This post mentions drug taking. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this piece I talk about what this project has done for me and the potential it offers reporters to share stories they’ve kept locked up or have shared in the past and not received a positive reaction. Please excuse my nervous use of the phrase ‘you know’…We all know, I guess, we just get sidetracked sometimes by the need to survive and some of the negative stuff we hear on the news.

Over the last few days, I’ve been talking to reporters about exactly what they’ve got from this community journalism project thus far. And, you know, words like therapeutic, stigma, professionalism, connection, identity, impact on policy and perceptions, skills, self-esteem came up. It’s been amazing for me to talk to these reporters over the last few days. I know from personal experience just how much you can get from these projects. You know, I’ve come from someone who was using, sticking a needle in my arm five times a day to someone who is in full time employment.  

And you know, I’ve got a job that I love, and I think I do a lot of good with that job. So it’s been a fantastic journey for me and I’ve been talking to reporters and they are on that same journey. I can see that and you know, somebody talked to me about how their confidence has been bolstered, you know, just what it’s done for their self-esteem, this project. You know, someone else talks about the professionalism of the site and the way that reports are presented to the public with the backing of a charity, which means people listen to us, you know, they they actually take notice. They don’t, you know, just see it. And, you know, do that tick box thing – ‘oh there’s a homeless person.’  

And someone else mentioned the presentation of the site. You know, the upbeat photographs, the way we present, people experiencing homelessness as human beings.  

There is no such thing as a ‘homeless person’. They are just people who happen to be homeless. And that’s what you get from talking to the people involved in this project. They seem to love it [this project], to a person. And, for various reasons I just wanted to – it’s a short little piece this – but just to say how much people are getting from this project in so many different ways.  

Also, the impact on policy was an important thing, and it was the the effect on the public perception of homelessness. What people want to do is change the way that society talks about people experiencing homelessness, so that they’re just seen as human beings, you know? And I think that is the core thing about this project, that people want to do, also changing policy, of course, but that is changing the way people think about us. Yeah, that’s all for now. Thanks.

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