Four grad students will help get the word out on safety, shelter and evacuation information.
By JON WILSON
Published October 24, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Some University of South Florida St. Petersburg journalism students are helping to storm-proof homeless people.
Searching for a segment of the population often overlooked, professor Cheryl Koski's class in corporate journalism devised a way to distribute emergency information to those who need it before hurricanes hit.
"We decided on homeless people just because we decided they don't have TV and don't have the kind of access we have to information," said Alicia Castillo.
Castillo is one of four students in the graduate-level class. The others are Erin Buchanan, Mark Page and Jeff Neely. The quartet contacted social service agencies, prepared a needs assessment, proposed a budget, created media outreach and drafted an executive summary.
"Just as if we were a committee trying to get money from a corporation," Castillo said.
The idea won a grant of up to $1,000 from the journalism department. The money will pay project expenses, including the cost of laminated plastic cards with safety, shelter and evacuation information.
"Table tents" - those clear, plastic items that hold such things as drink menus at restaurants - also will be used. But instead of advertising exotic beverages, they'll carry a storm-sense agenda.
Plans call for the material to be distributed at Thanksgiving feeds for the homeless.
"It's the end of hurricane season, but we really wanted to kick it off on a big day when we could reach a lot of people," Castillo said. The group hopes social service agencies will help get out the word again when next year's hurricane season starts.
Ed Brant, president of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless, said he likes the project.
Homeless people have their own grapevine, but it doesn't necessarily carry news they can use in an emergency, Brant said.
"A lot of the homeless individuals, they may be streetwise, but they might not be wise as to the bus routes and which shelters are open," he said.
