The systems surrounding homelessness and housing services in Pittsburgh are complicated and often challenging to navigate. Our project brings together service providers and clients into one space in order to creatively and unflinchingly understand these challenges, while envisioning and rehearsing alternative strategies to overcome them. We believe that those who are directly impacted by homelessness and unstable housing should have an equal voice in developing the systems and services that will directly benefit them.

Bridges Home brings together homeless service providers and clients in a unique opportunity to share experiences while envisioning and rehearsing strategies to make positive change. In a series of workshops, we will utilize techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), a theatrical practice developed in the 1970’s by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal in which participants analyze systems of oppression, share stories of oppression from their own lives, and rehearse strategies to overcome these systems and make positive change in the world. Boal’s approach is used across the globe in a variety of fields and contexts, including: politics, therapy, conflict resolution, and education.

Our goals for these workshops are to develop an inclusive community of stakeholders, beginning with service providers and people experiencing homelessness, and later expanding to include policy makers, neighborhood residents, businesses, and the police force; as well as to empower those most impacted by homelessness and unstable housing to speak their truths and become active agents of change in improving services and systems to overcome oppression.