Interview Techniques: Treatment for the Homeless Documentary

Sources:
Debbie Fixter of Little Sprouts CIC
Teesside Socialist Clothing Bank: Ruth Greenwood
Neighbourhood welfare Middlesbrough : Susan Gill


This documentary was initially based off the idea behind George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, which was to offer another perspective on the homeless situation and develop the humanistic side to their situation, rather than to just show them as empty husks on the street in need of change.


I aim to investigate the various societies, charities and care groups available for the homeless and to find out which methods of assistance the homeless find most useful. I shall look into the daily lives of members of the homeless community to see how they manage to get by and how they prepare as we approach the colder months.

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Having investigated New Walks CIC, an organisation that works to develop life skills, such as catering skills, assist with housing and hostel stays, free meals and legal care. And there I met a few people who are willing to take part in the documentary, Mark Smith used to live on the streets after losing his house and job, but was then set up in a hostel through the organisation, and developed catering skills through the open kitchen and through this he was then able to get a job and eventually buy a house. Mark still volunteers for the organisation that helped to get him off the streets once a week.
Anthony Sheldon is another user of the site, and though he is still in need of their services and is yet to find a full time job, thanks to New Walks offering the opportunity to take exams on food hygiene, he is now working to get a job in a kitchen as a chef, and is developing his cooking skills by working in the kitchen which provides food for those on the street.


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Both Mark and Anthony are success stories of the organisation, and speak very highly of the work it does for the community, and they are offering to give me an insight into life on the street, the difficulties of working your way off the streets and those who use the services of the organisation.
Another organisation I have investigated is the Teesside Socialist Clothing Bank, an organisation which is 100% behind my documentary, each volunteer has agreed to do interviews and talk about the cause, and the clients of this service are also willing to offer up their stories and discuss the cause. From visitor figures alone, it is apparent that this service is greatly needed as we approach the winter months, as in the last two weeks, they have seen a great increase in visitors, many of which have never been seen before.


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In order to complete my documentary, I will accumulate interviews with carers and homeless people as well as footage of people on the street going about their daily lives, rough sleeping, winter weather, busking and how the general public reacts to the homeless people on the street, this will be vox pops and footage of a busy street as passers by ignore those busking.





I feel that my documentary will stand out from other documentaries as I will be focusing on the struggle from the homeless side of things, looking at how they get by, the help available for them and how they ended up on the streets, whereas I feel most documentaries are done from the outside looking in, which doesn't convey the plight and daily struggle as well as it could. I aim to highlight the human side of the homeless, and show viewers that there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of good people on the streets.




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Other Idea
I feel that it could be a good idea to focus on how funding and registration plays such a big part into these organisations and how effectively they can operate. I believe that this could be an eye opener for those that believe that people simply like to have everything given to them and live an easy, lazy life.
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It is a common thought that many of those who are on the streets are there by choice, as they simply 'can't be bothered' to do anything more than sit around having others provide for them. Whereas, in actuality, I believe that the many organisations that are available to those who need them, are plagued by funding issues, which in turn causes a great shortcoming in the help that they can actually provide.


As such, I would like to investigate what it takes to set up and run a charity, and the difficulties of having it be successful. Following my investigation, I have found out that many of these organisations operate with paid volunteers, and that this has a hindrance on how effectively the charity can operate. Using Little Sprouts as an example, there's only so much they can earn in donations, and that isn't enough to keep the soup kitchen open and pay the wages of the employees that run it. So, rather than being able to keep those that need it fed all through out the week, the kitchen can only afford to be open once a week, and the staff travel to schools to run work shops. Little sprouts also runs cooking courses for the homeless too, primarily those set up in hostels by New Walks, and this course is supposed to help them by providing them with the ability to cook for themselves, shop on a budget, and allow them a hobby to occupy themselves. However, due to funding struggles the hostels which the clients actually live in, are without kitchen appliances, which I feel, renders the service void.
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Throughout my documentary I would like to investigate a number of services, and discover the ways in which they acquire funding and the direct impact the funding has on their output. Through this research I would hope to demonstrate the struggles of street life, even with the care provided, as I do not believe it to be adequate enough to truly assist those that need help.
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For this documentary to work, I will need to be granted access into a number of foundations and services to talk to them about the care they provide, their funding and wishes for the future, as well as being able to talk to them about the success rate of their service. For B roll I can show footage of the service helping clients, and the A roll will be the interviews with the management staff. I shall use a camera man to help me get the footage, and a fixed microphone/portable recorder for the audio. I feel that my documentary shall stand aside from the rest as it is touching on the shortcomings of many charities, and I feel that normally the focus is on how great they are in the minority cases of success.