Do You Sense HOMELESS WEB PAGES are actually helping?

Theodore Latham (tedrico@hotmail.com)
Fri, 22 May 1998 02:29:09 PDT 

Mike,

     As usual, glad to hear someone speak highly of Tedrico's Page! It 
really doesn't take much of my time to keep the news current because my 
site is just like any of my clients web sites that I maintain monthly as 
a web site designer and promoter! However, you are correct about the 
energy part! I generally sleep from 8-10 AM to 5PM-8PM, due to the fact 
that I am working all throughout the night while their is less 
congestion on the internet! Also, as I develop sites for my clients, I 
like them to wake up in the morning to receive an update progress 
letter, which is always good news to their ears!

     About me ... I am 27 and formerly homeless for a time period of 
about 4 1/2 years, across 14 states from coast to coast and from the 
great lakes to the gulf! I am a former substance abuser and lack 28 
hours from obtaining a B.S. in Applied Computer Science! I've been off 
the streets since I returned home from a life of addiction & 
homelessness in San Francisco, back in Jul '97! I've been clean since 
Jul 28th 1997! I self taught myself web page design & promotion through 
online tutorials! HTML & JAVA aren't really much different from any of 
the other computer languages I've learned since 1985!

    When you're homeless for as long as I was, in as many different 
places as I was, you kind of develop an attachment to the plight of the 
homeless whiel trying to become unattached from being homeless yourself! 
For that reason and more, I created Tedrico's Page on 11/02/97 and as a 
matter of fact, I attribute my desire to provide online resources for 
the homeless and helpers of homeless people, to my remaining clean and 
sober for this length of time!

    In response to your question about do I sense homeless Web pages are 
actually helping, the answer is YES! If no one elses homelessness site 
is doing any good for the homeless people, Tedrico's Page most certainly 
is, as evidenced by the immense daily & nightly feedback I get from 
homeless, formerly homeless, and marginally homed persons, social 
workers, case workers, shelter staff members, soup kitchen servers, 
suicidal runaways, etc. That's one of the reasons why, unlike a majority 
of web sites on the internet, Tedrico's Page does not have a guestbook! 
I don't want greedy people, copying and pasting these real life, hard 
core stories I receive each day, into their anti-homeless advocacy word 
processing document and trying to make a buck off of these people 
through il-intention publishing and selling it to the media! Are we 
preaching to the converted? Not preaching, but actually teaching because 
it's amazing how many homeless people their are in metropolitan areas 
that have no idea of the vast majority of resources available to them, 
right under their nose! I was always resourceful during my homeless 
stretch and immediately took full advantage of all resources offered, 
but what about those who can't read, never finished high school, can't 
speak english, or lack survival and people skills! Those are the people 
Tedrico's Page is gradually building up to meet their needs. Thank you 
for the link and continue to due your part online .... on behalf of the 
homeless :)

Regards,

Tedrico Latham

_________________________
TEDRICO'S PAGE
http://members.xoom.com/tedrico/?homeless
Your Informative Homelessness Resource Link!
P.O. Box 514 Rich Square, NC 27869 (252)539-4228
<tedrico@hotmail.com>

Mike Davidson <davidson@U.Arizona.EDU> wrote:
>
>Greetings, Tedrico!
>
>
>I have briefly visited your Web page.  Needless to say, I am more than 
a
>little impressed with your efforts, particularly the time and energy
>required to post current news.
>
>If you have time, tell me a bit more about yourself, and
>whether you sense homeless Web pages are actually helping.  Or are we
>merely preaching to the converted? 
>
>
>--
>Mike Davidson
>E-mail: davidson@u.arizona.edu
>URL for Homeless People and the Internet:
>        http://members.tripod.com/~bmdavidson/index.html


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