Diane Nilan, Diana Bowman

The Three Melissas

The Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The Three Melissas: The Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness by Diane Nilan and Diana Bowman, two long-time advocates for families experiencing homelessness, is a one-of-a-kind practical guide for dealing with the unrelenting hardships that parents endure while keeping their children safe during homelessness. Featured are three mothers named Melissa who doggedly faced the day-to-day hardships of being homeless. The book offers their tips, strategies, and inspiration for parents who are homeless., and creates a window into the struggles parents face that could help improve supports and services for families who are homeless. You will experience the Melissas' frustration over facing daily barriers that kept them from becoming stably housed. You will share the emotional toll as they struggled and doubted themselves as parents. You will realize that you never get over homelessness. The Melissas still experience what one of them called "Post-Traumatic Homelessness Disorder." Yet, the Three Melissas offer inspiration and hope to parents. They emphasize do the best you can for your kids and "give yourself a break." They exhort parents to reach out, and keep reaching out, and use their voice to help people understand what they need. The Melissas also recommend changes in service systems from the perspective of those who sought help and found services inadequate for the real needs of families experiencing homelessness. They address ways that service providers, government, and nonprofits could more effectively help parents and children survive homelessness. Finally, the book offers practical tools, including a tip sheet to help people who host families in their home on how to communicate and set boundaries. Their advice can also guide professionals in support systems to better tailor services so that when families lose their housing, they can move quickly through the devastation of homelessness and attain lasting stability.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: HEAR US Inc.
• Seitenzahl: 194
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. September 2024
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 178mm x 127mm x 13mm
• Gewicht: 276g
• ISBN-13: 9798988181682
• Artikelnr.: 71888046

Autorenporträt

Diane Nilan worked in homelessness, beginning in the mid-1980s. Nilan managed large shelters in Chicago suburbs for fifteen years. In the process, she became involved in grassroots advocacy - focusing on raising awareness and implementing systemic change. She and other advocates met with enormous success, implementing the first state law passed to remove educational barriers and increase school access for students experiencing homelessness (Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act, 1994).Less than a decade later, Nilan became integrally involved in incorporating the Illinois law into federal legislation, with the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Assistance Improvements Act in 2002. She left shelter work in 2003 to share her knowledge of homelessness and of homeless education laws. Nilan founded a new program, Project REACH, with the goal of training educators in 305 Chicago-area school districts on their academic obligations to students experiencing homelessness. She quickly gained a clear understanding of the knowledge gap keeping many educators from implementing the new legislative requirements or even recognizing students experiencing homelessness. Nilan knew students and their parents could improve students' academic performance but lacked the opportunity. With a desire to channel the wisdom of those with lived experience to educators and the public, Diane founded HEAR US Inc., in 2005. Consequently, she sold her home and possessions, bought a small motorhome, and began traveling to non-urban areas across the country gathering stories from students and their parents. This one-woman nonprofit began filming and producing videos featuring hundreds of otherwise invisible students and families. These films provide firsthand stories to countless audiences including elected officials and school personnel.