Within the diverse variety of Bryght-hosted Drupal sites, occasionally we're blown away by an amazing site. Homeless Nation recently won two awards so we are chiming into say "most excellent work" from both a technology-use and community-building point of view.
New media in action
In Canada, homelessness is a political topic which is opportunistically bandied around like a hot potato and punted from city, to provincial, to federal governments for missing leadership. While the elected leader and bureaucrats chatter, Homeless Nation is improving lives and certainly deserve awards, accolades, and support.
Here's a short blurb about the Homeless Nation awards by Chris Aung-Thwin
We are proud to announce that Homeless Nation has been recognized by the Canadian New Media Awards (CNMA) and by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR).
On Friday, November 14th, HN was presented with an award for: Excellence in New Media Creation/Social Media Production/Nonprofit Division by the SNCR - a US-based non-profit organization.
On Tuesday, November 18th, HN was again honoured, this time here at home, with an award in the category of Excellence in Social Media Websites by the CNMA.
A community home
The hallmark of a true web community is when the participants define the culture beyond the organizers. Reading the heartfelt and respectful interaction between participants in the blogs and comments, you can see that this is truly a collaboration between the builders and participants.
The culture of Homeless Nation was incubated by Daniel Cross, a documentary filmmaker who makes films about social justice and Canada's homeless. After making a series of film projects, he conceived the website with an aim of providing essential resource info as well as a forum for therapeutic self-expression. Read the whole story about Homeless Nation - they are doing the real work where is matters.
"Homeless Nation's outreach workers across Canada work in a variety of ways in collaboration with the homeless community. We work in shelters, day-centres, squats, at protests, community events, on the street and online. We are dedicated to ensuring that digital tools for media, learning and communication are made available for homeless Canadians."
Respect to connect
The site serves all of Canada with content in English and French and provides vital, regionalized resources to help homeless people find shelters, medical clinics, hot meals, and legal resources, and also share info about dealing with social service agencies and surviving in a rough environment. There is also a tool to report missing persons allowing people to look after one another (and hopefully thwart the disappearances which occur in marginalized populations).
Built on Drupal, the developers did an ace job of using standard modules to help build community interaction. Visitors can see who is currently online - which can be critical when needing help from an outreach worker or a friend. Little details like this can help homeless people connect and communicate with others who won't judge them as stereotypes, but instead offer assistance, support, advice, and empathy - often hard-gained from real-life experience. Indeed, reading through blogposts and the comments is heart-wrenching and empowering at the same time.
The site's efficient organization, clean design, and useful feature-set help the active participants effectuate positive change through information sharing, documentary creation, and peer support. While the language is often coarse and spelling obscure, the kindness and honesty shine through, and there is no tolerance for intolerant behaviour.
The Code of Conduct lays it out: "Homeless Nation values every story and every voice and we actively promote and encourage free speech. We will not accept, however, any form of racism, sexism, bigotry, or any other offensive behaviour. Personal attacks on individuals will be deleted and violating users may be banned."
Personal platform for expression
Designed for personal expression in mind, Homelessnation.org provides disenfranchised people a personal publication platform for their unique point of view with audio, video, image and art galleries. With a built-in understanding of the ground-level issues, HN members can cover the stories in a manner the mainstream media couldn't - even if they wanted to.
An example from our own neighbourhood is video coverage by colinford called Dirty Deeds - Vancouver Insite Protest & Bedouin Soundclash get Shut Down described as:
"A free concert by the band Bedouin Soundclash in front of Vancouver's supervised injection site was canceled before the band could hit the stage. ... The police alleged that the Portland Hotel Society did not have the proper permit for the event, as a result they came by in large numbers and shut the event down. According to the Portland Hotel Society, the equipment for the show was damaged/destroyed by the police."
While the mainstream media were in attendence, the real feeling of being in the crowd and hearing the police reaction is much richer than the scant soundbites which make the TV news.
Thanks for communicating
Consider learning more about the HomelessNation.org makers - from outreach workers to web producers and Whisky Echo Bravo - and be sure to educate yourself to ways to solve these social conundrums which impact all of us. As fellow citizens, we say "thanks" and as your humble Drupal host, we say "congrats."