Imagine you are homeless and your backpack gets stolen with all of your identification. Try getting a job without ID. Or opening a bank account, cashing a check, traveling, renting a hotel room, even renting a video. Without an ID life stops!

Now let’s add bureaucracy. Every Stare has different laws and regulations! Replacing a lost ID can be one of the biggest road blocks to getting a homeless person off the streets.

Thanks to Jacqueline Dowd at least people in Central Florida have a solution. Jackie started Idignity to help people get past this hurtle. In all my travels this is the only ID clinic I know of and we need more.

Honored that Neil Abramson, Louisiana State Representative, District 98 in New Orleans, would take the time to talk to me about homelessness in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Shawn Escoffery joined me in capturing stories in New Orleans. Shawn truly ‘sees people’. These images are powerful and really transmit the emotion of the experience.

I knew of David Lanier long before we ever met. My editor on change.org featured him. David was a sports writer who ended up on the streets. He wrote a powerful series on homelessness for NWAonline (seems the articles are no longer available. But David wrote a little piece about this night)

Last year there was a ‘camp out’ after I spoke at the University of Arkansas. I normally don’t endorse such events.  They really do not have much impact and end up being kids eating pizza talking sports. Plus, my own homelessness cured me of camping. But Mike Rusch can be pretty persuasive. And besides, Cobblestone Project has been wonderful to InvisiblePeople.tv so I agreed.

After I spoke, as the group of ‘campers’ were walking to the tent area, David came up and introduced himself to me. He told me he was currently homeless and then went on to encourage me. Yes, I was blown away. But what happened just a few days ago in Northwest Arkansas WRECKED ME.

I honestly didn’t know David was going to be there. I have been so busy it slipped my mind. Then this kind, gentle man walked up and said, “thank you, your visit here last year changed my life”.

Meet David and Henry. This is another wonderful story of how compassionate, caring relationships can help solve the horrible social crisis of homelessness.

OK, lets see how you add this up. Here I am this whacked guy with a big mouth screaming real loud about homelessness. I get this crazy idea to drive around the county. It was either that or face my own eviction since I was unemployed without income.  Add all of YOUR support in helping me get out on the road. And then add a community that really understands compassion and networking.

Below is a short video I shot after meeting Don for the first time. Don was the first homeless person housed by “Our Step”, a community effort that is beyond gorgeous. But here is what is simply amazing. This housing program was started as a direct and indirect result of my speaking at the University of Arkansas during last year’s road trip.

Don was in a bad situation. He only has 35% use of his heart and was living on the streets. To get his 3 year-old daughter  back he had to have housing.  And to qualify for housing he had to have his daughter. Ya I know, crazy, but that is how dysfunctional homeless services can be. It’s called a “gap in the safety net” and Don feel through a huge gap. Luckily Our Step was there.

crazy me + social media + your support + community = housing

This may be one of the most amazing and real stories I have found, but you all must know that Brad and Scotty developed a relationship long before Brad allowed Scotty to live with his family.

Brad I’ve gotten to know over twitter. He’s always encouraging me. I spent a few hours with him my first day here, but Brad never told me about any of this. The next day I met Scotty outside an organization that feeds meals. We struck up a conversation and I instantly took a liking to him. He’s really a nice guy. When I dug deeper I found out Brad, who is now my new hero, took Scotty into his home.

I wish it was always this easy. I wish it was safe to simply take people into your home, and I wish that people had real compassion like Brad’s family does to actually do something about homelessness.

This is a wonderful story of friendship, compassion, and simple solutions to a very complex social crisis.

photo credit: robhowells87

I am back in Northwest Arkansas. Last year when I was here lots of amazing things happened. Some funny, and some a flat out miracle. They want to say I had something to do with it. But that is just bonk. Truth is – YOU DID THIS! All of you that continue to support InvisiblePeople.tv made this happen, and the Northwest Arkansas community made this happen. I just drove a car.

Today I visited The Farm. 40 acres of land that is now producing much more than food. It’s mind-blowing everything they are doing with this land. For example, today I visited and a group of girls from the Teen Action Support Center was busy ‘working’ the farm. Food, volunteerism , community involvement, education, even a school lunch thing that I don’t completely understand has started from this farm initiative.  But here is the wild part. The farm was birthed from my speaking at he University of Arkansas last year. That’s what I mean by YOU DID THIS! All of you helped me get here, and all of the local community worked hard to make my visit a catalyst for real change.

Here is a short video with Mike Rusch who is too me the real hero behind all this:

Tomorrow, I get to meet the first man who was placed into a housing program that was started after my visit. I am kind of lost tonight just thinking about all this. I am speaking tomorrow night and I take all this very serious. I mean, here I am still just trying to survive my own crisis by simply helping others and miracles are happening all around.

I am emotional trying this right now. Thank you Mike Rusch, and thank you Northwest Arkansas for making all this happen. And a very special thanks to each and every one of you that have helped me make InvisiblePeople.tv a reality.

“Children and youth victimized in human trafficking are not social outcasts or criminals. Rather, they are our neighbors and friends, our nieces and nephews, and our children and grandchildren who have been or who are currently being mentally, physically, and sexually abused. And they don’t need us standing around clicking our ruby red slippers or dreaming of Oz” ~ Karen Countryman-Roswurm

In the first homeless shelter I stayed at we were ‘farmed out’ as labor. Feed a ‘bum’ and you can work him all day. If he complains who will listen? That truly was the case at Hollywood and Vine Recovery Center where I lived off and on in 1995. I screamed real loud about the madness, so did others, but no one would listen to a homeless person. Eventually the place was closed by the FBI. This week in Denver I was educated about “sales crews” using homeless kids as labor and sex trafficking of homeless youth. You can watch that interview here and meet two people stranded homeless by a magazine crew here.

Yesterday I spent an amazing eye-opening day with Wichita Childern’s Home. First they wanted to take me to lunch. Being candid, that often turns out to be the start of a ‘dog and pony show’, but the staff of WHC are beyond brilliant and we spent over an hour talking about cause and effect, and more importantly real solutions to child and youth homelessness.  That was just the start of my education.

I recorded this powerful interview with Karen Countryman-Roswurm, LMSW, Therapist/Coordinator of Anti-Sexual Exploitation Service, who is considered an expert on this topic.

Human trafficking and sexual exploitation of youth is a very real crisis in America, yet most all of the funding to fight human trafficking goes to organizations that deal with international trafficking.  According to the FBI Wichita is the 5th originating city in America for human trafficking. That means the young girls and boys are ‘recruited’ in Wichita and then transported to other parts of the country to be exploited.

PLEASE watch this powerful interview:

Like it or not we are all effected by this crisis. This is such an important conversation that rarely gets talked about I asked Karen to write a little something to go along with this video.

Kansas Human Trafficking and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth

By Karen Countryman-Roswurm, LMSW

Though perhaps shattering the mental image held by many, Kansas is not the picturesque farmland portrayed in the memorable film, The Wizard of Oz.  In fact, though I do believe “There is no place like home,” I bet Dorothy would throw out her ruby red slippers and stay in Oz if she knew how much “home” has changed.  If she knew that the many different faces and forms of sexual exploitation are much more frightening than witches and flying monkeys.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation is “A type of violence against children and youth which may include coerced or forced sexual acts in exchange for, or the promise of, money, drugs, food, clothing, shelter, or other survival needs.  It is a transaction in which the body of a child and/or youth is treated as a commodity” (Countryman-Roswurm, 2005).  Disheartening is the fact that such sexual exploitation, such modern-day form of slavery, is the most heinous, and yet far too often the most invisible form of child abuse in the United States today.  A form of child abuse, targeted towards the most vulnerable, which includes mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

Though it may be easier to think of children only being sold and bought for the purposes of labor or commercial sex acts in international countries, commercial sexual exploitation of US children and youth is “now tied with the illegal arms trade as the second-largest and second-fastest-growing criminal enterprise…both of them trailing only the illicit drug trade” (Winn, 2005, p.1).  Estimates of US children and youth domestically trafficked for the purposes of sex acts range between one and two million (Flowers, 1998; Davis, 1999).  Mid-West communities…Kansas is not free from such child trafficking.

