HEAR US: Homing In On Homelessness Causes & Cures

       [Naperville, IL, June 21, 2019] Filmmaker Diane Nilan probably knows as much as anyone in the USA about

the trials and tribulations of homeless persons. On July 12, Nilan will return to Just Views, a free monthly film screening event sponsored by the DuPage Peace through Justice Coalition, to screen two of her recent short documentaries featuring homeless families and youth. A short discussion will follow. 

In 2005, Nilan founded a nonprofit organization, HEAR US Inc., to give voice and visibility to the (now) 6,000,000+ American children and youth living in cars and shelters, on the streets, or doubled up with other families. She previously led area shelters (Joliet and Aurora) and was instrumental in legislative efforts to remove barriers to education encountered by students without homes.

Nilan’s been living in her van since 2005 and has traveled over 400,000 miles of mostly backroads through 48 mainland states, and Hawaii (not in her R.V.), making dozens of films viewed by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Her work has earned recognition from a variety of organizations. 

    Her documentaries give parents and youth the opportunity to share their stories, debunking many myths about homelessness. Nilan will also explain a legislative effort to address these problems: The Homeless Children and Youth Act -- legislation being considered by U.S. House Finance Committee. Two Naperville area congresspersons, Bill Foster and Sean Casten, sit on this committee.

        The audience will also learn about Nilan’s most ambitious journey, the HEAR US 2020 VisionQuest journey, launching from Naperville on July 20th. 

https://www.hearus.us/projects/awareness/2020.html

This film screening begins at 7:20 pm, and it is free and open to the public. Just Views is sponsored by the DuPage Peace through Justice Coalition. The event is held in Naperville at the DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church at 1828 Old Naperville Road. Event organizers are Stephanie Hughes 630/ 420-4233; Associate Director is Carol Tritschler 630/961-0106.

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By George! George Winston To Return for HEAR US Benefit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 30, 2016

For information: 

Diane Nilan, 630/267-5424

[Naperville, IL] Homeless babies, toddlers, kids of all ages are counting on fans of George Winston, the popular musician whose piano and guitar music has delighted fans for decades. His benefit concert for the Naperville-based national nonprofit HEAR US Inc. on Oct. 13 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Naperville will support the organization’s newest project, Yay Babies! Yay Kids!

“George is incredibly supportive of programs serving homeless and hungry people,” states Diane Nilan, president and founder of HEAR US, a unique effort giving voice and visibility to millions of homeless children and youth in the U.S. 

Winston has performed 2 other benefit concerts for HEAR US since it started in 2005. Nilan, former shelter director at Hesed House in Aurora, has been living in a small van, traveling the country raising awareness of and inspiring compassion for invisible homeless families and youth.

The Oct. 13 concert will feature a variety of George Winston’s styles including melodic folk piano, New Orleans R&B piano, and stride piano.  He performs songs from his seasonal favorites “Autumn,” “December,” “Winter Into Spring,” and “Summer,” as well as Peanuts pieces from his Vince Guaraldi tribute albums “Linus & Lucy –The Music of Vince Guaraldi,” and Love Will Come-The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Vol. 2,” and more.

HEAR US relies on generous donations and events like this concert to fund efforts to improve lives of over 3 million homeless children and youth. Their latest project, Yay Babies! Yay Kids!, creates ways to help babies, toddlers and kids in local communities. Nilan’s latest video production is a 2-minute public service announcement film, Yay Babies! It’s designed to be shared on social media and focuses on the segment of the homeless population seldom considered—babies. The video can be found at www.hearus.us.

Charlie
© Pat Van Doren

Another exciting HEAR US effort is underway—the publishing of “The Charlie Book” outlining 60 ways to help homeless kids—which will have its national release at the concert. This 20-page guide gives practical information and offers ways individuals and groups can help families and youth in homeless situations. With the extensive HEAR US network, this book promises a national impact, both in practical ways and in focusing attention on an often-neglected population. 

