JCDecaux - Helping to Tackle Homelessness

This is the time of the year when festive lights are switched on, shop windows get dressed up and homes are decked out for guests. Sadly there will be people without homes to go back to, and who will be watching these festivities while living on the streets. JCDecaux recently worked with charities and organisations to help raise awareness of homelessness. ChileJCDecaux Chile ran a campaign called “A Reality that has no Filter” featuring People of the Streets, a foundation who works with those living on the streets. Social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook were also utilised. The campaign achieved very positive results, generating an increase in funding by 30% and the number of foundation partners by 25%.   SwedenUNICEF Sweden took on the issue of child refugees by running a street campaign using projections. In 2012, over 3,500 children arrive in Sweden alone and as refugees, but without suitable homes to go to, they end up on the streets and need help. The nightly projections showed haunting silhouettes of these children roaming about the city aimlessly, and hiding from people and policemen. This powerful campaign sought to encourage people to sign a petition for the UN children’s rights treaty to be turned into official Swedish law.   The UKCentrepoint, the UK’s leading charity for homeless young people conducted an experiential campaign with JCDecauxLive. This innovative campaign invited people to sleep outside in a makeshift outdoor bedroom in the financial heart of Canary Wharf. The aim of the campaign was to get people “to sleep on the streets in order to help keep others off them”, and to inspire the business community to ensure a young person never has to sleep rough again. JCDecaux is also involved in campaigns on other social issues such as disadvantaged children and missing people, read on to discover more.