From Homelessness to Home: The Hill-Smith Family

For the fourth installment of my Homeless to Home project, about families who have sought help from the Family Promise program and who now have their own home, I photographed Crystal and her two children. After losing her home, Crystal immediately called Family Promise on the recommendation of someone who told her about the organization. Thankfully, they happened to have exactly three spots open - perfect for her and the kids. At first she was scared about the limit of a 3-month stay. She wondered how she was going to make a turn-around in 3 months: find a job, become financially independent, and find a place for her and her kids to live. However, at the very end of her three months, someone called Family Promise and wanted to donate a trailer. Gloria, the Executive Director at Family Promise, knew she had the perfect family for the trailer. She wanted Crystal to go check it out first because the person donating it mentioned that it was in very bad shape. Luckily, someone offered to fix it up by replacing the flooring. Crystal and her kids moved into the fixed-up trailer but then the 2010 hail storm caused extensive damage. Just two months ago, Crystal and the kids were able to move out of the two bedroom trailer into their current three bedroom apartment.

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

©2011, Leslie McDaniel

So, which of the family portraits do you like best? I threw in the silly one because the kids wanted to do "funny" pictures and I think it shows that they have a lot of fun together. However, I'm more likely to use the first or third photographs as the one whole-family portrait. 

For the kids, I kept trying each of these in black and white for some reason, but then settled on the color versions. Of the three choices for Shanna, which do you prefer? And finally, which portrait of Zeke do you prefer?

From Homelessness to Home: The Wright Family

My newest social issue project involves photographing families who were once homeless and who now have a home. The families I plan to photograph have gone through Family Promise, a local non-profit organization that offers help to families with children who are experiencing homelessness. Their website states that they have an 80% success rate of "homeless to home transition". The purpose of the organization as stated on their website is: "Our interfaith, nonsectarian network brings the faith community together to help our community’s families regain housing, independence and dignity in a time of need." While in the program, the families stay at local churches who cooperate with Family Promise. Volunteers from each church spend time hanging out with and feeding the family in the evenings during their stay. In the daytime, the families search for jobs, attend school, or spend time at the Family Promise "day house" doing tasks such as laundry or using the computer.

I had the pleasure to meet and photograph the Wright family this past Friday in the home they've had for just a couple of months. During my interview with them, they both discussed the benefits of the program as well as the difficult times. After their move from Wyoming, the couple spoke of the love and friendliness they experienced from Bozeman residents, particularly the volunteers they met through Family Promise. Heather told me of countless times she was moved to tears at the unconditional love they felt from volunteers during the program.

Meet Jason, Heather, & Hailey Wright: 

 

Click below to hear from Heather on why they chose enter the Family Promise program to help them get back on their feet (this is a very short raw & unedited clip from the interview I conducted last Friday):

Of the two family portraits, which do you like better and why?

Volunteering = Good

The one thing that supercharges me as a photographer is being able to photograph the things I love. For me, these things are related to social issues. For this reason, when I was recently asked to photograph the third-annual Homeless Connect event here in Bozeman, I readily agreed. This event was held at a local downtown church and the purpose was to offer a variety of free services to those who are either homeless or at risk of being homeless. The services offered ranged from massages and haircuts to eye and dental check-ups. The amount of volunteers giving their time at the event was incredible! 

Dr. Jody Fink gives a free eye exam to a patron at the Homeless Connect 2011 event

A patron receives a free dental exam from Kaye Rittal

You know all about what "they" say about volunteering, right? I know you know, and I don't have statistics to spit out to back up these claims but volunteers are happier, live longer, and make more money. Oh wait...maybe not so much on that last one...but you get the point. Volunteering = good.

When I view photographs made by others I often wonder if the photographer obtained permission first. So in case you're wondering, I made sure to get each person's written permission prior to photographing them at the event.

Do you volunteer? If so, do you volunteer within the arena of your career or do you choose to volunteer with something totally unrelated? What supercharges you?