RAISING THE ROOF: Helping the Homeless in Creative Ways

This caught my eye immediately. It jumped off the page.

I actually had an interesting and unique experience with a homeless man a couple of years ago that really moved me and led to the writing of my first short story. That man looked very much like the silkscreened man on the box in the first image.

These are donation boxes designed for Raising the Roof, a homeless awareness organization. What I really like about this design idea and execution of the concept is the raw realness of it. If you read the quoted paragraph at the bottom, you'll note that these are photos of real homeless people. They are life-sized images placed on boxes that are placed where homeless people are actually found. Homeless people often sleep in boxes. The idea is to solicit donations by confronting people with realistic images of the people they are helping with their donation. I'd be far more likely to donate to one of these boxes than I would to a faceless box with only words to convey the reality of the situation.

A side note: I'm reminded of an article I read recently in The Week magazine about a hairstylist who donates his Sundays (I think it's either in NY or LA) to giving haircuts to the homeless. The people are so grateful; one said to him afterwards, "Know anyone who's hiring?" or something. Anyway, I loved hearing that. Homelessness is a huge problem in the US, and I actually know people who are or have been homeless, and it's a crazy cycle that is incredibly hard to escape. It's just good to see creative ways, such as these boxes, that organizations are trying to raise money to do all of the things that need to be done to help homeless people escape living on the streets.

I also find the simple statement, "To help the homeless escape living here, donate here," to be very well-written. It's to the point and seems perfect for the cause. I just hope Raising the Roof is able to raise a lot of money with these. I wonder how many of them there are and in what cities they are located. This touched me quite a bit, I have to say.

Source and Credits:

Public Service Series

Anthony Chelvanathan, art director

Lisa Greenberg/Judy John, creative directors

Anthony Chelvanathan/Steve Persico, group creative directors

Judy John, chief creative officer

Steve Persico, writer

Jesse Senko, photographer

Sabrina DeLuca/Laurie Filgiano, art buyers

Anne Peck, producer

Leo Burnett, Toronto (Toronto, Canada), ad agency

Raising the Roof, client

"Raising the Roof is a homeless awareness organization that
wanted us to design their donation box. But we needed to
change people's lack of concern for the homeless before we
could get them to donate or act. Our solution was to design
human-sized donation boxes with silkscreened images of
real homeless people and place them in spots where the
homeless people usually are."

Communication Arts Design Annual 55, September/October 2014, page 146