The book is named after Charlie, the iconic photograph of Charlie, a small homeless boy holding a cat, an image captured by photojournalist Pat Van Doren, a HEAR US board member. This image, now central to the HEAR US logo,helped Illinois pass the nation's first state law to remove barriers common to homeless students attempting to get their education. Van Doren, Nilan and many other HEAR US board members were part of that campaign that led to passage the federal law, The Education of Homeless Children and Youth Act which protects the educational rights of over 1.3 million students without homes. 

Information about the concert and ticket sales can be found at www.hearus.us.  

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SaveSave

HEAR US Wins National Award For Kansas Doubled-Up Film Project

[Naperville, IL 11-7-15] 

Kansas tornadoes, wind, rain, heat and cold. Heartbreaking stories of domestic violence, house fires, abject poverty and abuse. Diane Nilan blended these adversities into “Worn Out Welcome Mat - Kansas,” her latest documentary about the invisible crisis of doubled-up homelessness. Her efforts earned the Best Targeted Campaign Award from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY), to be presented at the organization’s national conference Nov. 15-17 in Phoenix. 

Nilan, president and founder of HEAR US Inc., the Naperville-based national nonprofit giving voice and visibility to homeless children and youth, has been on the road for the past 10 years chronicling the plight and promise of homeless children and youth. Her experience as shelter director and advocate for homeless students shaped her creation of HEAR US, a unique approach to raising awareness about an epidemic issue. She lives in a van and has traveled over 240,000 miles of mostly backroads, filming and presenting to audiences from Congress to California to “give voice and visibility to homeless children and youth,” a subpopulation of homeless persons she believes is in excess of 3 million babies, toddlers, children and youth. 

The Kansas State Department of Education homeless education state coordinator Tate Toedman invited Nilan to film doubled up families and youth to focus on the majority of Kansas homeless students. Of more than 10,000 homeless students identified by Kansas schools, over 80% experience doubled up, a much-misunderstood and under-identified situation. “Hardships experienced by doubled-up homeless students and families often escape the attention of school officials,” points out Toedman. “Families may just think they’re experiencing ‘hard times’ and don’t self-identify as homeless.” 

Worn Out Welcome Mat - KS will be screened at the NAEHCY conference, and also in Manhattan, KS for National Homelessness and Hunger week. Nilan screened her documentary in Georgia and Mississippi on her “10th Anniversary-10,000 Mile” trek. 

“The heartbreaking stories, told by the parents and students experiencing homelessness,” Nilan states, “will enlighten those who never thought doubled up was ‘so bad.’ It is worse than bad. And we urgently need to comprehensively acknowledge and address this issue.”

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Homelessness Activist Selected For Top Joliet Franciscan Honors

Press Release......................................................................................................For Immediate Release

[Naperville, IL] Despite all the trouble Diane Nilan caused the Joliet Franciscan Sisters, they will present her with the Mother Alfred Moes Award, their highest honor, for her decades of work with homeless children and adults. The presentation will be made during the Franciscan Autumn Fest, Oct. 25, at the Patrick C. Haley Mansion in Joliet. 

Nilan, with her long, speckled history with the Joliet Franciscans, credits them with her moral fortitude that galvanized her spirit to work on behalf of homeless children and adults. The Sisters taught her from 3rd grade through college, and for a time Nilan considered joining their ranks.  She is now founder and president of HEAR US Inc., a national nonprofit giving voice and visibility to homeless children and youth.

In the mid-80s, Nilan spearheaded the Joliet’s first homeless shelter, Will County PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter), now Daybreak. After leaving Joliet, Nilan ran the PADS shelter at Hesed House in Aurora for many years, leading efforts to start the Rainbow Clinic and spurring legislative advocacy campaigns that gave Illinois homeless persons the right to vote, established the IL Housing Trust Fund, and guaranteed access to education for homeless students, in Illinois then nationwide.

According to Nilan, the only thing she and Mother Alfred Moes, a woman who didn’t hesitate to respond to desperate needs around her, have in common is that both taught at St. John’s School in Joliet. 

Not surprisingly, the Sisters disagree. The Mother Alfred Moes Award “honors the pioneering spirit that exists in an individual…one who is a visionary just as Mother Alfred was.” Along with Nilan, the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic will be honored for their work with the medically underserved.

