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About the book...

The Three Melissas' Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness
(Making Bad a Little Better)
By Diana Bowman and Diane Nilan, Featuring Melissa A (IL), Melissa N (FL), Melissa T (KS)

Summary:

Who knows more about family homelessness than the parents who experience it? The 3 Melissas’ Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness is a unique book of wisdom from 3 mothers named Melissa filled with their unfettered advice to millions of other moms, dads, and caregivers without a place to live. 

These hard-won observations and suggestions, compiled into an unprecedented survival guide for families experiencing homelessness in the United States each year, offers tips and takes on common issues bedeviling stressed parents. This guide will also inform those working with homeless families, giving readers a more enlightened understanding of the mostly invisible and growing crisis of family homelessness. 

Authors/editors:

Diana Bowman and Diane Nilan, two long-time advocates and professionals have spent collectively over 75 years learning about family homelessness in the U.S. From their respective positions, they’ve provided abundant invaluable information and assistance to communities, educators, service providers, and policy makers. At the heart of their efforts has always been the commitment to convey the combined challenges of being homeless and raising children, and to provide tips to help families survive their hardships.

This book project took their mission to another level, requiring help from the experts, namely parents with lived experience of homelessness. Featured in this book are three mothers, all named Melissa, who offered poignant insights into what it’s like to be homeless with small children. They also provided scores of practical tips and words of encouragement to support and inspire other parents facing homeless.

Purpose:

The practical advice from the 3 Melissas will not only provide support and encouragement to parents experiencing homelessness but will reduce anxiety and ease tensions between families and those trying to help them. Those inviting families to temporarily stay with them, doubling up, will learn ways to smooth this often-bumpy arrangement. Educators, agency professionals and policymakers will gain insights about everyday logistical challenges families encounter and turn those insights into ways to alleviate family homelessness. 

Distribution: