Our goal is to change the cultural perception of the 'unhoused' in Dutchess County and beyond by creating a media campaign. We believe that our storytelling 'commercials' will help viewers feel and act with empathy and realize that 'those people' could be 'my people'. To help us all realize that we are all vulnerable and responsible to help each other. The long term reason for this project is to introduce the idea of every town & city taking on some of the unhoused community (scattered site planning) so that Poughkeepsie is not burdened alone as it is presently.
There are 3 stages to this - we are asking for funds for the 1st stage.
1- Host a story-telling dinner with 5 people who are/have experienced homelessness. We are working with Jasmaine Clay, who works directly with the PODS and knows the people the PODS are serving well. She has recco'd 5 people who want to share. While sharing a meal, we will ask sensitive questions & record their stories.
2- Using those stories, but protecting the persons identities we will hire actors to retell the stories. There will be a 30 sec video that will have clips from each individual story to be used for further grant $ for this stage of the project.
We will record 5 individual stories.
3- Target TV stations to air our 'commercials' to the Hudson Valley community.