NIU Students To Rally for Homeless Children and Youth; Launching HEAR US 10th Year

HEAR US founder Diane Nilan stands alongside
her new motorhome, which serves as her home,
office and vehicle.

[Naperville and DeKalb, IL, Nov. 15, 2014]  Nomadic activist Diane Nilan will enlist students at Northern Illinois University in a grass-roots campaign to increase awareness of homeless families and youth as she screens her latest documentary, Worn Out Welcome Mat, on Nov. 18 for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week. 

Nilan launches her 10th year on the road with this NIU event. On Nov. 18, 2005, this former shelter director set out on a quest to chronicle the invisible issue of family and youth homelessness nationwide. She sold her townhouse and purchased a small motorhome which she's lived in since then. Nilan started her nonprofit HEAR US Inc. to give voice and visibility to millions of babies, toddlers, children and youth. NIU professor Laura Vazquez has partnered with Nilan to create several award-winning documentaries. 

Worn Out Welcome Mat features families and youth living in doubled up situations, the most common and most misunderstood manifestation of homelessness. This 20-min film exposes the myths commonly attributed to those with nowhere to go who bounce around in tentative arrangements to avoid sleeping on the streets. Several homeless teens shared their stories.

HEAR US Inc. has actively solicited support for the Homeless Children and Youth Act, a measure being considered in Congress to force HUD to expand their narrow definition of “homeless” to include those doubled up and in non-sheltered situations like motels and campgrounds. Participants at the film screening will be asked to petition their member of Congress to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation.

“Tragically, millions of invisible youth and families pay the price for HUD’s unwillingness to address the true scope of homelessness in America,” Nilan points out. Students can make a difference by their simple act of contacting their Representative, a task made easy on the Take Action page of the website www.helphomelesskidsnow.org. 

The National Coalition for the Homeless created National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week to encourage non-homeless persons to reflect on the inequities of food and shelter in the United States. Last year over 700 groups participated. NIU has several activities planned for the week. Nilan serves on the board of NCH.

The film and short discussion will take place from 3-4 pm in the Holmes Student Center, Room 305. This event is cosponsored by Poverty & Inequality Research-to-Action Collaborative, Center for NGO Leadership and Development, Department of Psychology, and Department of Public Administration. Admission is free. For information, call the NGOLD Center at 815-753-4410.

# # #

Vazquez, NIU Professor, To Be Honored for Documentaries on Homeless Kids

Laura Vazquez (r) and Diane Nilan spent countless hours
in the NIU Avid Film Lab. (Photo courtesy NIU)

[Albuquerque, NM, Oct. 15, 2012] Laura Vazquez, Media Studies professor at Northern Illinois University, will receive the prestigious Distinguished Service and Leadership Award for her years of film work from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth at their national conference in Albuquerque on Oct. 29.

Since 2006, Vazquez, an accomplished documentary filmmaker, has collaborated on stories of homeless women, children and youth with Diane Nilan, president of HEAR US Inc., a Naperville, IL based national nonprofit "giving voice and visibility to homeless children and youth." The 2 women, relentless social justice activists in their own fields, were connected by a friend/colleague Tom Parisi, Media Relations Specialist at NIU, a former beat reporter for the Aurora Beacon News where Nilan ran a shelter for many years.

"I’ve spent hundreds of hours sitting next to Laura at NIU’s film lab with eyes glued to the editing screens. She’s put me at ease—me, the former shelter director with no film experience—and she’s given me the opportunity to shape our video tools in a mutually respectful process," stated Nilan. "She’s encouraged my fledgling documentary making efforts, and has willingly helped in ways far beyond what I’d feel I could ask. And she’s worked hard to learn about homelessness."

Among Vazquez's accomplishments, her efforts led to the PBS airing on the edge: Family Homelessness in America, a powerful documentary featuring stories of seven women from across the country sharing their gripping accounts of homelessness. The film took top honors in the prestigious Broadcast Education Association's 2011 Festival of Media Arts competition.  

