Dismazed and Driven: My Look at Family Homelessness in America
Diane Nilan's behind-the-scenes look at families without homes in America.
Follow Diane Nilan into broken-down RVs, leaky tents, shabby motel rooms, and cramped shelters.
After decades working with homeless families and adults, Diane Nilan hit the road in 2005 to chronicle stories of invisible families and youth experiencing homelessness in non-urban areas across America. For the past fifteen years, crisscrossing the country in her small van, she filmed scores of interviews of parents and kids. Each was invited to share views on homelessness and the importance of school.
In this memoir, Nilan introduces us to people she met, helping us to understand their backstories. And we get to meet this tenacious, caring, prophetic woman who won't let us look away from children and families in need of stability and grace.
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Become an affiliateDiane Nilan, one of America’s most respected advocates for homeless families, has decades of direct experience, advocacy leadership, filmmaking, and an unconventional approach to raising the nation’s consciousness of invisible families that can only be described as relentless.
Diane Nilan travels the country to lift up the stories of people experiencing homelessness and the challenges they face. She uses her experience of literal "bumps in the road" as a metaphor for the failures and limitations of US housing policy. She tells stories of families' bravery, determination, great care and daunting economic realities. In this COVID time (or any time) it is a wakeup call to all of us to pay attention. We as a nation are better than this! Ms. Nilan helps us to recognize this and motivates us to work to make change.
Sister Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and
Leader of Nuns on the Bus