• disabilities make homeless shelter use difficult. Some shelters turn away people in wheelchairs or with other mobility limitations such as the need to use a walker or crutches to get around.

Now for the “positive views” about being homeless this is what I have researched:

Having freedom, not having to work a regular job, being able to hide from authority, not having to fit into social constraints,    and being off the radar. As you can already tell this isn’t really considered the american dream, but to the homeless people this is their way of living, and their okay with it.

Activist Blog (DRAFT) ; blog’s description,blog’s purpose, and about me statement

One issue that has always been to my concern was the numerous amount of homeless people there are in Rhode Island. The purpose of my activist blog is to explain the reasons why people become homeless in the first place and also the solutions to end homelessness before it get’s worse than it already is. One of the main reasons why people become homeless is because of poverty. Other reasons are due to medical expenses, living in already impoverished area, and coming from a poor family. People often become homeless when their housing and economic issues collide with other crisis such as domestic violence, physical or mental illness, addiction, transition into adulthood and relational strains.

This is a topic that has always been to my interest and concern since I was very young and I’ve always tried doing my best in participating and being more involved in community services to help with the homeless. This is a very hard topic to write about because there are many aspects that go into play while dealing with this issue that affects everyone in the Rhode Island community.  I feel as if there is a lot to address here and a lot that hasn’t really been done by our government into making more shelters available for the homeless. I feel that this is a very challenging topic and since it’s something that I’ve been interested in for such a long duration, that I will invest a lot of my time into solving this matter .

I hope that with this blog I can achieve many goals. I hope that I can get feedback from my audience, especially from people who used to be homeless and they aren’t anymore. With their feedback this can help not only make my blog stronger but it will also help me and my audience to live a better and more healthier life. This blog is for people who care about this subject matter and invest in a lot of time in helping our their community. I hope that I can get people’s attention and to get them more involved with this issue since it hasn’t been known as a major issue till now. I hope that with my knowledge of this subject I can have people help make a difference each day, whether it’s working at shelters, soup kitchens, or cleaning up the environment to make it a safe and cleaner place. The more help they get, the more I feel as if this issue will be taken more seriously. “Unless action is taken, hundreds will be without a place to sleep this winter. With the recession showing few signs of abating, we expect the homeless crisis to continue to worsen unless we intervene” ( Rhode Island Coalition for the homeless) .

About Me Statement

I am Laura Fortunato, a junior at the University of Rhode Island and am majoring in communications. I am native Rhode Islander which is why I wanted to focus the attention on my blog of the homeless to right here where I was born and raised! Over the past years I have done a lot of community service for my church. It was a really rewarding experience. I had the oppurtunity to work in soup kitchens all over the city. I helped prepare meals and the best part was serving them. Knowing that I could put a plate full of food on to their tables made me feel good. I also donate a lot of my clothes, and equipments to the Salvation Army. I still donate to them as often as I can. Especially during this time of year where it is starting to get cold. Winter in Rhode Island is terrible so by giving them enough help will make a big difference this season.

My goal after college is to become a world news broadcaster. Ever since I was a little girl, I would always practice in front of the mirror as if I were talking in front of the camera. My typical day is to wake up and read the morning newspaper and it would end with me being glued to the couch watching the nightly news. So far I have been interning at FOX News, In East Providence, Rhode Island. My work at the news station consist of going out for breaking news, experiencing how the camera works, interviewing and writing stories for the reporters. It’s a stressful job because you are always on the move. but it’s so rewarding. I love reporting stories and I plan on giving my audience the most out of my blogs.

Draft Description, Draft Purpose, Stance, Hope To Accomplish, About Me Statement..

