In just a few minutes, using only your cell phone camera, you could help Public Health Advocates gather video content to promote empathy for unhoused people in California and compassionate policy solutions to meet their greatest needs.
As part of a statewide homelessness campaign, we are creating a video called “All Hands,” which will criticize the inhumane treatment of unhoused people while showing the outstretched hands of people from all over California who face a variety of different circumstances with regard to housing security and housing insecurity.
With intention of protecting people’s privacy, we are not recording people’s faces. Our video will include some information about people’s experience with housing insecurity, but it will not reveal their names or other identifying factors.
Along with each set of hands that appears on screen, we will include a numerical figure that shows: 1) how long they have been unhoused; 2) how long they were unhoused for in the past; or 3) how many days they are away from homelessness if they lost their income.
This will show how everyone’s hands are relatable – no matter their experience with housing insecurity. Watch our concept video.
Here’s how you can participate.
Record a video of someone’s hands in the format that we are using for the project. Ask them a list of 3 questions we created about personal experience with housing insecurity. If you have time, you can record the hands of several different people.
We have written instructions here, and a how-to video that shows you how to record a person’s hands so that you get a shot that looks great on screen!
Take a look at the videos we have collected in our shared folder, so you know exactly what we’re looking for. When you finish your recordings, please drop them in that same folder.
We’re looking for more recordings of people who have faced housing insecurity.
We would especially like your help if you can record the hands of people who are currently unhoused or have been unhoused in the past. If you work with unhoused people or for an organization that provides services to formerly unhoused people, you can ask them if they’d like to participate. We also want more recordings of people who have low income and limited savings and could potentially face housing instability.
If you have any questions about this project or how you can help, please email Holden Slattery at hs@phadvocates.org.
