1 person out of 2 thinks that if a homeless person can’t get off the street it’s his fault. But it’s probably because they never experienced the street themselves. With the Samusocial, the most important emergency service for the homeless in France, we created a 24hr film, reconstructing an entire day in the life of a homeless person. The film director? The homeless people themselves, using glasses with an embedded camera. This way they enabled us to see life through their eyes, in real time.

Banners, press inserts and stickers in the street invited people to www.being-homeless.com. When entering on the site, visitors are immediately immersed in the life of a homeless person. A clock on the screen tells you what time it is. Of course, interested or not, nobody lasts the full 24hrs. When visitors want to leave, an error message appears: ‘sorry, it’s not that easy to escape the street’. The only way to escape is to click on the Samusocial logo. Then a text explains how the Samusocial helps homeless people escape the street. It’s then possible to make a donation.

At a time when the Samusocial were negotiating increased support from the government, the campaign resulted in:- a 50% increase in media attention -across TV, newspapers and blogs - an increase of 12% in donations and- more than 100.000 people visited the site during the first week of the campaign, 72% of visitors returned to the site.On top, the Samusocial were able to successfully negotiate an increase of 10% in government funding. The campaign is still running.