Showing titles in Poverty & Homelessness

Do you want to know what its like to be homeless in America? "Homeless: A Day In The Life" is a harrowing tale of what one homeless veteran goes through in a single day. It's an engrossing account of his begging, searching through the garbage for his food and anything he can sell, confronting the police, trying to get into a shelter, and staying away from the "bum bashing" violent gangs. He drinks secondhand coffee, smokes cigarette butts, begs with a cardboard sign, and sleeps out in the open. You've seen him a thousand times, on street corners, sidewalks and stoplights, asking you to help...

Christmas 1975 and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is riding high in the charts. In a residential street just outside Cardiff a loud knocking breaks the stillness of the evening. When Rob Parsons, a young lawyer, opens his door, he finds a homeless man standing before him, clutching a bag of belongings and a frozen chicken. A Knock at the Door is the true story of this homeless man who entered the home of a young couple, became a dustman and lived as part of their family for over forty-five years until his death.

Anti-Social is the diary of a council worker whose job is to keep his community happy, or at least away from each other’s throats. That’s hard enough at the best of times but when government cuts mean that hospitals, social services and police are all at breaking point, the possibility of complete chaos is never far away. This is an urgent, timely but, most of all, hysterically funny true story of a life spent working with the people society wants to forget and the problems that nobody else can resolve.

A holiday classic by Charles Dickens. Originally published in 1843, Dickens worried about the disparity between the wealthy and the impoverished, and it was his attempt to bring this disparity into the light of day, to appeal to the die-hard capitalists to take care of the downtrodden masses. Since this inequity continues, this story is still popular, and will probably continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

Many believe that the War on Poverty, launched by President Johnson in 1964, ended in failure. In 2010, the official poverty rate was 15 percent, almost as high as when the War on Poverty was declared. Historical and contemporary accounts often portray the War on Poverty as a costly experiment that created doubts about the ability of public policies to address complex social problems. Legacies of the War on Poverty, drawing from fifty years of empirical evidence, documents that this popular view is too negative.

The Miami Rescue Mission is now known as The Caring Place. Our vision is “No One Is Homeless.” Celebrating our centennial (100th anniversary) in 2022, we are on the path of great vision for the next 100 years to continue to serve the homeless and the hungry. We are expanding our footprint to help abused women and children and increasing more permanent housing for the future. Learn about our inspiring journey and many stories that will touch your heart. It is a miracle in the making, and yes, the best is yet to come.

Can money buy high-quality education? Studies find only a weak relationship between public school funding and educational outcomes. In The Money Myth, W. Norton Grubb proposes a powerful paradigm shift in the way we think about why some schools thrive and others fail. The greatest inequalities in America's schools lie in factors other than fiscal support. Fundamental differences in resources other than money explain the deepening divide in the success of our nation's schoolchildren.

At age 14, I ran away, but not from home - because I never had one to begin with. At school I participated in every sport, club, and after-school activity, so that when the other kids finally left, I could settle in for the night by my locker. I spent my childhood dealing with gangs, drugs, violence, and my mother's mental illness, but the real enemy was always poverty.

Glen Dunzweiler is a filmmaker, producer, writer, and public speaker. He started his work with homelessness in 2010 when making his documentary yHomeless? After years of seeing the public bang their heads up against the same homeless issues, he was driven to write this primer. Things I’ve Learned from the Homeless looks to explain the world housed individuals are often frustrated by. The goal is to flip viewpoints on homelessness, to create new dialogues, and to inspire action. Glen Dunzweiler invites you to get into it with him, so we can all start to figure this out.

Kerry Hudson is proudly working class but she was never proudly poor. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma. Twenty years later, Kerry’s life is unrecognisable. She’s a prize-winning novelist who has travelled the world. She has a secure home, a loving partner and access to art, music, film and books..

An inhumane math pervades this country: even as our government extracts labor and often taxes from undocumented workers, it excludes these same workers from its social safety net. As a result, these essential workers struggle to get their own basic needs met, from healthcare to education, from freedom of association to the ability to drive to work without looking for ICE in the rearview mirror. An undocumented activist and a social scientist come together to tally of the structural costs of undocumented life.

Born into poverty in a crime-ridden town and unaware of his Ojibwe heritage, John Eric Aslin’s earliest memories are of a harrowing childhood rife with abuse. This troubling upbringing led him to an adolescence full of crime, when at 21 he was sentenced to life in prison for an accidental death. Thirty-six years later, he’s still behind bars, and almost a senior citizen. This heartbreaking account explores the life of John Aslin, painting a poignant and eye-opening picture of the struggles he faced during his upbringing, and the unfortunate hardships that led him to crime.

In some of the bleakest corners of the world, an unprecedented movement is taking root. From the favelas of Brazil to the Maori villages in New Zealand, from occupied Palestine to South Central Los Angeles, musicians with strong social consciences are founding intensive orchestra programs for children in need. In this captivating and inspiring account, authors Tricia Tunstall and Eric Booth tell the remarkable story of the international El Sistema movement.

Homelessness in America is a complex issue that affects millions of people each year. In this eye-opening book, we explore the ten most common reasons why people become homeless and how we can work to address them. From the lack of affordable housing to the impact of natural disasters, we delve into the root causes and provide insights on how we can create solutions.

From the bottom to the top of our economy, capitalism is too blunt an instrument to tackle Britain's epidemic of inequality. Soaring rents, unfair taxation and a growing gig economy have brought about unprecedented economic shame: Amazon warehouse workers living in tents, nurses turning to foodbanks, London firemen commuting hundreds of miles to work. Even those higher up the ladder are losing their grip on the life they were promised.

What does it mean to be poor in the UK and America? For decades the primary narrative about poverty in both countries is that it has been caused by personal flaws or "bad life decisions" rather than policy choices or economic inequality. This misleading account has become deeply embedded in the public consciousness with serious ramifications for how financially vulnerable people are seen, spoken about, and treated.

True prosperity - thriving economically - is possible for all humanity, but common myths prevent us from achieving it. The primary barrier to prosperity is not in language, culture, religion, race, natural resources, or geography. The far greater obstacle is the systemic and individual corruption on the part of leaders who are free to steal without punishment.

Valley View Senior Housing, built in 2019 in Napa County, California, is a very affordable community of 70 cottages. This groundbreaking homeless project was organized by American Canyon’s city government for older homeless people and homeless veterans of the area. This solution-oriented book shares the inspiring story of a compassionate and humane project. Imagine if every city could create one community like this - we could begin to make headway to solve the homeless problem.

We typically view poverty as a technical problem that we can solve with more money, more technology, and more volunteers. But there is an adaptive side to the problem of poverty, as well. Reframing Poverty directs our attention to the emotional and often unconscious mindsets we bring to this issue.

At the age of 14 years old, Roy found himself homeless due to domestic violence. He moved from house to house to survive. With only a duffle bag to call home, he was at the mercy of the streets. After navigating his way to college, Roy swore to never return to that life again. However, one dream would change it all. This riveting memoir journeys through Roy’s decision to live homeless once again, but this time, Homeless by Choice, with a mission to inspire youth to never give up on life, their dreams and understand the power of higher education.