According to the Sisters, “The foundress of the Joliet Franciscans, Mother Alfred Moes, was a woman ahead of her time. She was a pioneer, a visionary, who used her own dowry to transform her vision into service.  Mother Alfred responded not only to the needs of the people of Joliet, but wherever the need of communities across the country called her.”

For the past 10 years, Nilan has been living in a small motorhome, traveling over 225,000 miles in 48 states, chronicling the plight and promise of homeless families and youth under the banner of her unconventional one-woman nonprofit organization, HEAR US (www.hearus.us). She’s made several documentaries and short videos of those experiencing homelessness sharing their stories. Her latest was just released, Worn out Welcome Mat - Kansas. 

Nilan learned  RVing and videography on the road. She relentlessly pursues audiences from Congress to California, exposing them to little-known realities experienced by millions of invisible homeless families and youth. 

“When all is said and done,” said Nilan, “the Joliet Franciscans have shaped me more than I’ll ever realize. Franciscan values have affected my life choices. For that I’ll be eternally grateful.” 

For reservations or more information about the event, 815-725-8735, x116.

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Serendipity and Need: Doc and Homeless Advocate Reconnect

September 19, 2014

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

Contact: Diane Nilan, 630/267-5424

Diane Nilan (L) and Karen Maloney inside Tillie, the
good Karma motorhome being exchanged. 

[Naperville, IL] “Dialing for docs” 20 years ago connected Diane Nilan, former shelter director at

Hesed House in Aurora with Dr. Karen Maloney, a physician from the St. Charles area. Nilan was recruiting volunteer medical personnel for Rainbow Clinic at the former incinerator turned shelter. On Monday, Nilan will hand over the keys to her motorhome to Maloney, solving a problem for both women.

The two met again at a volunteer mission in Tanzania in 2013. “It was great to catch up and learn that our paths never veered too far away,” said Nilan, founder/president of a one-woman national nonprofit, HEAR US Inc., giving voice and visibility to homeless children and youth.

Nine years ago, she sold her townhome and 

Nilan and Tillie in Nevada

most of her stuff to purchase a 27’motorhome to enable her to chronicle homelessness among millions of children, youth and families nationwide. Nilan put on 183,000 miles as she filmed several award-winning documentaries and conducted countless presentations to raise awareness of kids and parents with nowhere to go.

The time came to sell “Tillie the Turtle,” her 9-year-old motorhome, and only home, but Nilan could find no buyers. Maloney, starting a program to provide medical care to uninsured residents and homeless persons in the western suburbs, needed a motorhome, but her nonprofit Carein' Connections lacked the funds to buy one. Nilan happened to mention she was trying to sell Tillie. Serendipity? Perhaps.

On Monday, Nilan will hand over Tillie’s keys to her doc-friend, knowing that the legacy of this roadworthy motorhome will continue. Maloney will adapt the inside space to provide medical care and other services to those who lack resources for basic human needs, especially medical care.

Wednesday, after an early morning prayer breakfast presentation in Joliet, Nilan will point her rental van to Austin, TX where her new set of wheels await. She’s downsizing, making it possible for her to pursue stories of homeless children and youth in far off places in a more economically and ecofriendly fashion.

Her first Tillie2 trip will be with her “Babes of Wrath” pal Pat LaMarche on a trip to Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The intrepid travelers have dubbed their trip “Homeless on the Range,” designed to call attention to homelessness, even on a Native American reservation.

Maloney and her colleagues need to quickly shape and stock Tillie into the medical miracle van that will serve hundreds of uninsured, desperate adults and kids.

These two nonprofits, and their unique founders, will carry on their essential missions, knowing that their paths will inevitably cross, and that lots of people will be better for it.

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Forget Me Not: Reminder To Illinois Legislators Not to Forget Homeless Children

Good News: 

Strong Homeless Students’ Educational Rights.

Bad News: 

Record Number of Homeless Students and Scant Resources.

The official parchment scroll proclaims May 2014 as Homeless Students’ Educational Rights Month, signed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. Advocates and supporters will gather on May 8 in Aurora to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of hallmark civil rights legislation, the Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act, and urge restoration of $3 million of state funds to help homeless kids.

