Sharing their story

Humanize
the issue

To humanize the issue of homelessness, we enlisted the support of 10 brave individuals who shared their story and responded to judgements about what it’s like to be homeless. The campaign captured the attention of an international audience, engaging the public in ‘Changing the conversation’ on homelessness.

The ads feature individuals with lived experience of homelessness reading mean tweets about people experiencing homelessness. The shocking and emotional videos capture the tweets, but more importantly, the responses of the individuals reading them. Their responses to the tweets, along with some other common questions, help to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about homelessness and bring a human story to the issue.

This public awareness campaign aims to not only get people to think about some of the negative and untrue stereotypes that exist, but also encourages the public to participate in a changing conversation on homelessness. On social media, the conversation comes to life using #HumansForHumans.

The work was created in-kind by the folks at Leo Burnett Toronto, and brought to market with the generous pro bono support of M&K Media.

All videos can be seen on our YouTube channel.

All participants in the Humans for Humans campaign willingly and voluntarily participated in the project. Raising the Roof and it’s partners worked hard to ensure that all participants were well-prepared for this project through months of meetings and discussion prior to filming. Participants were also connected to support services and community agencies, many whom Raising the Roof had partnered with previously for other campaigns and initiatives.