Press Gazette - Hidden Homeless

Warren Gerds column: 'Hidden Homeless' documentary explores world of homeless youth

Green Bay Press Gazette - Green Bay, Wis.

Author:	Warren Gerds
Date:	Sep 14, 2010
Start Page:	B.7
Section:	Life
Text Word Count:	645

More than 700 students in Green Bay School District were identified as homeless during last school year, according to a new TV documentary that gives pause.
"A lot of our students will move eight, 10, 12 times during an academic year, in and out of homeless situations and sometimes in and out of what somebody might consider a stable living situation," Ali Draheim, coordinator for at-risk programs for Green Bay schools, says on a remarkable TV documentary, "The Hidden Homeless."
The program is another revealing exploration from a well-respected collaborative that tackles hard topics.
"The Hidden Homeless," which will be broadcast statewide Thursday, tells the stories of four teens.
Amber lived on the streets in Milwaukee, Scott on an island in Menominee, Mich., Justin in an abandoned bus in Escanaba, Mich., and Savannah in various locations in and out of Green Bay after her mother was sent back to prison.
One of the program's compelling scenes follows Savannah to Taycheedah Correctional Institution to visit her mother.
The mother is tearful as she mourns the loss of years not seeing her daughter while growing up. Savannah is stoic. She relies on an outlet, perhaps a surprising one.
"You can really get your emotions out when you play an instrument," she says. Savannah played string bass in school orchestras.
April Strom-Johnson, co-founder of Good Samaritan Charities in Green Bay and a mentor to Savannah, says many teens with parents in prison look on the situation with relief, as if the parents are safe.
The program uses the term "hidden homeless" because the homeless youth often take pains to blend in. They dress like others -- or play in the school orchestra -- and pass under the radar as being homeless.
Teens become homeless for many reasons. The main one is family conflict, says Todd Witt, program director for Walker's Point Youth and Family Center in Milwaukee.
The youth are leaving situations of abuse or neglect -- homes with a significant amount of trauma and conflict, Witt says.
Strom-Johnson says she senses a feeling that "outsiders" show up and become homeless in Green Bay.
"I have young people that I see from every ethnicity, from every race, from every part of the county, from people who have lived in shelters for years and people who have never been in a shelter," Strom-Johnson says.
"But the majority of the people that we're serving in the homeless community are homegrown homeless, if you will. They are from this area. They are from the Green Bay area. They are from the Brown County area. They are from the Northeastern Wisconsin area."
The program tracks the four teens out of the depths. Savannah is seen graduating from high school and looking forward to attending the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
This is one of the most tightly made programs to come out of the association of Northeastern Wisconsin-In School Telecommunications, Cooperative Educational Services Agency 7, Educational Television Productions of Northeast Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Television.
Plans of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction are to submit "The Hidden Homeless" for a national media award.
Warren Gerds writes about television and radio for the Press-Gazette. Write to him at P.O. Box 23430, Green Bay, WI 54305-3430 or e-mail wgerds@greenbaypressgazette.com.
On TV
What: "The Hidden Homeless"
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: WPNE, Channel 38, and statewide via Wisconsin Public Television and Milwaukee Public Television
A technique
"The Hidden Homeless" documentary does not use a narrator. The only voices heard are of participants.
"Sometimes I think the narrator gets in the way of things," said Eileen Littig, a Green Bay-based educational TV producer who teamed with Dean Thomas to put together the 30-minute program.
"We just wanted the story told through the agency people and the people who work with the kids and the kids themselves -- their own voices, nothing to get in the way."

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Abstract (Document Summary)

A lot of our students will move eight, 10, 12 times during an academic year, in and out of homeless situations and sometimes in and out of what somebody might consider a stable living situation," Ali Draheim, coordinator for at-risk programs for Green Bay schools, says on a remarkable TV documentary, "The Hidden Homeless.