“Homelessness in small towns and rural areas is on the rise. Drawing on interviews with and case studies of three hundred children and their families, with supporting statistics from federal, state, and private agencies, Vissing illustrates the impact this social problem has upon education, health, and the economy.”… More >>
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Homeless Children and Families in Small-Town America
This is the product of six years of research and work with homeless rural children and families. But while Vissing does her homework and musters the facts, the book goes beyond the statistics. This is not a scientific study of a problem — this is a person talking about people.
The book is full of photos: of children hungry; children playing; a pregnant young woman on a park bench; a mother in a homeless shelter cradling two toddlers close to her, with a determined look on her face; a teenage girl nodding off to sleep at a coffeeshop table with dawn lightening the window. Fourteen University of New Hampshire photography students worked with homeless children and families for six months in 1991. The results are incorporated into this book. Also available is a twenty minute, award-winning, videotape, “I Want to Go Home”
Just as the book goes beyond the statistics to show human beings suffering, it goes beyond the suffering to show solutions. Vissing spoke, in her initial study, with about three hundred people from school and community groups about programs to help the homeless. The first results were discouraging; for example, “Almost none of the communities had special summer programs for homeless children. I became convinced that ‘homelessness’ was not a term that most agencies used when serving children.” But by the end of the book, Vissing has a program for rural communities to “‘take the bull by the horns’ and rely upon themselves to address the causes and consequences of homelessness.” In the back of the book is a lengthy personal story — fourteen pages — of a child who grew up in poverty, abuse, violence and a rootless existence. Her story is searing and heartbreaking. But it has a very short postscript. “.. employed full-time and planned to attend college the following fall. Each member of the family seemed emotionally, financially, and socially secure, because of their own determination and because they had found help when they needed it.”
This book vividly illustrates how our families and our communities have been shattered. It also vividly illustrates how they can be mended.
Rating: 5 / 5