Homeless Bill Of Rights

As you know , Merrrissa Jewler my PR representative has been really helpful into helping  me, as well as the Rhode Island Community into helping the homeless people in Rhode-Island. Governor Stein has been working diligently with us in making an event to promote the help that the homeless people need. After several hours of brainstorming he came up with the “Homeless Bill Of Rights”. The homeless bill of rights bans the discrimination against homeless people and affirms their equal access to jobs, housing and services. Before we announced this bill to the public we had several meetings to attend to at the State House, meeting with several congress men, lawmakers and the senate. We are so thankful that the Senate has approved this bill. The Rhode Island law would guarantee homeless people the right to use public sidewalks, parks, and transportation as well as public buildings like anyone else without discrimination on the basis of his or her housing status. After announcing this to the public at the State House, our supporters have mentioned how necessary this action was being taken place due to the widespread discrimination Rhode Island has. By accomplishing this bill, has been an amazing accomplishment, especially because Rhode Island is the smallest of the 50 states. ” You’re looked down upon because you’re carrying your life on you’re back”, said John Royce of Providence, who was homeless for three years and now is co-director of the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project.

To understand more of what the bill of right does I will highlight some of it’s most important guidelines. The bill of rights is designed to be enforceable, so that homeless people who believe they’ve faced discrimination have the right to sue. It is also designed to send the message that the homeless have the same rights as anyone else.  In the bill of rights their are three provisions that go into effect and they are

1. homeless people have the right to move freely in public spaces without being treated differently than other members of the public who are in those places.

2. homeless people have the right to equal treatment by all state and municipal agencies.

3. prohibits employers from using the lack of perminant  addresses as a basis of either firing or not hiring someone.

Lawmaker Edward Forbs was the one who sponsored the new bill and said in front of the State House on October 20th ” I hope that the rest of the US takes notice of what the nation’s smallest state has done.”

We are so thrilled how this action is starting to take place, and we just hope that from now on discrimination against the homeless people in Rhode Island will end once and for all!

AOTH has another location as well! Facebook and Twitter!

Please like the page on FB and follow us on twitter for more updates and upcoming events!

STAY TUNED:)

http://www.facebook.com/AdvocacyOfTheHomelessness?ref=hl

https://twitter.com/theinvisibleppl

LYNDA ASSIGNMENT

Since I am new working with Lynda, I just wanted to explore and watch basic tutorials. The first video I watched was comparing Twitter and Facebook. I learned about the use of  hash-tags and how you can gain followers by doing that. I learned about the concept of re-tweeting and how your followers can see it on your newsfeed. With Facebook I learned of how you can write as much as you want since their are no limited characters which twitter has. By watching this video, I learned a lot on how this can help me with my own blog. I understood the advantages and disadvantages and by understanding those concepts I can attribute them into what would specifically benefit my blog. 

I also was very curious and wanted to watch  videos about photoshop ( The Power of Photoshop). One thing I really am trying to work on in my blog is being creative. My style is very simple. I want to attract my audience, but I don’t want them to get too distracted from the main purpose of my blog. I always aim to be different as well. By watching the videos of photoshop I had the chance to look at special effects/as well as transforming an image. In this video they showed a picture of a woman and they transformed her face into looking like an avatar. They showed me how to use blurry effects to make the eyes pop out as well as painting her face all blue to look exactly like an avatar. My brother is a photographer in NY and he works with photoshop everyday. In fact I once went to his studio and got the opportunity to see how it works. By watching some tutorials on photoshop I understood a little bit about how it works, however I also understood that it is not something you can learn over night. It definitely takes time, practice and patience in order to understand the full on techniques.

Another video I saw was creating a responsive web design/ creating web graphics. This tutorial was extremely helpful because I am in the process with experimenting with different banner fonts and graphics for each of the headers to my post on my blogs. In this video I learned about creating and slicing multiple-sliced banner images. By doing this you can choose the size and the location of where you would like your banner to be placed. I also learned about linking colors. By this they mean that for whatever color you choose to be the header of each topic you have, you have the chance to change colors which than changes it for each header.