Twenty years ago, Illinois legislators established strong educational rights for homeless students, passing Charlie’s Bill, named for Pat Van Doren’s image of a captivating 4-year-old boy that adorned every piece of literature promoting the bill. The law removed barriers commonly experienced by homeless students and guided schools to help the students succeed. In 2001, federal legislation based on the Illinois law passed, ensuring access to school for homeless students nationwide.

Advocates will utilize momentum from this 20^th anniversary commemoration to push for more resources to help homeless students. Illinois lawmakers removed $3 million to help homeless families and youth from the budget following the 2008-09 school year.  

Since then, schools have identified almost 55,000 students without homes, more than double the census in 2009.

“It doesn’t do any good to have a proclamation if we don’t have the resources to back it up,” declared Diane Nilan, founder and president of HEAR US, a Naperville-based national nonprofit advocacy organization. Nilan ran the shelter at Hesed House in Aurora and was part of the effort to pass the state and federal legislation to remove barriers for homeless students. HEAR US is the sponsor of the May 8 event featuring Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary.

The Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is spearheading the campaign to restore the $3 million. They point to the “109% increase in identified homeless students statewide since 2008-09 when $3 million in homeless education funding was last included in the state budget.” Funding will help ensure immediate enrollment of homeless students, reduce truancy, provide academic support, including transportation, and augment local services to help students and their families.

Nilan has worked with the Law Project for decades. She created the Forget Me Not campaign to restore the $3 million. HEAR US will recognize the Law Project at the May 8 event, which features a performance by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. They will invite the audience to contact their lawmakers and urge restoration of the funding.

The May 8 event is open to the public, with a suggested donation of $10 for the 6:30 reception and concert at Copley Theater, 8 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora. More information available at www.hearus.us.

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Sister Clare Award for Rolling Activist

[Naperville, IL, 2/28/14] Diane Nilan, selected for the University of St. Francis Sister Clare Award, is in some ways the least likely choice. The bumper sticker displayed inside her road-weary motorhome gives a clue: Well-behaved women seldom make history.  Despite the contrast, for her unconventional and unrelenting efforts as an activist for homeless families, Nilan will receive her recognition in Joliet on March 12 at USF, 7 p.m. in Sue Turk Hall.

40 years after graduating from the College of St. Francis, 23 years after leaving this city where she spent the first segment of her adult life, Nilan (bio, PDF) will roll into town following a 6-month stint of mostly solo cross-country travel where she filmed and produced a new documentary, Worn Out Welcome Mat, and addressed a variety of audiences on the issue of invisible homelessness, particularly families and youth. Nilan sold her townhome in 2005 to take to the nation’s backroads, living in Tillie, her small motorhome.

This award has generated a considerable opportunity for Nilan’s nonprofit organization, HEAR US Inc., thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor who will match every dollar, up to $10,000, raised in honor of the Sister Clare Award. Board member Marilyn McGowan, who nominated Nilan for this honor, stresses that her frugal one-woman operation makes a major impact on a national level. “Diane can quietly sit and listen to a mother’s devastating story of homelessness and convert those stories into powerful advocacy and awareness tools,” points out McGowan.

“I’ve never totally left Joliet,” Nilan admits. She’s still in contact with former students and even some people she once assisted at the Will County PADS program, the precursor to Catholic Charities’ Daybreak Shelter she started while she worked at Catholic Charities in the mid-‘80s. When notified of the USF honors and asked what people could bring to the award ceremony to help her work, Nilan demurred, offering to generate needed supplies for Daybreak and local homeless students instead. Those attending the award ceremony are asked to bring nonperishable food items for Daybreak or school supplies for Joliet District 86’s homeless students.

Nilan chuckles when she reflects on her activism, incubated during her CSF days. “We created a ruckus over the quality of food the cafeteria served,” but also focused on other weighty issues, including the Viet Nam war. She provided leadership for humanitarian causes, almost flunking out of college in the process. “I give a lot of credit to the Joliet Franciscans,” Nilan admits. “They managed to hone my leadership skills in such a way to not discourage my efforts to seek justice on behalf of the oppressed.”

