How the homeless can Tweet - and tell their stories
- Wed, September 15 2010
- Filed under: Social networking and web 2.0
About couple of years ago, I got an amazing email from a guy named Mark Horvath, and I have profiled his work here on the blog several times since. Mark used to be homeless, and now he does all kinds of amazing things for the homeless, including blogging at Hardly Normal and documenting via video the stories of people in the situation he once knew all too well here at InvisiblePeople.tv.
InvisiblePeople.tv has now launched the WeAreVisible.com social media literacy website to help homeless people learn how to use the Internet to tell their stories, build community and connect with support services.
The wonderful thing about this website is it’s accessible social media training for anyone—and especially for the homeless, who have access to the Internet at public libraries and can harness the web as a platform of personal expression..
Thanks, Mark, for your continued amazing work.
As Mark describes it:
WeAreVisible.com’s mission is to give people dealing with poverty and homelessness the tools they need to get online and have a voice. The site teaches them how to sign up for email, open a Twitter account, join Facebook, create a blog and, in general, take advantage of the benefits of online social media. It also has the potential to become a model for virtual case management as it helps build a community among homeless people and support service providers.
Horvath is currently reaching out to public libraries across the U.S. to inform homeless people about the new WeAreVisible.com site. Librarian readers, please support him!
Here’s a sample:
Comments
Hey great article and video, I love it. Thanks for the wonderful info. I never realize how the homeless tweet.
Great work by Mark. Not only will this give them a voice, but it also could teach them online skills they could then add to their resume and get out of poverty like Mark did.
Good post and I really like Mark’s blog. Hard to believe there are places like this in America. That is something I expect to see in places like Tunisia (my current location).
Rich
Hey, you always learn something new everyday. I never knew that the homeless could tweet! The platform being offered by the public libraries is an excellent service. I hope it gets used worldwide.
This is very interesting and hopefully a help to the homeless.
It’s an interesting idea.
I hope it can help homeless to get more attention