BTEC Level 3 Media (Year 2): Create A Social Action Program

Team: Kevin Middleton & Matthew Tulip

Scenario: You have started work for digital media company. Your boss wants you to come up with an idea for a new factual teen show for teens. Cooking, fashion, music, adventure, blogging based etc.

Target audience: teenagers (13-19 year olds).

Ideas:

Leaflet
Short film/video
TV show
Blog
Documentary

Subject: homelessness and how governments handle the epidemic around the world.

Narrative: follow homelessness here in the UK, then the US and other countries around the world.

Presentation: with our findings from our research notes, we will present the idea during our pitch.

Impact: show the reality of homelessness and the facts, in hopes that it will encourage social action among the masses.

Why? To raise awareness on the issues of homelessness and encourage social action to combat it i.e. supporting programs and petitioning government.

Research

GLOBAL HOMELESSNESS STATISTICS https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/

The Guardian: Homeless in Britain: ‘I graduated with honours – and ended up on the streets’

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jan/13/homeless-britain-personal-stories

There was an awful incident near Westfield a few months ago where school-age teenagers, laughing, filmed their friends kicking an elderly homeless man onto the floor in broad daylight. We have a government that has no empathy, so perhaps it’s no surprise school kids get off being like that too.

Business Insider UK: Here's the intense, rigorous process each refugee goes through before coming to the US

http://uk.businessinsider.com/refugee-screening-process-in-us-2015-11?r=US&IR=T

One major argument immigration advocates have cited against making any changes to current plans is the lengthy process for vetting refugees. It typically lasts 18 to 24 months, and experts say it may actually be among the most difficult ways for terrorists to attempt to enter into the US legally.

The Telegraph: Rio attempts to tackle widespread homelessness ahead of Olympics

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/11843047/Rio-attempts-to-tackle-widespread-homelessness-ahead-of-Olympics.html

Joao Nunes Peixoto Filho has overstayed at a homeless refuge in Rio de Janeiro. Out of work since he got Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, he has no family and nowhere to go. “I spent time on the streets,” the 52-year-old said, quietly. “At my age, I didn’t have much schooling and it’s difficult to find work.” His dream of having his own home rests solely on being drawn by the government’s social housing programme, Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My House, My Life”).

The Huffington Post: How Bad is Homelessness In America? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-bad-is-homelessness-in-america-really_us_58f6916de4b0c892a4fb736f

On a single night in January 2015, for example, 564,708 people were considered homelessness in America, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. That’s over half a million people without a roof over their heads.
Although the national rate of homelessness has gone down from 21.5% in 2007 to 17.7% in 2015, there is still a lot of work to be done — the rate of homelessness amongst individual states continues to be high and the amount of affordable housing remains painfully low.

Japan Today: Homeless in Japan and still earning a decent salary https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/homeless-in-japan-and-still-earning-a-decent-salary

In Japan – or at least in Tokyo – however, most homeless people are middle-aged or older men. One article even suggests that many of these men were once white-collar workers or had been company owners–people we’d consider successful. For whatever reason, many of these men eventually chose a life outside the system. As one older gentlemen told a reporter for Record China, “After spending a year as a homeless person, people don’t want to go back to work. It’s because living life without an alarm clock is a blessing.”
But just because they’re not working regular jobs doesn’t mean they aren’t earning an income. In fact one 60-year-old homeless man known as Ishii, who has lived on the streets for 13 years, told a reporter from Spa!, a Japanese magazine, that he made around three million yen a year. Another man, who’s been homeless for 12 years, told Spa! that he was making over 100,000 yen a month.

Gallup News: Worry About Hunger, Homelessness Up for Lower-Income in US http://news.gallup.com/poll/207521/worry-hunger-homelessness-lower-income.aspx

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Over the past two years, an average of 67% of lower-income U.S. adults, up from 51% from 2010-2011, have worried "a great deal" about the problem of hunger and homelessness in the country. Concern has also increased among middle- and upper-income Americans, but they still worry far less than do lower-income Americans.

HuffPost: California Close To Rolling Out $2 Billion Plan To House Homeless People http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-close-to-rolling-out-2-billion-plan-to-house-homeless-people_us_57685740e4b015db1bca5210

Back in January, senators introduced the idea of issuing $2 billion in bonds to provide at least 14,000 units to house homeless people, the Los Angeles Times reported. The bonds would be repaid over about 20 to 30 years using funds from a “millionaire's tax,” which would raise taxes on millionaires by 1 percent, according to the AP.
The plan is moving forward at a time when cities, including Los Angeles, are declaring homelessness states of emergencies in order to free up disaster funds to address the issue. But Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t in favor of the approach, the AP noted.
A recent study out of San Francisco found that the city saved 56 percent in expenses over the course of four years after housing for homeless people.

ThinkProgress: Leaving Homeless Person On The Streets: $31,065. Giving Them Housing: $10,051. https://thinkprogress.org/leaving-homeless-person-on-the-streets-31-065-giving-them-housing-10-051-3107834a8632/

Late last week, the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness released a new study showing that, when accounting for a variety of public expenses, Florida residents pay $31,065 per chronically homeless person every year they live on the streets.
The study, conducted by Creative Housing Solutions, an Oklahoma-based consultant group, tracked public expenses accrued by 107 chronically homeless individuals in central Florida. These ranged from criminalization and incarceration costs to medical treatment and emergency room intakes that the patient was unable to afford.

ThinkProg: Homelessness Is Falling — But Not Fast Enough https://thinkprogress.org/homelessness-is-falling-but-not-fast-enough-f44486ed5017/

Homelessness fell by more than 2 percent at the beginning of this year compared to last, or 13,344 fewer people, according to the latest data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But in the annual point-in-time count of the country’s homeless population in January of 2014, there were still 578,424 homeless people. Just over 30 percent of those were unsheltered, living on the street or in parks, cars, or abandoned buildings, although the decline in homelessness was driven by a 10 percent drop in people living in these conditions.

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