After leaving Joliet in 1990, she directed the PADS shelter at Hesed House in Aurora for 13 years, simultaneously working on Charlie’s Bill, a successful venture to guarantee access to education for the state’s homeless students. The bill passed 20 years ago and served as model legislation for the nation, thanks in part to a partnership between Nilan and (Ret.) Congresswoman Judy Biggert (R-IL).

Implementing that legislation, the McKinney-Vento HomelessEducation Assistance Act of 2001, has been Nilan’s focus since it passed. She oversaw 305 Chicagoland school districts’ compliance with the law, and in 2005, when that project shifted, she took to the backroads of the U.S. to film a documentary of what students thought about their experiences of homelessness and what school meant to them to help educators and other audiences better understand the plight of millions of children and youth.

And now she’s come full circle, returning to her roots to accept this honor, but not standing still for long. She’s scheduled for a trip to New York in April.

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Nilan Chosen for Top National Honor

[October 18, 2012, Naperville, IL, by Kathy Millen] The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth will award Diane Nilan its prestigious Sandra Neese Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nilan is founder and president of HEAR US, a national non-profit organization based in Naperville, Il that gives voice and visibility to homeless children and youth and has played a pivotal role in landmark legislation protecting the educational rights of homeless children.

For the last seven years Nilan has traveled more than 150,000 miles across the United States in her motor home chronicling the plight of homeless children and their families. The result includes two award-winning documentaries: My Own Four Walls and on the edge: Family Homelessness in America, made in partnership with Laura Vazquez, a media professor at Northern Illinois University.

Vazquez, will be the recipient of NAEHCY's Distinguished Service and Leadership Award. Both women will be among those honored at an awards presentation Oct. 29 at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, N.M.

Nilan, who has worked on behalf of homeless people for more than 25 years, said the award reflects the strong support she has received during that time.

"My life has been immeasurably enriched by my years of working with homeless families and youth," she said. "Little did I know what I was getting into. In my wildest dreams, seven years ago when I whittled down my stuff to fit into Tillie the Turtle, my motor home, I had no idea of how this journey would unfold. I've met countless quiet champions, going far beyond what is reasonable to help families and kids survive. I've met scads of incredibly courageous kids willing to risk bullying and worse to speak out about not having a home. This award goes to them."

Nilan's accomplishments include launching a homeless shelter in Joliet, Il and later directing the shelter that is part of Hesed House/PADS Ministries in Aurora, IL. For 13 years, she expanded shelter programs and supervised more than 5,000 volunteers who served more than 150 adults and children each night.

Nilan has addressed the U.S. Congress on homeless issues. One of her biggest supporters is Illinois Congresswoman Judy Biggert (R-13). In a letter to the NAEHCY board of directors, Biggert praised Nilan for spearheading the Illinois Education for Homeless Children act, also known as Charlie's Bill, and, on the federal level, the McKinney-Vento education provisions signed into law in 2001 as part of No Child Left Behind. 

"Diane's work in and out of the field has touched lives across the country," Biggert said. "She has been a truly remarkable source of expertise and inspiration for policy-makers who have sought to improve the educational opportunities available to homeless children."

Nilan is the author of Crossing the Line: Taking Steps to End Homelessness. She also created and directed Project REACH in Illinois, the lead McKinney-Vento liaison for 305 school districts in eight counties surrounding Chicago. She has successfully stood up for the rights of homeless children, including a confrontation with a powerful law firm that had been blocking homeless enrollments in residency hearings. She has collaborated with journalists to help uncover rights violations which resulted in a prison sentence for one school superintendent.

Nilan's latest film is Littlest Nomads which focuses on the unmet needs of homeless babies and toddlers. The film was made in partnership with Vazquez and Sarah Benjamin, a NAEHCY-recognized advocate for young children.

Nilan said her goal is to continue working to generate compassion and reduce causes of homelessness among children and families.

"We've seemed to have lost our way in this country," she said. "I've witnessed decades of deterioration of support we used to provide for families. Shockingly to most, way over 1.6 million kids are homeless in our great nation. We should be ashamed to the point of demanding that our elected officials and our communities prioritize the well-being of our vulnerable young people."

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