The Three Melissas : The Practical Guide to Surviving Homelessness

The Three Melissas: The Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness by Diane Nilan and Diana Bowman, two long-time advocates for families experiencing homelessness, is a one-of-a-kind practical guide for dealing with the unrelenting hardships that parents endure while keeping their children safe during homelessness. Featured are three mothers named Melissa who doggedly faced the day-to-day hardships of being homeless. The book offers their tips, strategies, and inspiration for parents who are homeless., and creates a window into the struggles parents face that could help improve supports and services for families who are homeless.

You will experience the Melissas' frustration over facing daily barriers that kept them from becoming stably housed. You will share the emotional toll as they struggled and doubted themselves as parents. You will realize that you never get over homelessness. The Melissas still experience what one of them called "Post-Traumatic Homelessness Disorder." Yet, the Three Melissas offer inspiration and hope to parents. They emphasize do the best you can for your kids and "give yourself a break." They exhort parents to reach out, and keep reaching out, and use their voice to help people understand what they need.

The Melissas also recommend changes in service systems from the perspective of those who sought help and found services inadequate for the real needs of families experiencing homelessness. They address ways that service providers, government, and nonprofits could more effectively help parents and children survive homelessness. Finally, the book offers practical tools, including a tip sheet to help people who host families in their home on how to communicate and set boundaries. Their advice can also guide professionals in support systems to better tailor services so that when families lose their housing, they can move quickly through the devastation of homelessness and attain lasting stability.

Diana Bowman's decades of leadership guiding the national effort to provide educational stability for students experiencing homelessness earned her the highest honors from esteemed national organizations. After stepping down as director of the National Center for Homeless Education, she continues working with at-risk populations, joining the faculty of the University of the People, a free online global university.

Diana authored The Charlie Book: 60 Ways to Help Homeless Kids and also co-authored a chapter, "Students Experiencing Homelessness"  in Eric Rossen's book Supporting and Education Traumatized Children. She is the co-author of The Three Melissas - The Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness.
 
After 15 years directing busy Illinois shelters, Diane Nilan led efforts to guide public schools in eight counties surrounding Chicago as they implemented laws governing access to school for students experiencing homelessness, laws she helped create and get passed. 
 
Nilan moved into a small camper in 2005 when she founded her nonprofit organization, HEAR US Inc. Her mission—give voice and visibility to the (now) 7 million+ children and youth living in cars and shelters, on the streets, or "doubled up" with other families. 
She has traveled over 500,000 miles of mostly backroads through 48 mainland states, and Hawaii, making dozens of films viewed by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Her work has earned recognition from a variety of organizations. She's written 3 books on homelessness.
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They believe the Three Melissas' book will be life-changing for families and those who work to assist them.

The Three Melissas is a project of HEAR US Inc.