Lastly I watched word-press tutorials. The first one was blog essential training. One of the tutorials they talked about was setting up blogger comments as well as understanding comments. I learned the advantages and disadvantages about comments. Most of the advantages about comments is that you receive feedback to your post and the disadvantages are you may receive negative comments which would start flame wars, arguments. It really depends on the blogger and what he/she want’s to do and if they want their audience to see the negative comments. Some options that the tutorial demonstrated was that you can hide the comments without deleting them which makes it hidden to the viewers. The last two short videos I saw was short vs. long feeds and a video between the difference between post and pages. 

The tutorials were very helpful but by watching them it’s not going to make me an expert in just one day. After each video I did some examples on my computer and I wanted to see if what they told me worked. It took a lot of time and at certain points I had to go back in the video and listen again to the instructions. I learned that it takes a lot of patience but I really gained a lot of knowledge and experience. I definitely look forward to watching more tutorials to make my blog more efficient.

Progress Memo

TO: The Rhode-Island Community

FROM: AOH ( Advocacy of the Homelessness) . ” In order to end homelessness, you must first begin with US.”

DATE: October 1 ,2012

SUBJECT: The alliance works to end all homelessness which focuses on 4 key areas which are: family, youth, veteran, and chronic homelessness.

OPENING SEGMENT

The Purpose of this memo is to explain the many aspects that are involved with homelessness. Such key elements are: who it who it affects, how shelters are not safe and accomadable, lost of jobs, expensive healthcare, and how nothing has been done by ending homelessness.

CONTEXT

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.

TASK SEGMENT

Advocacy is the best strategy to cultivate the political support needed to get the resource we need to prevent homelessness. By helping to spread the word, our program puts together monthely educational and organizing projects, special campaigns and events. We propose a set of strategies that call upon the federal government to work in partnership with the private sector, philanthropy and state and local goverment to employ cost-effective comprehensive solutions to end homelessness.

SUMMARY SEGMNT

1. Are homeless people always homeless? No

2. Have homeless people always been homeless? No

3. Will homeless people always be homeless? No

Our program makes our viewers, our community, undestand the reasons why homelessness occurs and how it has an impact in our commuity. We want to establish effective solutions to ending homelessness and we need YOUR help!

DISCUSSION SEGMENTS

This first step into ending homelessness begins with US. Millions are left without a job each year and are left no choice but to live off on the streets. It’s up to us to figure out the exact points into how homelessness affects our community and solutions into figuring out efficient strategies to end homelessness.

CLOSING SEGMENT

Our program  has 25 members who are diverse ethnically and geographically. The members include service providers, academics and organizers; at least one-quarter of the board are homeless/formerly homeless men and women; are all advocates.  What makes AOH so strong is because we work together as a team. We have the experience and we work to fit and accomadate everyone needs.

Please Visit our homepage on facebook at : http://www.facebook.com/aori.jewler?ref=tn_tnmn

Project 2: Brainstorming Activity-Understanding Social Networking Presence

 

GEIF

Greif, Inc., incorporated in 1926, is a producer of industrial packaging products and services with manufacturing facilities located in over 50 countries. The Company offers a line of industrial packaging products, such as steel, fiber and plastic drums, rigid intermediate bulk containers, closure systems for industrial packaging products, transit protection products, water bottles and reconditioned containers, and services such as container lifecycle management, blending, filling and other packaging services, logistics and warehousing. It is also a producer of flexible intermediate bulk containers and North American provider of industrial and consumer multiwall bag products. It also produces containerboard and corrugated products for niche markets in North America. It sells timber to third parties from its timberland in the southeastern United States. It has four segments: Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services, Flexible Products & Services, Paper Packaging and Land Management. It sells industrial packaging products to customers in industries, such as chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agricultural, pharmaceutical and mineral, among others.

            While researching Geif, I found various articles about their industry. The first one was very well stated and simple. It described what their industry was about and even showed graphs to show the audiences their progress on the finances in the economy with other leading industries that are competing with GEIF.