One issue that has always been to my concern was the numerous amount of homeless people there are in Rhode Island. The purpose of my activist blog is to explain the reasons why people become homeless in the first place and also the solutions to end homelessness before it get’s worse than it already is. This is a topic that has always been to my interest and concern since I was very young and I’ve always tried doing my best in participating and being more involved in community services to help with the homeless. This is a very hard topic to write about because there are many aspects that go into play while dealing with this issue that affects everyone in the Rhode Island community.  I feel as if there is a lot to address here and a lot that hasn’t really been done by our government into making more shelters available for the homeless. I feel that this is a very challenging topic and since it’s something that I’ve been interested for such a long duration, that I will invest a lot of my time into solving this matter . I hope that with this blog I can achieve many goals. I hope  I can get people’s attention and to get them more involved with this issue since it hasn’t been known as a major issue till now. I hope that with my knowledge of this subject that I can have people help make a difference each day, whether it’s working at shelters, soup kitchens, or cleaning up the environment to make it a safe and cleaner place. The more help they get, the more I feel as if this issue will be taken more seriously. “Unless action is taken, hundreds will be without a place to sleep this winter. With the recession showing few signs of abating, we expect the homeless crisis to continue to worsen unless we intervene” ( Rhode Island Coalition for the homeless) .

About Me Statement

I am Laura Fortunato, a junior at the University of Rhode Island and am majoring in communications. My goal after college is to become a world news broadcaster. I love reporting stories and I plan on giving my audience the most out of my blogs.

Project 1: Brainstorming Activity 2

Our assignment that we need to accomplish is to analyze and assess either a political, social, or economical problem that have an impact or have impacted our daily lives. My goal for this activist blog is to gain attention and perspectives from my audience. I hope to share with people my admiration for this topic. Like Suzanne Stefanac stated in Blogs as Clubhouses, ” Finding like-minded souls who share and fuel our passions has always been a challenge.” Luckily for blogging,  it has made it accessible for all of us to share with other people from all over, our similarities for a topic which has strongly affected us. Since you don’t know one’s true identity on the internet, it is always a frustration because we don’t know if we can really trust this person. I hope that with my blogs, I can gain peoples trust and to get honest feedback from them. My primary audience would be anyone involved with social and economic issues. My audience needs to be up to date with current news that is happening, so that they not only understand how just one particular topic affects a nation, but how there are many others things that are happening in todays society. My stance will be right to the point. It won’t be short however, because there are a lot of points that need to be addressed and it will take time. This means that my audience really needs to be engaged in these discussions in order for them to appreciate this specific topic.

Project 1: First Sakai Work Brainstorming Activity

One of the blogs that I choose to write about was called The Cleanest Line ( the state of wilderness and a compendium of it’s back stories). The cleanest line is a web log for the outdoor clothing company Patagonia whose mission is to build the best product, cause the least harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

Good for : adventure inspired news about the places and pursuits you love.

written by a host of Patagonia’s well-spoken ambassadors, plus largely non-bylined contributors from the company’s environment team.

Before reading this blog, it informs the audience so that they are well aware on how this blog does not dedicate it’s time fully on news reporting, but compels the readers with pretty pictures. While reading this I thought to myself well at least their honest.

One of the blogs that I read from the Cleanest Line, was called  how to protect the ” Arctic National Wildlife Area”. In this blog it gives a short overview of the system they are devising in order to preserve the wildlife area. It states that in 1964 there was the wilderness act which was a national policy of the U.S to preserve ares of wilderness on federal lands. The most wilderness coastal plain would be the Arctic Wildlife Refugee. Over the course of 30 years, there have been many attempts to open up oil and gas development in which would destroy the wildlife. Americans have tried to stop them and continue to do so. The rest of the blog shows 12 pictures with a very vague caption below it. All the pictures from the blog come from Ron Hunter, who was part of Patagonia’s environmental team.

In the blog it states how there is a wilderness recommendation for the refugees coastal plain. The wilderness recommendation would protect the wildlife such as bears, musk oxen, caribou, and millions of birds around the globe. This would also include prohibition on oil and gas development and other industrial activities that would disturb the wilderness areas.

