Do1Thing Blog

The addict extended her hand. There were two $1 bills, enough for bus fare to a shelter for homeless teens.

“Call me when you get there,” she said.

That runaway, Angela, will be just one of dozens of young runaways and throwaways welcoming generous visitors to Covenant House Texas Saturday. With luck, hundreds of Houstonians will drop by the campus at 1111 Lovett bearing clothing, toiletries, bus cards, gift cards or baby items as a part of a national daylong event called “Do 1 Thing.”

Words help to explain the plight of the homeless teens, but Najlah Feanny Hicks, one of the masterminds of the project, believes photographs are more powerful still.

That’s why she’s enlisted the help of award-winning photojournalists to show the faces of teens at sites all over the country. Houston photographers include Smiley N. Pool of the Houston Chronicle and Dave Einsel, Robert Seale and Todd Spoth.

All day Saturday, their photos will be streaming online at www.do1thing.org.

Angela, now 20, her friend Corderro and other young people from Houston should be easy to find on the Web site.

Aspirations

Corderro, 19, wants to be an actor, a pastry chef and a restaurateur. For the moment, though, he’s busing tables and making plans to enroll at Houston Community College.

If he seems an unlikely resident of Covenant House, he is not. “I used to run away when things didn’t go right,” Corderro said.

Hicks, a New York-based photographer who has donated hundreds of hours of her own time to the project, said that today, Valentine’s Day, 1.3 million young people are living on the streets or in shelters.

“We’re going to spend billions of dollars telling each other how much we care,” Hicks said. “Why not do one thing for someone, a young person, less fortunate than ourselves?”

Do 1 Thing is Hicks’ third campaign to help disadvantaged children through photography.

In 2005, she and a colleague enlisted the help of photographers to showcase several hundred foster children in New Jersey. Over time, 160 of those kids were adopted.

In 2007, Hicks organized a photography exhibit featuring 100 older children who faced the prospect of living in foster homes, group homes or shelters until they reached the age of maturity.

Every year, Hicks says, that happens to 25,000 young adults nationwide, and thousands of them wind up on the streets.

Do 1 Thing, she hopes, will get the public involved with young people like Angela and Corderro.

Inspirations

In his small dorm room at Covenant House, Corderro keeps pictures of his siblings, books by Donald Trump and President Barack Obama, and a pencil sketch of the president.

Corderro looks like a smaller, younger Obama, and Corderro, like Obama, was raised by his mom.

“I wish I could talk to him,” Corderro said wistfully. “I’d ask him for advice.”

In Angela’s dorm room are scrapbooks, photos of her little sister, and life-size plastic heads with lots of hair.

Future plans

In just a few weeks, Angela is going to start working on her beautician’s license, and one day she hopes to own her own beauty shop.

Her short life has been tough so far. But when she walks out of Covenant House, Angela sees downtown, skyscrapers and opportunities.

What’s important, she says, is not where you’ve been, but where you’re going.

claudia.feldman@chron.com

To view the chron.com photo gallery click here

Miss Exclusive 2008 poses outside Covenant House in Newark. The Charmin in the window was donated.

A load of pink bags, escorted by two pretty girls from Seton Hall, one of them wearing a banner — Miss Exclusive, 2008 and a silver tiara, of course, are here to check out the community outreach opportunities at Covenant House in Newark, N.J. The Miss Exclusive Pageant holds a beauty pageant event each year. But don’t just think they are all beauties and no brains, says Miyokee, who was crowned at the current Miss Exclusive.

The organization, besides finding the next Miss Exclusive, prides itself on building the self esteem of young girls, says Cathy, a tall, pretty young woman, sporting oversized pink glasses. “We invite high school girls to participate, encouraging them to meet other young girls who are doing something positive with their lives,” says Cathy.

Miyokee, who was rather shy at first, chimes in. “It’s about empowering young girls, helping them believe that there is nothing they can’t do.”

And that includes taking away the crown  from Miyokee.

David Bergman used the new Nikon D90 to produce his video doc on homeless teen “Perry”, as aspiring piano player in NYC. Go to David’s blog and read all about his work on the Do1Thing project.

http://www.davidbergman.net/blog/2009/01/09/will-you-do-1-thing-on-valentines-day/

The first image that comes to mind when talking about “homelessness” is a middle aged drunk lying on the side of a street. What you might not know is the history behind the person lying there. While many homeless have emotional and mental illness others have been forced onto the street because of circumstance. The majority of the homeless population is not compromised   “types” of people Covenant House International is the largest privately-funded agency in the Americas providing shelter and other services to homeless, runaway and throwaway youth servicing more than 65,000 youth yearly.

“Aging out” is a nationwide phenomenon.  Every year in the United States, approximately 25,000 children
age out of the foster care system.  Statistics show that more than 25%of them will experience homelessness in the next five years. Already 3 in every 10 homeless adults admit to a history of foster care and unless action is taken to assist these teenagers, the next wave of homeless in America could very well be teens who were never adopted.

Do 1 Thing hopes to stem the tide of “aging out” teens by highlighting their need for adoption by introducing the public to waiting children. View these kids at Heart Gallery of New Jersey

For those kids who never get adopted, Covenant House provides food, shelter, clothing and immediate crisis care to homeless, runaway and throwaway youth including medical care, educational and vocational programs, drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, legal aid services, recreation programs, mother/child programs, transitional living programs, life-skills training and street outreach.

It all comes full circle when the public joins us on February 14th, 2009, Valentine’s Day to raise awareness for homeless youth and does 1 Thing to make their lives a little easier.

An official launch date has been set for the nationwide rollout of “Do 1 Thing”. February 14th, valentines day is the nationwide launch.

On Febraury 14th, 2009 we’ll be asking tens of thousands of people across America to “Do 1 Thing” to raise awareness for homeless teenagers as well as to take a few minutes in their day to actaully “Do 1 Thing”. We’ll be listing thousands of things people can do. It will take an army to make this day a success but we’re on our way!

1 Thing, 1 Cause, 1 Change

Do 1 Thing is our call to action to make a difference. As photojournalists we’ve spent a lifetime on the sidelines documenting history. Now, it’s our turn to help shape it.

We believe that by focusing our efforts on highlighting 1 Cause while asking people to do 1 Thing for that cause, great change will come.

We lead Do 1 Thing by innovating, inspiring and designing new solutions to highlight critical social problems.

Join us in doing 1 Thing on February 14th, 2009 when we partner with Covenant House to raise awareness for the tens of thousands of homeless teenagers who need our support.