 

• Do they prefer one social network to another? What makes you think that? Explain. Use evidence. It’s hard to tell because I found numerous amounts of website pertaining to GEIF, and all of them presented itself in a different manner. For example the one I first visited was very simple to understand and only had some graphs, while others were more detailed and showed videos and pictures to make their website more appealing.
• If two or more of the organizations/individuals both use Facebook or Twitter, compare how the way they use the tools in similar or unique ways. For instance, how consistently do they most status updates, what types of images do they use for profile pictures, what types of writing is found on the different social media platforms, how robust or developed is their presence. Describe how you see these folk using these tools, in other words.

By comparing the two GEIF websites they both composed them very differently. The first one was very plain with just regular print, and same font for everything. The only time they used colors was for the graphs. It was also really easy to find exactly you were looking for, which is why I choose this one rather than the other one. The second online website for GEIF was more colorful, used different size and color fonts and everything was spread out on the website.

 

What is the aims/purposes that the organizations are using specific posts for? Try to account for the different ways that aims fit into larger scale goals and desires. For instance, if I’m an environmental group at URI I might hope to end global warming at a large scope. At a more mid-level scope, my goal might be to increase awareness about the importance of members of the URI community recycling responsibly. But I might retweet a post about an event the SEC is holding where they will show a documentary. My aim, in this case, is most simply to get members of the URI community to attend the showing of this documentary, or to make community members aware that such an event exists.  By observing what GEIF’s intention is for us consumers, they explained in depth what their goals were in to succeeding, and by doing this they have sites on their website were you can look at the projects they have accomplished as well as what they are currently doing now. By doing this, the readers have an indication of how reliable and credible they really are.

• Who are the audiences the groups/individuals target? Think about this the same way you thought about aims. Thing about audiences generally, and try to move to a more specific and narrow description of the people who might care. If I am analyzing the URI Sustainable Seafood Initiative, for instance, I might think that citizens from Narragansett, Galilee, and Pt. Judith might have a stake in this program, professors from URI, RI DEM, captains and crews of fishing vessels, restaurant owners, market owners, and seafood lovers. But, secondary audiences might include professors at UConn who are interested in developing a program that is modeled after this initiative. 

Audiences who would be interested in GEIF would be people who are environmentally conscious and whom really been active participants for a while.  This also can be for people who want to learn more about ways into helping the environment and getting started to make changes with the community. 

 

Save the bay

 Save The Bay protects, restores and improves the ecological health of the Narragansett Bay region, including its watershed and adjacent coastal waters, through an ecosystem-based approach to environmental action; defends the right of the public to use and enjoy the Bay and its surrounding waters; and fosters an ethic of environmental stewardship among people who live in or visit the Narragansett Bay region.

As we plan our future, Save The Bay recognizes three imperatives shaping the course of effective environmental action in southern New England:

• Climate change exposes our region to potential threats from rising sea levels and warming waters. As the “Ocean State,” Rhode Island is uniquely vulnerable to the environmental con- sequences of a warming planet.
• Scientists and policymakers increasingly recognize the interconnections between oceans, estuaries, rivers and streams. Effective environmental management must respect these complex interactions and reflect a regional, ecosystem-based approach to environmental action.

Individuals, acting in concert for the common good, can have a profound impact on improving the natural world. Creating and reinforcing an ethic of individual responsibility and stewardship are essential to effecting positive change. How people are making a difference: Overwhelmingly, we have found, people want a cleaner, healthier Narragansett Bay. But many are unsure of how they can make a difference. Who Saves The Bay? Celebrates a multitude of activism by paying tribute to individuals who put their time, talent or resources to Bay-saving use, both big and small. These people bring the best of themselves to Save The Bay

I really liked the way this online website presented itself than all the rest. This website used only three different fonts at most and had only some images .The colors were also very simple.

 What social networks do the organizations use? Online websites

• Do they prefer one social network to another? What makes you think that? Explain. Use evidence.  No, because Save the Bay is the most popular one in Rhode Island, and no other organization that I know of in this state is really trying to compete with this one.
• If two or more of the organizations/individuals both use Facebook or Twitter, compare how the way they use the tools in similar or unique ways. For instance, how consistently do they most status updates, what types of images do they use for profile pictures, what types of writing is found on the different social media platforms, how robust or developed is their presence. Describe how you see these folk using these tools, in other words. By keeping up to date with publicizing their campaign they use numerous amounts of social media content, and when I say numerous I mean over 10! The two most common ones they use are facebook and twitter. I looked at both of their sites and they do use that as a tool to get more people aware for this cause.
• What is the aims/purposes that the organizations are using specific posts for? Try to account for the different ways that aims fit into larger scale goals and desires. For instance, if I’m an environmental group at URI I might hope to end global warming at a large scope. At a more mid-level scope, my goal might be to increase awareness about the importance of members of the URI community recycling responsibly. But I might retweet a post about an event the SEC is holding where they will show a documentary. My aim, in this case, is most simply to get members of the URI community to attend the showing of this documentary, or to make community members aware that such an event exists.

Save the bay has so much to offer, whether it is restoring salt marshes, dams, brown fields or doing volunteer work or even having an internship, Save the bay really does have a lot to give to the community. 

• Who are the audiences the groups/individuals target? Think about this the same way you thought about aims. Thing about audiences generally, and try to move to a more specific and narrow description of the people who might care. If I am analyzing the URI Sustainable Seafood Initiative, for instance, I might think that citizens from Narragansett, Galilee, and Pt. Judith might have a stake in this program, professors from URI, RI DEM, captains and crews of fishing vessels, restaurant owners, market owners, and seafood lovers. But, secondary audiences might include professors at UConn who are interested in developing a program that is modeled after this initiative. 
• This again is for people who care about the environment and want Narragansett to be a clean and safe place.

 

URI sustainable seafood initiative

The URI Sustainable Seafood Initiative web site is intended to

• Provide independent information on the issue of sustainable seafood, the various approaches being used to promote demand for sustainable seafood, and the efficacy of those approaches. The target audiences are the seafood industry, retailers, restaurateurs, the catch sector and aquaculture producers, policy-makers, environmentalists, and academics.

The purpose of this website is not to find consensus around the term sustainability, but rather to provide independent clarity on the means by which various groups are using market-based approaches to promote sustainable seafood, however that group defines it.  Some groups use seafood guides, categorizing seafood into green, yellow and red lists, where at times there is consensus among the lists and at times there is not. Another approach is ecolabeling, or certification, programs.  Yet other groups have proprietary programs available for seafood buyers.  As most in the seafood world know, this can be a very confusing issue because often the various approaches appear to be at odds with each other in their final recommendations on sustainable seafood.

The purpose of this website is to provide:

• A source of information on where you may further your knowledge
• Third-party independent analysis of mechanisms of the sustainable seafood movement, and
• Analysis of the market impacts of the sustainable seafood movement Based on peer-reviewed research from around the world

A key feature of this website is the Resources Database, which is a searchable database of peer-reviewed journal articles, government publications, reports by environmental organizations, and other pertinent reports addressing fisheries and aquaculture certification, consumer preferences for ecolabeled seafood, international trade implications, and other related issues.  Its purpose is to provide you with access to as wide a perspective of reputable research on these issues as possible.   Many of the reports can be downloaded directly from the database.

This online website wasn’t my favorite but it was very clear and it did have a stance. The only thing I did not like was how wordy it was. I started losing interest but yet again I’m not really into the whole seafood industry so I’m sure my say doesn’t even matter.

   

   What social networks do the organizations use? Online website associated with URI groups/club

• Do they prefer one social network to another? What makes you think that? Explain. Use evidence. Not necessarily this website gives more detail on exactly what this program is about and the entire major key terms associated with the seafood industry.
• If two or more of the organizations/individuals both use Facebook or Twitter, compare how the way they use the tools in similar or unique ways. For instance, how consistently do they most status updates, what types of images do they use for profile pictures, what types of writing is found on the different social media platforms, how robust or developed is their presence. Describe how you see these folk using these tools, in other words.
•  The advertising isn’t well used. On every page you go to, the only thing that says in very small print is either tell a friend or suggestions.  It’s very easy to miss that’s why you have to look closely. The definitely should use other social media to enhance their advertisement.
• What is the aims/purposes that the organizations are using specific posts for? Try to account for the different ways that aims fit into larger scale goals and desires. For instance, if I’m an environmental group at URI I might hope to end global warming at a large scope. At a more mid-level scope, my goal might be to increase awareness about the importance of members of the URI community recycling responsibly. But I might retweet a post about an event the SEC is holding where they will show a documentary. My aim, in this case, is most simply to get members of the URI community to attend the showing of this documentary, or to make community members aware that such an event exists. 

