Experimentation with Homelessness Ideas

I have a few ideas I would like to experiment with to highlight the issue of Homelessness in Cardiff. Firstly I would like to create some type of transparent street sign/board with images of homeless people on, in which you would look through and see the individual leaning up against objects within the environment. This perspective on homelessness will engage the audience to see the real person behind the notion of a homeless character. To this, I would like to create personas for the characters to reveal a past life which may be dramatically different to their current situation. Another Idea is to create homeless plaques which would go in the high-used areas and locations to imitate a memorial sign. This exaggerated approach to highlighting the problems of homelessness will not be made clear at first until the unexpected audience reads it as they walk past or stop next to. This small story or ‘remembrance letter’ leaves a lasting impression of how a particular homeless person went about their everyday life. And from this, the reader can change this destructive path by donating or raising awareness to friends and family.

A major idea I would like to tackle is a campaign to the way we donate. I would like to create the concept of a card in which the public can purchase from everyday shops with pre-loaded credit/money on for the homeless to buy meals. These can then be handed to the homeless as an alternative to change. This will encourage the individual to spend their money received on something they need over what they may desire such as alcohol or drugs. The cards will have different values on and upon depletion they turn into a discount card on future purchases and if required topped back up with any change they do receive. This will also discourage robbery on the homeless. I realise that the card could be taken from the individual and so I feel that it may be worthwhile to research into a security measure such as a disposable pin/code for each card. I feel it would be more personal if the cards could be personalised by the buyer to avoid another generic-looking voucher card.