CHICO BUSINESS USES VIDEO TO TEACH CORONAVIRUS SAFETY TO THE HOMELESS

Chico-based news station, Action News Now, featured illuminAid’s newest initiative UnshelteredTV in a July 1 interview with Founder and Executive Director Matt York.

Read the full article here or view the text below:

CHICO, Calif. – Lights. Camera. Action! It’s a call more often heard on Hollywood movie sets but is also happening in a local business studio.

Chico-based entrepreneur Matt York is creating short videos that are not for consumption in a movie theatre, but rather, for Butte County’s homeless population.

“There are hundreds of people who are homeless and they’re probably not getting these messages as consistently as possible,” says York.

Those message included how to stay safe from the coronavirus and steps to protect health.

York is well-versed in delivering health and hygiene training videos to those who have few resources.

Action News Now Morning Anchor Julia Yarbough introduced you to him last year, as he and his team partnered with Non-Governmental Agencies; N.G.O.’s in developing countries using video to educate and inspire.

Yarbough revisited with York to learn more about a new initiative. With the coronavirus curtailing international travel and the health threat from the virus on the rise in the Northern California region, York says he wanted to apply the same concepts he took abroad to other countries and help those in his own community.

York is now taking potentially life-saving health and safety messaging directly to the homeless population and delivering that information in areas familiar to those individuals. He does so, using portable, battery-operated projectors.

“We bring these video projectors that are battery operated and we join our partners within the health and service agencies, to project video images on screens in dark places; during the day that’s under the freeway in Bidwell Park, or at the end of day at dusk.”

Currently York is still testing the equipment and the concept, which he calls Unsheltered TV, but says there is already interest from more social service agencies in the region and even in cities around the state.

He says he has turned to video as a way to help people understand how to control the spread of the virus and employing technology to make a positive impact.