It was really hard finding where to join this group and how to get started. When you reach “home” all it says is to attend this invitational event. They do give the names of all the members involved so I’m sure that’s one way of contacting them to see if you are interested other than that it was very vague.

• Who are the audiences the groups/individuals target? Think about this the same way you thought about aims. Thing about audiences generally, and try to move to a more specific and narrow description of the people who might care. If I am analyzing the URI Sustainable Seafood Initiative, for instance, I might think that citizens from Narragansett, Galilee, and Pt. Judith might have a stake in this program, professors from URI, RI DEM, captains and crews of fishing vessels, restaurant owners, market owners, and seafood lovers. But, secondary audiences might include professors at UConn who are interested in developing a program that is modeled after this initiative. 

This group is for people really devoted to all the aspects of the seafood industry.

4 Annotatied Bibliographies (PROCESS BLOG)

 

 

 

Laura Fortunato

Professor Amidon

WRT 235

3 October 2012

 

 

 National Alliance To Find Homelessness Advocacy

 

 

Hozing, Martha. About our organizations. Washington D.C 20005.

 

The policy priorities for this advocacy program is to  expand successful efforts to prevent and end homelessness in communities across the country. The alliance is devoted to working with the administration, congress, and our local state and national partners to improve federal policies that will prevent and end homelessness. The alliance works to end all homelessness which focuses on four key areas which are : family, youth, veteran and chronic homelessness. Our program works by having our community coming together and reducing the number of people who are homeless by using efficient solution focused interventions. To continue making progress, especially in the midst of the current economic climate, adequate federal investments in affordable housing and homelessness assistance are critical. Advocacy is the best strategy to cultivate the political support needed to get the resource we need to prevent homelessness.” The advocacy program will help by offering guides on how to invite members of congress to visit your program, build relationships with members of congress, and other key steps. In 2000, the national alliance to end homelessness released a plan, not a dream: How to end homelessness in 10 years a bold innovative strategy to end homelessness in the U.S.

This is a very reliable source because not only does this advocacy work in just one community but it focuses on  the U.S. in general. This program also works with the congress and having it help your program on how to end homelessness in Rhode Island. If you look at our websites you can see the progress we have made into making this plan work. On the set you can visit all of the press releases made by the congress as well as the government’s policy rules. We will accommodate your every needs into making this program well-known. We have been working on this ten-year plan since 2000 and are very close into making it still work and make it achievable so that no one should be left out on the streets.

 

 

 

 

 National Coalition For The Homeless

 

 

 

Havock, J, Michael. Changes to prevent and end homelessness.

 

Our Advocacy deals with ways to bring about the systematic changes necessary to prevent and end homelessness and to protect the rights of the people experiencing homelessness by engaging in policy advocacy. Our advocacy works include in the areas of housing, justice, health care justice, economic justice, and civil rights.The center piece of our policy agenda is the bringing America Home Act, a legislative proposal of NCH that would constitute the federal governments first comprehensive response to causes and consequences of homelessness. The national coalition for the homeless sponsors many educational and organizing projects, special campaigns, and annual events. We work to empower homeless people whose voices are essential to public policy debate. We take as our first principle of practice that people who are currently experiencing homelessness or have formerly experienced homelessness must be actively be involved in all our work.

Our community has 25 members who are diverse ethnically and geographically. The members include service providers, academics and organizers; at least one-quarter of the board are homeless/formerly homeless men and women; are all advocates. What makes our program a perfect fit for advertising yours is the fact that NCH has workers who experienced what it’s like living with no roof top and whom now are representing us. They really can give a lot of insight into your blog which will make it more credible if our team teamed up with yours as well. The majority of funding of NCH programs come from the support of individuals, foundations and member organizations.

 

 

 

United States Interagency

 

Johnson, N, Michael. The Council Of Homelessness.

