With a Flip Cam in hand, Homeless Mo is on the streets of San Francisco raising awareness of homelessness by interviewing homeless people and sharing his experiences on YouTube.
Mo’s introduction to social media came through Ryan Hupfer. The two met when Mo asked Hupfer for a cigarette, but Hupfer instead offered to buy Mo a sandwich at Subway with him.
With Hupfer’s help, Mo now has his own way of telling his story and the story of other homeless people he meets on the street. He uses a Flip Cam given to him by Hupfer to make the recordings, Hupfer then edits and uploads the videos to the HomelessMo YouTube channel where he’s receiving thousands of views.
It isn’t the first time YouTube has been used effectively to raise awareness of homelessness in the USA. Mark Horvath (better known online as HardlyNormal) has also been sharing stories through Invisible People since 2008. The Invisible People videos have been viewed over 3 million times and aim to change the way homelessness is perceived.
This change is also something Mo and Ryan are trying to do through a new project. They are now working on the Catch-22 Crew Project that aims to offer people in the homeless people in San Francisco an opportunity to do self-directed volunteer work projects. The first of which will be a clean-up project of a well-known area that’s been trashed.
Via Mashable
Image Ryan Hupfer
