Underheard in New York
Three interns at BBH New York were challenged to "do something good, famously." So they set up four homeless men with Twitter accounts and prepaid cellphones to tweet from. The resulting project is Underheard in New York.
- Three interns at BBH New York, an advertising firm, were challenged by the company to "do something good, famously." They decided to give a voice to the homeless in New York.
Rosemary Melchior, Willy Wang and Robert Weeks gave four homeless men prepaid cellphones and set them up with a Twitter account for their project, Underheard in New York.
On Feb. 1, the men began tweeting and broadcasting their daily struggles being homeless in New York. - To find the participants, the three interns got in touch with the New York City Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter BBH has ties to. A counsellor found volunteers for the project — Carlos, Albert, Derrick and Daniel — and introduced the interns to them.
Two of the homeless men had never texted before, Melchoir said.
Now, half the men have over 2,000 followers and the other two are approaching that amount.
"Being HOMELESS dosnt make u a bad person...It can happen to YOU!!! A loss of a job...a divorce..sickness or watev(er)," Carlos said in a Twitter interview with the Star (scroll down with a full interview with Carlos and Albert).
Melchoir, Weeks and Wang said while they only purchased a month's worth of unlimited text messages, they hope the men can continue to tweet.
"I think they all want to continue tweeting, whether it's with Underheard in New York or not," Melchoir said.
Wang said that Daniel, who celebrated his birthday on Wednesday, found the money to refill his cellphone card in order to continue tweeting. - The project is similar to Homeless Man Speaks, a Toronto-based blog which is a collaboration between Tony Clemens, who is homeless, and blogger Philip Stern.
- The men tweet about everything — what their day has been like, what they're doing, etc.
- They also respond to people who tweet them.
@danleatherman my day is a challenging one and yet a good one. what is your day like?
@awitness2011 my day is spent behind a desk and computer, I'm sure not as challenging as what you face. How do you like twitter so far?- The Star decided to tweet Albert, Daniel, Carlos and Derrick to see if we'd be able to interview them over Twitter for our story. Two of them replied.
Here is what Albert (@albert814) had to say: 
@albert814 Hey Albert I'm a reporter at the Toronto Star in Canada. Can I ask you some questions abt your participation in Underheard in NY?
@sarahmillar sure u can ask me bot i have to let u know that i am very slow typing- @albert814 Why did you decide to participate with this? Is this your first introduction to Twitter?
- @albert814 What's not being said? What is not being talked about? Can you give me an example?
- Carlos (@jessie550) has close to 2,000 followers. Here's what he had to say.
- @jessie550 Hey Carlos I'm a reporter at the Toronto Star in Canada. Can I ask you some questions abt your participation in Underheard in NY?
@sarah_millar @jessie550 Hi Sarah ....yes you can ask me anything! N thank you for your interest.....go ahead pls!!!!- @jessie550 How did you get started with this project? Why did you decide to participate?