Nilan, who nominated her colleague for this award, points to the rare legislative success for homeless students, passage of the FAFSA Fix for Homeless Kids Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Judy Biggert (R-IL-13). Vazquez traveled to DC to film homeless youth lobbying their legislators to remove barriers to their attending college. Tom Parisi suggested they meet after Nilan returned from her maiden backroads voyage filming homeless kids in 2006. Vazquez and her students took Nilan's footage and compiled it into an acclaimed heart-breaker, My Own Four Walls. 

Anti-poverty activist and journalist Pat LaMarche offered an observation about the impact of Vazquez's work, "Laura’s body of work gives the average American a chance to witness the lives of folks without having to leave the comfort of their homes, churches or civic organizations." Her films are available through HEAR US, http://hearus.us.

"The biggest obstacle to ending homelessness in this country," Nilan stated, "is ignorance. Laura's incalculable contributions to eradicating ignorance and creating compassion have done more than any of us will ever know." 

# # #

 

New Film Highlights Needs of Desperate Littlest Nomads

[April 26, 2012, Naperville, IL] Crying in the corner of a church hall, the baby makes known her need for clean diapers and a bottle. Meeting that demand depends on the beleaguered parent’s budgetary struggles and the shelter’s fluctuating supply.

Hunger and hygiene are only two unmet needs facing hundreds of “littlest nomads,” homeless babies and toddlers, in affluent DuPage County. With infancy the most critical stage of human development, homelessness can ravage the future of these vulnerable babies.  This detrimental but preventable experience can be alleviated with greater awareness.

HEAR US Inc., a Naperville-based nonprofit giving voice and visibility to homeless children, will shed light on this invisible issue at a national premiere screening of their new film, Littlest Nomads, on Thursday, May 10^th, 7 p.m., at Meiley Swallow Hall, 31 S. Ellsworth St., North Central College in Naperville, as part of Film Central, NCC Professor Richard Guzman’s effort to highlight locally produced, socially significant media. 

The event is open to the public, students $3, public $5. All proceeds go to HEAR US. Donations of diapers, wipes, formula and baby food will be accepted and distributed to DuPage programs serving families with homeless babies. (PDF flier of the event)

Littlest Nomads, filmed and produced by HEAR US president Diane Nilan, with technical support from Dr. Laura Vazquez of Northern Illinois University, is narrated by Roseanne Tellez, WBBM-TV newscaster. Sarah Benjamin, a national homeless infant-family expert, collaborated on this project. This short film highlights both the plight of Littlest Nomads and offers solutions to ease their developmental trauma. 

Littlest Nomads will be available (mid-May) on the HEAR US film collection My Own Four Walls  (Order DVD, $40 +s/h), Nilan’s acclaimed first documentary featuring homeless children and youth sharing their views of homelessness.  Littlest Nomads is appropriate for educators, child care professionals, shelter volunteers and persons interested in learning more about homelessness.

For more information, 630/225-5012, or diane@hearus.us. 

# # #

Better Than an Oscar!

Getting people to leave their homes on the opening night of the much-awaited fall television season is no easy task, especially to see a documentary about women and children without homes. But close to 300 people came from near and far to watch on the edge, our documentary film in the Naperville Independent Film Festival screened Monday, 9/19, at the venerable Ogden 6 Theater.

Watching the crowd amass was exciting, especially because it was a mixture of people I knew from my days prior to my running the PADS shelter at Hesed House and a considerable slew of folks who responded to Bridge Community’s urging for people to see our award-winning documentary. Having screened our year-old film countless times, I could judge the audience’s engagement by their chuckles, their silence, and their palpable angst as the 7 courageous women in this film shared their heart-wrenching stories of traversing in and out of homelessness.

