Feature
#ItCanBeYou
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@QNS.COM
Long Island City resident Jordana
Guimaraes is using her connections in
the fashion and entertainment industry
to foster more compassion toward the
city’s homeless population.
Guimaraes, who founded ACL PR &
Marketing, said she felt compelled to help
people less fortunate than her from a young
age. The publicist grew up in Brazil where
the poverty was “unparalleled,” she said.
“It was difficult for me even when
was 2, 3, 4 years old. I would go out
on the streets with my mom and we’d
be walking to the supermarket and ap-proached
by so many people that were
homeless,” she said. “I thought, how
could I have everything and this person
have nothing?’”
Guimaraes, who started her career
working in press offices for large fashion
brands, decided to use her talents to
help emerging brands. After working as
a freelancer, she decided to start ACL
PR & Marketing two years ago.
“My mom and my dad always made
a joke that I would never have money
because even when I started working
and making money I would give it all
away,” she said. “It was something that
was innate in me.”
In January 2017, Guimaraes began
to brainstorm how her connections in
the fashion and entertainment world
could help her put “a face and a name
to the homeless community.”
She began to do research on the city’s
homeless population and was shocked
by the number of people living below
the poverty line. According to a report by
the NYU Furman Center, approximately
1.7 million New Yorkers lived below the
poverty line from 2011 through 2015.
To combat the stereotypes associ-ated
with homelessness, Guimaraes
interviewed 75 homeless New Yorkers
and 75 influencers like model Khoudia
Diop and “The Bachelorette” contestant
Eric Bigger to find commonalities in each
of their stories.
“#ItCanBeYou” will be a 75-page
book that features interviews and ac-companying
photos. The stories of the
influencers and homeless New Yorkers
will be placed side by side “to showcase
how someone who is not homeless
today and is very famous and doing very
well for themselves and someone who
is homeless could have had the some
issues in life,” she said.
In February, the Long Island City
resident started a GoFundMe page and
raised $10,000 to provide hot meals to
1,500 homeless New Yorkers. During
this event, she spoke to them about the
struggles they faced.
The New Yorkers she met were tack-ling
a myriad of problems, including
Photos courtesy of Jordana Guimaraes
mental health and addiction issues and
also facing problems that were surpris-ing
to Guimaraes.
She met several teenagers who
had been kicked out of their homes by
parents dealing with drug addiction or
other issues.
“Their parents end up kicking them
out and the teenagers don’t have the
money to sustain a life of their own,”
she said.
The most surprising issue shared by
several people in the shelter system,
she said, were the people who became
homeless after struggling to pay off
medical bills.
"#ItCanBeYou" showcases the
struggles of both the city's homeless
population and celebrities.
34 JANUARY 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
