End Youth Homelessness (EYH) has partnered with artist and sculptor David Oliveira to install “invisible” sculptures of young people around the UK.
The campaign, #NOWYOUSEEME, aims to raise awareness of the ‘hidden homeless’. Last year 103,000 young people asked their local authorities for help because they were homeless or at risk. More than half of them received no documented support whatsoever.
As part of the project, sculptor David Oliveira has created a series of three dimensional sketches of the ‘hidden homeless’ made from tin wire – giving the illusion of being semi-visible and alluding to the vulnerability and invisibility of this particular group of young people.
The sculptures will be exhibited at London’s Design Museum before touring prominent public UK locations such as train stations and shopping centres. Members of the public are encouraged to make the invisible, visible, by sharing images of the sculptures with #NOWYOUSEEME on social media, raising awareness and supporting the efforts of their local homelessness charity.
Experts said that with nowhere to go, young people are often forgotten by the system, finding themselves forced to stay on the floors and sofas of friends and acquaintances. Once these options have been exhausted, some young people are forced to sleep on night buses, stay overnight in train stations or try to find a ‘date’ to stay with.
EYH represents a network of local charities who have joined forces to fight youth homelessness as a united front – supporting over 30,000 young homeless people annually.