Human trafficking crosses all socio-economic, racial, and religious boundaries and conservative estimates from professionals serving on the Anti-Sexual Exploitation Roundtable for Community Action suggest that 300-400 Wichita youth are at-risk of sexual exploitation each year.  To demonstrate this, of 250 youth interviewed at the Wichita Children’s Home between 2007 and 2008, sixty-seven percent reported they had been sexually assaulted or raped; forty-six percent had been asked to strip, go on a date or provide sexual favors in exchange for food, shelter, money or drugs; and forty percent reported that they had “agreed” or had been forced or manipulated to exchange sexual favors for food, shelter, money or drugs.  Thus, once pursued, 100 of the 250 young people interviewed were forced, frauded, or coerced into sexual exploitation.  This is only including the youth we know about, the children who survived and were lucky enough to make it into safe shelter.

Children and youth victimized in human trafficking are not social outcasts or criminals.  Rather, they are our neighbors and friends, our nieces and nephews, and our children and grandchildren who have been or who are currently being mentally, physically, and sexually abused. And they don’t need us standing around clicking our ruby red slippers or dreaming of Oz.  Combating all forms of human trafficking, whether labor or sexual exploitation, takes a collaborative multi-disciplinary approach which bridges the gap between direct practice, research, and policy.  This includes providing public awareness and professional training, prevention services, early identification and intervention services, survivor protection and human rights advocacy, perpetrator prosecution, and recovery services, while at the same time, working to reduce the demand that encourages sexual exploitation to occur in the first place.

Karen Countryman-Roswurm, LMSW, is a Therapist/Anti-Sexual Exploitation Services Coordinator with the Wichita Children’s Home and the Founder/Coordinator of the Anti-Sexual Exploitation Roundtable for Community Action.

Interview with Stephanie Bell, outreach worker to homeless youth being exploited. Visit http://www.praxus.org for more information. Human Trafficking is horrible at all levels. But society seems to not care as much when it’s American homeless youth being exploited. This is a very powerful interview that everyone must see.

Today I happen to be in Denver. Over twitter I get a invite to coffee with one of my all time heroes, Scott Harrison. I mean, like what are the chances of that even happening? But here is the cool thing. Once again Scott pushed me to be better.

I’ve written about charity: water before. And many of you have heard me speak about charity: water when I am presenting. I just love everything they do. Scott is beyond brilliant.

I first heard Scott speak at The Idea Camp.  He talked about integrity and design. Can you imagine me coming out of Christian broadcasting hearing the words “integrity” and “good design” and seeing a real-life working example! I was blown away. Invisiblepeople.tv had just started. At the time of that first Idea Camp I was a mess. I didn’t have anything to eat for weeks besides $.89 ‘cardboard’ frozen pizzas. I had no income and no savings. Nothing! Scott talked about starting charity: water while living on someones couch. That, along with seeing that an org could have integrity and design, I was pushed in a new direction.

On the very first road trip to Sacramento, which was a huge risk for me, behind the scenes Scott encouraged me and offered support. Back then, without such validation, I might have called it quits.  Even today much of this does not make sense so back then it was really insane! Then Scott invited me to watch him speak in Culver City. It was right before the first national road trip. He said “awareness is not enough”. That slammed me hard. I wanted to do more, but I didn’t have resources. I stopped and thought about what I could do and it hit me. I could build a library of resources by live streaming all the great people who are helping to fight homelessness, and thus InvisiblePeople.tv Live was born.

Last year when I was in NYC I stopped by charity: water’s new offices,  and once again Scott pushed me to do more. Some of which I have implemented, but still have a long long way to go. And of course, today was no different. My head is spinning after our short time together.  I am not sure Scott is even aware how “spot on” his encouragement is. I’m at the ground floor of starting a nonprofit, he was there not too long ago, he knows what I need to do and puts it in my face. I am so grateful there are no words.

Who pushes you to be better?