The Three Melissas: The Practical Guide to Surviving Family 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.

Diane Nilan worked in homelessness, beginning in the mid-1980s. Nilan managed large shelters in Chicago suburbs for fifteen years. In the process, she became involved in grassroots advocacy - focusing on raising awareness and implementing systemic change. She and other advocates met with enormous success, implementing the first state law passed to remove educational barriers and increase school access for students experiencing homelessness (Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act, 1994).Less than a decade later, Nilan became integrally involved in incorporating the Illinois law into federal legislation, with the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Assistance Improvements Act in 2002. She left shelter work in 2003 to share her knowledge of homelessness and of homeless education laws. Nilan founded a new program, Project REACH, with the goal of training educators in 305 Chicago-area school districts on their academic obligations to students experiencing homelessness. She quickly gained a clear understanding of the knowledge gap keeping many educators from implementing the new legislative requirements or even recognizing students experiencing homelessness. Nilan knew students and their parents could improve students' academic performance but lacked the opportunity. With a desire to channel the wisdom of those with lived experience to educators and the public, Diane founded HEAR US Inc., in 2005. Consequently, she sold her home and possessions, bought a small motorhome, and began traveling to non-urban areas across the country gathering stories from students and their parents. This one-woman nonprofit began filming and producing videos featuring hundreds of otherwise invisible students and families. These films provide firsthand stories to countless audiences including elected officials and school personnel.

Diana Bowman, a longtime educator of students from impoverished backgrounds, began her work in the field of homelessness with the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) at its inception in 1997. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, NCHE is the technical assistance center that provides information and assistance to state departments of education, school districts, and schools across the nation, ensuring that they identify children and youth experiencing homelessness and provide them with services and educational opportunities.For 20 years, Bowman served as director of NCHE, championing the importance of education in providing stability, security, and hope for children and youth experiencing homelessness. After retiring from NCHE, Diana continued to work on behalf of children in unstable and homeless situations.In 2016, Bowman wrote The Charlie Book: 60 Ways to Help Homeless Kids as a guide for people and communities wishing to support children and youth experiencing homelessness. She also served as a guardian ad litem to advocate in the courts for children in the foster care system. Additionally, Bowman teaches for the University of the People, a free online university that serves students from all over the world, enabling them to attain a college education regardless of income. Many University of the People students are immigrants and refugees living in impoverished areas of the world.