Homelessness highlighted in video

The current economic downturn continues to take its toll in both industrialized and developing countries. According to a report from UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari, nearly one billion people around the world lack adequate housing, and approximately 100 million people have no housing of any kind. Recently, there have been efforts to spotlight the plight of society's most vulnerable members.

TakePart.com is a cause-related site designed to help explore today's pressing issues using video, images and audio, and added actions to make a difference such as signing a petition or educating the community. Their latest video is called Beth's Story, which looks at homelessness.

"Beth's Story, was created to shine a light on the millions of people living on the street who are often times overlooked, said TakePart.com organizer KC Webster. "She is a composite of their many complicated, often heartbreaking realities and of the issues and challenges lead to homelessness."

It is too early to tell the ultimate impact of the campaign, but so far, success has been made. Beth's Story has also been promoted on TakePart's blog, Twitter feed, text messaging and YouTube account, each tool has a few hundred followers supporting the cause.

"We are trying to get the word out about Beth's Story, to get as many
eyeballs to recognize the homeless issue as possible (On You Tube it is
already 21,555 views strong!) and to realize that even though most of us are
only exposed to numbing statistics, each individual number has a story," Webster said.