NARRATIVE AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES IN WORK WITH FAMILIES THAT ARE HOMELESS Peter Fraenkel The City College of the City University of New York and the Ackerman Institute for the Family Thomas Hameline HELP USA Michele Shannon Pathways College Preparatory School This article reports on the use of narrative therapy ideas and practices in working with families that are homeless in a shelter-based, multiple-family discussion group program called Fresh Start for Families. It begins with a review of the challenges facing homeless families. It then briefly describes the collaborative methods used to develop the program. It then describes a range of practices and activities that provide opportunities for families to be witnessed in telling their stories of challenge and coping, to help and be helped by other families experiencing similar challenges, to reconnect and strengthen a positive sense of family identity while externalizing the constraining, stigmatizing descriptions associated with homelessness, and to envision and take steps towards their preferred futures. There is a rich tradition of narrative therapists working with disenfranchised communities of persons marginalized and oppressed by more powerful persons or groups on the basis of their class, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, medical illness, psychiatric diagnosis, trauma history, immigration and citizen status, and other dimensions of difference inherited, elected, or imposed (see, for example, Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia, 1995; Col- orado, Montgomery, & Tovar, 1998; Epston, White, & ‘‘Ben,’’ 1995; Griffith & Griffith, 1995; Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1994; Madigan & Epston, 1995; Madsen, 2006; Nichols & Jacques, 1995; Seikkula & Olson, 2003; Sheinberg & Fraenkel, 2001; Waldegrave, Tamasese, Tuhaka, & Campbell, 2003; Weingarten, 1995; Wingard & Lester, 2001). This article describes the use of Peter Fraenkel, PhD, is an Associate Professor, Doctoral Subprogram in Clinical Psychology, The City College of the City University of New York, and Director, Center for Work and Family, Ackerman Institute for the Family, New York, New York; Thomas Hameline, PhD, is Senior Vice President, HELP USA, and Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center, New York, New York; Michele Shannon, MSW, is Principal, Pathways College Preparatory School, St. Albans, New York, and former program coordinator, Fresh Start for Families, Ackerman Institute for the Family. Past and present support by the Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, the Altria Doors of Hope Program, American Express, the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Memorial Fund, the Ruth Perl Kahn Research Fund, the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, HELP USA, New York Community Trust, the Tiger Fund, United Way, and the Casio Corporation is gratefully acknowledged. Many students have contributed ideas to the program described in this article. The first author (PF) would particularly like to acknowledge Skye Wilson, Jody Brandt, Errol Rodriguez, Jason Kruk, Sarah Kowal, Marley Oakes, Monique Sulle Bowen, DeShaunta Johnson, Emily Upshur, Leora Trub, Tanja Auf der Hyde, Neta Tal, Vicky Huey, Israel Savage, Chloe Carmichael, and Nate Thoma. Address correspondence to Peter Fraenkel, PhD, Department of Psychology, The City College of New York, Room 7 ⁄ 120, North Academic Center, 138th Street and Convent Avenue, New York, New York 10031; E-mail: p.fraenkel@verizon.net Journal of Marital and Family Therapy doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00119.x July 2009, Vol. 35, No. 3, 325–342 July 2009 JOURNAL OF MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY 325