The opportunity to participate in Naperville's festival was an unplanned opportunity—Glessna and Edmond Coisson attended our HEAR US Inc. tribute to Mary Lou Cowlishaw last October at North Central College. The tribute included the premiere screening of on the edge and resulted in the Coisson’s inviting our film’s director, Laura Vazquez, associate professor of communication at Northern Illinois University, to the festival.

One key reason for the record crowd at the delightfully friendly and refurbished Ogden 6 theater was the push by Bridge Communities to have their current and prospective volunteers and supporters attend prior to their ambitious “Sleep Out Saturday” this year set for Nov. 5^th. Bridge leaders rightly figure if more people understand homelessness from homeless families' point of view, compassion and action will ensue.

With what seems to be a growing discord about the need to help families and individuals struggling for survival, the crowd at this film was on the far opposite end of the spectrum. My challenge urging them to participate in a “compassion epidemic” brought cheers instead of jeers. This positive energy gives a huge boost to those of us engaged in helping stave off the devastation of homelessness. My Naperville-based nonprofit organization, HEAR US Inc., continues to give voice and visibility to homeless children and youth through projects like on the edge.

Little did I know that in November 2005 when I left the Naperville border heading out on my unconventional sojourn—to chronicle faces and voices of homeless kids from across the nation for My Own Four Walls—that I’d be heading out for my 7^th cross-country trip and our country would be in an economic quagmire that makes previous times of trouble pale. With the child poverty rate at a record high 22%, dark clouds loom on the horizon, especially for homeless families with toddlers, the subject of our new film, Littlest Nomads (in production).

My journey away from DuPage County begins Monday. Starting tomorrow I’ll be sporting new signage on my road-weary motorhome/office thanks to a generous collaboration with Design Resource Center and FastSigns, both Naperville businesses with a track record of benevolence. I’ll be venturing out to share a message of painful reality—soaring family homelessness at a time of conflicting political will—but I will recall the surge of compassion from the crowd that stepped from their comfort zones and comfortable homes to learn from these seven experts on homelessness. It’s better than an Oscar!

# # #

My Own Four Walls 2008 Offers Extensive Look at Homelessness

HEAR US Inc. announces the release of My Own Four Walls 2008, an expanded version of their acclaimed My Own Four Walls DVD, which gives homeless children and youth the opportunity to share their observations on homelessness.

My Own Four Walls 2008 is a DVD collection of short documentaries depicting homelessness as experienced by children and teens in non-urban areas of the country. It was filmed and produced by HEAR US Inc., a national nonprofit organization dedicated to giving voice and visibility to homeless children, youth and families.

These young homelessness experts share their challenges and their dreams, common to over 1.5 million children and youth in this country who typically remain invisible, struggling to get into and succeed in school.

The My Own Four Walls 2008 DVD contains several short pieces:

§ “My Own Four Walls (the stories),” a 20-minute compilation of elementary, middle and high school students sharing their observations on homelessness.

§ Elementary, middle and high school segments (8-10 minutes each) of students talking about homelessness and education. Included in these segments are references to the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act.

§ “Life Filled with Benches,” a short (13 min) inspiring glimpse of 2 teens on the streets of Harrisburg, PA.

§ NEW! “Beneath the Surface,” a 23-minute documentary exploring the life of a homeless teen in a suburban community. (This new selection was filmed and produced by Phil Ridgway, Chris Kelly and Susan Carlson, documentary students at Northern Illinois University.)

§ NEW! Also included are links to 2 specially-created guides (PDF) to help viewers learn more about homelessness.

MOFW, Benches, and Beneath the Surface are suitable for a variety of audiences, including student bodies, educators, administrators, non-certified personnel who come into contact with homeless students, and the general public. All who view it will walk away with a deeper sense of how homelessness affects the invisible homeless population in communities nationwide.

Price and purchase information may be found at the HEAR US website.

MOFW received the 2007 Outstanding Media Award from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (http://www.naehcy.org/conf/awards.html#nila).

# # #