This is an important project to highlight right now. As the temperatures get colder, homeless families suffer even more than in the summer months. Blue Tiger Studio was proud to help homeless veterans by creating this new Homes for Veterans website. While I write about the plans behind the project, I am hoping to reach some prospective landlords. These people need homes and you can help!
Blue Tiger Studio recently worked with Goodwill on the Homes for Veterans micro-site. The target audience was landlords in the Inland Northwest region. The housing need for homeless veterans is much higher than the housing available to them. So we planned a micro-site that is connected to the Goodwill of the Inland Northwest website, with a specific purpose and focus: Get landlords to rent more homes to veterans.
Benefits for Landlords & Veterans
This is a great program. It receives funding from the Veterans Administration, and Goodwill has staff to help homeless veterans get the assistance they need. But without landlords willing to rent to a homeless veteran, the veterans and their families often have to wait in shelters or on the streets. Financial assistance ensures the new tenants can pay their rent, which is a great benefit of the program. The Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) staff at Goodwill can help with any questions or issues that come up during the re-housing process.
Message: “Everyone deserves a second chance.”
Blue Tiger Studio took a photo of housing that overlooks the Spokane River, with the yellow grasses, orange leaves, and the cool sky of this area in the Fall. We added a strong call to action that would resonate with potential landlords. “Everyone deserves a second chance.” Which is often true of this program, sometimes it takes a couple times to get these people back on track. We shouldn’t give up on our homeless just because they make one bad choice, it takes time and commitment to change a lifestyle, but with our help they can do it.
Word Mark
Blue Tiger Studio designed the word mark for this site. It has a grainy look that echos the distressed feeling of homelessness. A royal blue star represents the stars and stripes on the American flag. Yes, everyone does deserve a second chance, especially those who served our country.
The FAQs
We built a FAQ page to make a quick and easy reference for all the people who have questions about the Homes for Veterans program. Landlords may not know the benefits of this program. Friends or family need to know who to contact. I experienced a real situation with a homeless veteran and didn’t know who to call when he needed help. I wish I had known who to call back then, but at least I know now.
Often people who have been homeless for a long time experience loneliness moving into an apartment alone. They are used to being on the streets with a community of other homeless people. Often not best influences, but at least they can relate to each other. This is an area that the Homes for Veterans program can help with. They provide community resources when times get tough.
Our Stories Page
We created an Our Stories page that has images and videos of people who have been involved with the Homes for Veterans program.
This is linked to the Posts section of the website, but there is no direct link to a conventional “News” page. There was a shortage of veterans who wanted to be photographed for this. And (as you might understand) often the photos were dark and sad. So this allowed some creative freedom to add images and inspirational words. We researched other veteran stories and heroes and found some great stories that could be useful to our veterans.
The Footer
The footer is on every page. This is a great place to put useful contact information and helpful resources for our veterans. We sourced the local support agencies and healthcare facilities for veterans and not only linked to their websites, but added the address and phone numbers.? Additionally all the phone numbers in this website are click to call to make it easy for a landlord to call from their smart phone. Just above the footer we added quotes from veterans who were helped by this program.
Little Site – Big Impact
All and all this is powerful little website. There is a lot wrapped into a three-page micro-site. The blog posts are linked to the Goodwill Facebook page. Every time new stories are published, they can reach out to their community via social media in one click. We included a couple contact boxes to make it quick and easy for landlords to contact the SSVF by email or phone. Analytics are also attached in the dashboard to track visits and allow for the site to grow over time.
We hope that this helps homeless veteran families in our community.
