USI Symposium on Homelessness features Terri "Detroit" Hughes

Evansville native Terri "Detroit" Hughes will share her remarkable journey from Skid Row to the movie screen during a public screening of the film "The Soloist" at 6 p.m. Monday, February 10, in the Health Professions Center's Mitchell Auditorium at the University of Southern Indiana.

This free, public event is associated with the USI Symposium on Homelessness, an event for USI students on Tuesday, February 11, for which Hughes is the keynote speaker.

In the movie, which stars Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., Hughes plays herself: a homeless, 88-pound woman with a drug addiction and mental illness living on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Hughes will give a short talk before the film, which depicts the true story of a Los Angeles journalist who befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician.

Hughes also was featured in the award-winning documentary film, "Lost Angels: Skid Row is My Home." Since then, she has turned her life around, and she now travels the country, conducting presentations on homelessness, poverty, mental illness, and drug addiction.

"Hearing Terri Hughes speak is a unique opportunity to learn from someone's personal experience of being homeless," said Julie St. Clair, clinical assistant professor of nursing and chair of the symposium committee. "Her story of overcoming many obstacles in her life is remarkable. We hope this film and the symposium will keep the dialogue going about strategies to combat chronic homelessness."

St. Clair said the USI Symposium on Homelessness grew from Destination Home, an effort begun in 2004 to end homelessness in Vanderburgh County.

"In addition to raising awareness in the community, we also want to educate students at USI about the needs of this group of people they will most likely encounter in their careers as teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, etc.," said St. Clair. "Knowing something about the challenges homeless men and women face every day will help our students know how to best care for them."

St. Clair urges faculty within the CNHP and other colleges to consider making attendance at the "The Soloist" screening and/or the USI Symposium on Homelessness part of their 2014 spring semester curriculum.

The USI Symposium on Homelessness is sponsored by the USI Provost's Office; College of Nursing and Health Professions; Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education (Teacher Education); College of Liberal Arts (Social Work); and the Indiana University School of Medicine-Evansville Campus.

For more information, contact Julie St. Clair at 812-465-1169 or jstclair@usi.edu.