I’d like to say that I found Ann Marie in Chicago, but the truth is that she found me. Ann Marie uses social media to escape from her world and connect with others. When I arrived in the Windy City I received a tweet from @padschicago and the next day we arranged to meet in a train station.

Ann Marie is not the first person experiencing homelessness to find me via social media. As the face of homelessness changes, and social media continues to expand, I believe we will see many other people without homes on twitter, blogs, and Facebook. Service providers should pay attention to this evolution and understand that social media can be much more than tool for marketing. Twitter and Facebook can serve as an entry point for services or a vehicle for providing virtual case management.

Ann Marie from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.