 

Our advocacy program is called Opening Doors. The four major key components of opening doors are: 1) finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in 5 years, 2) prevent and end homelessness among veterans in 5 years, 3) prevent and end homeless for families, youth, children, in 10 years, set a path to ending all types of homelessness. As you can see that is pretty straight forward, but into making this work we need everyone’s help! This plan outlines an interagency collaboration that aligns mainstream housing, health, education, and human services to prevent americans from experiencing homelessness in the future. We propose a set of strategies that call upon the federal government to work in partnership with the private sector, philanthropy and state and local governments to employ cost-effective comprehensive solutions to end homelessness.

The U.S Interagency Council Of Homelessness consists of 19 federal cabinet secretaries and agency heads. Our councils are dedicated into making a change for the U.S and by having us publicize your blog we can both make that achievable for helping our communities.

 

 

 

 

Rhode Island State Housing Bond

 

 

Everett, Anne. State Legislative Campaign To End Homelessness and Build Houses in the Rhode Island Community.

 

Throughout collaborative efforts with our partners in community for the first time in the state’s history, a Rhode Island governor included an affordable housing bond referendum in the state budget. State investment in the production of affordable homes provide critical gap funds to develop affordable housing and to provide support for people with the lowest incomes, including those who are homeless. For Rhode Island to remain truly competitive in attracting and retaining business and growing a vibrant workforce, the state must maintain it’s investments in the development and operation of long-term affordable homes. As of now 50% of Rhode Islanders are paying more than they can afford for housing. Over the last two years, 1 in 10 Rhode Islanders are faced  foreclosure or severe delinquency.

Rhode Island housing and it’s partners began a successful advocacy campaign to get a new housing bond for November 2012. Strategies include efforts to encourage the governor and general assembly to look at Rhode Island housing as an agency they can trust and look for policy solutions.

Our partnership with the state legislative campaign to end homelessness and build houses in Rhode Island have primary private philanthropy, the Rhode Island foundation and the united way of Rhode Island and key business partners such as the providence chambers of commerce and Rhode Island builders association. In it’s four years of building homes Rhode Island awarded $50 million to 110 developments to create 1, 255 affordable homes in 30 communities, helping to leverage over $460 million from private and federal supplementary sources. Since we have not only raised enough funds we have also caused enormous amounts of awareness through this campaign. We are willing to collaborate into making this program more efficient and stable for your programs needs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post Write #1

1. So far I haven’t encountered any real difficulties while blogging, but if I had to choose one obstacle that I found to be tricky it would have to be getting right to the point with my ideas. By this I mean I am not sure how long my blogs should technically be. I am worried that if it is too lengthy, my audience will lose focus. My blogs are really detailed and there is a lot to explain so I just hope that my readers can bear with me and take their time to give me feedback as well. By overcoming this challenge, I try not writing in just paragraph form. I started using bullets more, as well as adding pictures and videos.

   2. My blog’s greatest strength is the topic itself. It’s such a major issue in today’s society and homeless people are increasing each year as shelter has not become a great solution in ending poverty. I feel as if I show videos of people who are dealing with this struggle everyday it will really bring attention and more focus on helping these victims. Since I have always been active in my community ( Providence, Rhode-Island) I am really eager to keep my audience informed on the homeless situation in Providence. Keeping them up to date with either positive or negative aspects, will help make our community a better place.

   3.  I feel like the greatest limitation is state funding. Raising enough to support this cause will be my greatest limitation. I feel like there is not enough state funding in Rhode Island. I hope that by raising awareness for this program,  more people in the Rhode Island community will contribute as well as with the congress.

   4. I really want to start going back to working in shelters and soup kitchens. I would like to talk to them myself and learn more about them, and how they deal with this life on a day-to-day basis. I would also like to talk to representatives of the homeless shelters who are in charge with the programs they have in Rhode Island. If I get information on how they are trying to make the shelters more accessible and safe, I will be able to make my blogs more credible since I got the information from reliable sources.  Lastly I want to get the community’s opinion on this issue. I want to understand how they feel about this situation and if they even care about it all. I like to get insight from all of these three perspectives and by this I can build up on my blog even more.

    

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!!!