Homeless Youth Win Emmy Nomination and Take Their Film on the Road to Launch Nation-Wide Advocacy Campaign

Not content simply winning an Emmy nomination for the critically-acclaimed documentary they produced about their own lives, a group of homeless youth are kicking off a "Homeless not Hopeless" campaign with the Reciprocity Foundation (www.reciprocityfoundation.org) to inspire Americans to become advocates for solutions to youth homelessness. "Invisible: the Diaries of New York's Homeless Youth" was created and inspired by youth enrolled in the Reciprocity Foundation's program to help homeless youth break the cycle of poverty, start a career and become leaders and advocates in America. The half hour "mini-doc" originally aired on New York's PIX 11 to an audience of roughly 700,000 in late 2009 before garnering an Emmy nomination from the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. True to their desire to be change-makers, the youth are organizing screenings across America—and plan to reach one million Americans with the message that homeless persons are not hopeless—by demonstrating how thousands of homeless youth have overcome enormous obstacles to become leaders in America. The youth filmmakers will be working with school and community groups to organize local screenings and discussion forums to raise awareness of the solutions to poverty and isolation amongst America's youth.

Publication Date: 
2011
Journal Name: 
PR Newswire