The homeless advocacy organization,?Rethink Homelessness Jacksonville has published a Cardboard Stories for Jacksonville, much like the successful one?created for Orlando.
Accompanying the video, the Rethink Homelessness Jacksonville Facebook page posted the following message:
“We took cardboard signs and markers into downtown Jacksonville, and asked our homeless neighbors there to share something that no one walking by would know. Their stories will touch your heart.”
As part of?the Cardboard Stories campaign, they have also created?billboards to raise awareness.
The billboards have been spotted all around the Jacksonville area, which has over 240 people that are homeless due to mental illness, which is just a fraction of the overall homeless population. At least one of the billboards?is visible on I-95, a main interstate used by?visitors to the Sunshine State,?which?has approximately?140,000 homeless children.
The goal is to raise awareness and garner support for housing the homeless initiatives that have been widely successful in other cities. The limited shelter beds and tough love approach leave far too many people on the streets, with little to no help.
Do these Cardboard Stories change they way you view homelessness?
Let us know your thoughts at the?Liberal America?Facebook page. Sign up for our?free daily newsletter?to receive more great stories like this one.
Elizabeth Preston is a thirty-something wife and mother of three living in Florida. She is a fierce liberal with a passion?for equality and justice. She is a skeptic by nature and often the Facebook friend that rains on the urban legend parade with fact checking. Give her?Facebook page?a?like, follow her on?Twitter?and check out her personal blog,?My Four Ha? Pennies.