The whole purpose of this blog is for having people speak out for this cause of having wildlife preserved. The more recognition there is, the more USFW ( U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) will not ignore.

1)  The four elements that I will analyze which are genre elements, multimodal elements, visual design, and textual content, are recognizable within this blog that I explained.

Genre Elements-  This blog went right to the point. It used stance. It told what it’s purpose and aim was about the issue with giving some reference about the Arctic wildlife refugee act. The blog did use pictures that were indeed very pretty as the blogger said before, but however the captions to the pictures were very vague. It just indicated where these pictures were taken place. The whole purpose of this blog was to engage readers, mainly people who are interested in the wilderness, to help preserve it and help  keep it safe from oil and gas developments. I feel as if the captions to the pictures should indicate exactly how important this landmark  is to the wildlife and what would happen if gas and or oil landmarks were to be placed at that location instead of just giving a description of where the picture was taken place. Since the blog, went right to the purpose, it was very clear and was it was easy to follow along.

Multimodial Elemements- Like I mentioned earlier with the genre elements, the description of the pictures were vague, as well as the text which was vague. It was clear to understand the purpose of the blog but I feel as if more could have been added to blog with references to the wildlife acts. There were no comments in particular to this blog , but at the bottom it does say the number of people who tweeted about it which were 37 and for Facebook it was 445. It does allow an RSS Feed. When I clicked on the link, it gave so many stories of people’s blogs. Mostly had to do with traveling.

Visual Design- The pictures were really pretty, but it was confusing because it did not give an indication of its significance to the wildlife refugee. I feel that in order to grasp people’s attention on this matter, it is important to explain in more detail why in particular this landmark should be preserved. Other blogs by the Cleanest Line, are far more compelling than the one I am writing about. By scrolling through the other blogs, I noticed how much more description there was, especially on the visuals. There were also live video segments as well as testimonials.

Textual Content– The tone of this blog is really plain and simple. It’s clear and it’s easy to understand. I think that this blog lacked   description on its purpose. It should have provided more sympathy for this subject matter. If it described, the consequences of what would occur if those gasses and or oil development were to be placed on the wildlife, the reactions to the audience might shift in that they would be more concerned. Such questions that should have been addressed could be “what would happen to all of the animals?” “How would the environment change if those animals werent’ there anymore? If it described the consequences that  were to occur , than I believe more people would want to learn more about how to help preserve it.

2) For project 1, I have been brainstorming different methods and ideas on the topic that I plan to do which is  homeless people. My main purpose is to engage as many readers as possible. I believe this topic isn’t dealt with enough, and isn’t addressed as much because it isn’t seen as a threatening problem in today’s society. I plan on having my audience range from people in there early 20’s to there late 60’s . I want my audience to be regulars who commit to such issues and are a part of their everyday community. Whether it’s doing any type of community service once a week.

3) The three examples that the blogger used were stance, purpose/aim, and multimodality. The blogger went right to point and told exactly from the start what the audience needs to expect from the article. The purpose and aim for this blog was dedicated for anyone, but specifically people involved with wildlife, to having a stand in preserving wildlife rather than being obstructed with the oil and gas developments. In the blog, the use of multimodality was used such as pictures, RSS feed, and a link to visit their Patagonia Website.

4) By critiquing this blog and by brainstorming each of the four genres, I have come to terms into helping organize my very own blog. For one, I’ll admit my blog is very plain and boring. I am new to the blogging world, so I am just starting to get used to it now. In order to catch attention, I have to use more creativity! I need to add more pictures as well as references. By reading Weblog Ethics by Rebecca Blood I learned 6 important steps into making a weblog sufficient and they are 1) publish facts only that which you believe to be true, 2) if material exist online link it to when you reference it, 3)n publicly correct any misinformation, write each entity as it can not be changed,4) add to but do no rewrite or delete any entry, 5) disclose any conflict or interest, and lastly note questionable and biased sources. Once I have accomplished all of these six task, I will hopefully become a successful blogger.