Video Blog Gives Homelessness a Face and Voice
02.16.2009 – Mark Horvath is somewhat of an authority on America's homeless population. That's because he once was part of it. 14 years ago, Horvath was homeless. He lived on the streets of Hollywood, Calif. Today, Horvath is giving back to that community by breaking the mold and doing what, quite frankly, makes sense. Through invisiblepeople.tv, a new and dynamic video blog (vlog), he captures the stories of the homeless - one at a time.
Simply put, Horvath is breaking stereotypes.
Through his Web site, he shares the stories of homeless people he meets on the streets. The site's segments are told by real people, in their own very real words. The innovative pieces, which began airing last November, are raw, uncensored and unedited - just like life on the streets.
There is meaning to the site's name. According to Horvath, some homeless are passed on the street as if they don't exist. Others are ignored the way one would disregard a piece of trash on the sidewalk.
Horvath's goal? To make homeless visible to everyone else.
'It's not that people are bad,' Horvath explains. "But if we make eye contact, or engage in conversation, we have to admit they exist. It's so much easier to simply close our eyes and shield our hearts to their existence."
America's homeless crisis is soon to get worse. According to data from the Labor Department, more jobs have been lost in the past 12 months than any other period since the government began keeping records in 1939. Perhaps most disconcerting is that experts predict unemployment will get worse before the economy gets better. In 1991 and 2001, unemployment didn't hit its peak until two years after those recessions ended. We can no longer close our eyes to the issues of poverty and homelessness.
Horvath doesn't ask for money. The purpose of his vlog is to make the invisible visible. He doesn't want the world to look through or beyond the homeless anymore, but to be aware of them and their circumstances, and to let them not be forgotten.
The people and stories at invisiblepeople.tv are gripping. Some segments are, well, unsettling. Horvath wouldn't have it any other way. He wants to inspire; and wants you to act.
In Horvath, the homeless now have a face and voice. Thanks largely to invisiblepeople.tv, they are invisible no more. He wants you to remember that the homeless people ignored today were much like the rest of us not very long ago.
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- News Facts
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- There are 3.5 million homeless in our country. 1.35 million of them are children.
- The average age of a homeless person in America is 9 years old.
- Each night in Los Angeles over 80,000 people are homeless every night.
- More jobs have been lost in the past 12 months than any other period since the government began keeping records in 1939
- The number of loans in foreclosure hit a new record of 2.3 million last year, more than double the volume in 2006.
- Resource Links
- Change.org - Talk Is Cheap, Human Connections Are Real
- Mashable - 5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded
- Non-profit Marketing Blog - From Beverly Hills to Homeless: What a story
- Change.org - My First Night Homeless
- Change.org - On Shopping Carts, Thanksgiving, and Homelessness
- Charles Lee - Invisible People - Do You See Them?
- Church Marketing Sucks - Why Do You Do What You Do?
- International post - just one of many
- Kennith Cole - Homelessness and the Invisible People
- Kevin D. Hendricks - You Can Change the World: Invisible People
- LA Times - Homeless advocate brings his message to the masses through social media
- LAist - A Different Take on Shopping Carts
- Mashable - 5 Unique Stories of Social Media Saving the Day
- NetNewsDaily - Putting A Face To The ‘Invisible People’
- Non-profit Marketing Blog - This Is How You Tell a Story
- Osocio - Homeless awareness vlog: Invisible people
- PhilCooke.com on Mark Horvath
- Tags
- recession, homeless, poverty, housing, people, foreclosure, unemployment, economy, social justice
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