How Been There Is Creating The Product (RED) For Homelessness
Been There Beer Limited Edition | Been There & Real Ale Brewing Company
At first glance, it might just look like a crisp new craft beer—icy cold, brewed in Texas, and ready to be poured at your next backyard barbecue. But look a little closer, and you’ll find something more: a new kind of social impact model to tackle homelessness, quietly being built from the ground up in Austin, embracing movies, music festivals, public art, consumer products and more.
Brad Farbstein, President of the Real Ale Brewing Company
This fall, nonprofit creative collective Been There is teaming up with Real Ale Brewing Company to launch a limited-edition beer whose profits will support efforts to end homelessness. For Been There co-founder and co-executive director Lenny Barszap, it’s more than a creative collaboration—it’s a bold step toward a bigger vision: building the equivalent of Product (RED) for homelessness.
That ambition struck a chord with Real Ale, a fiercely independent Texas brewery that’s long admired Been There’s mission. “Giving back to the community is part of who we are at Real Ale,” said Real Ale president Brad Farbstein. “We’ve followed Aaron and Lenny for years and even brewed a prop beer ‘Realsner’ for their film. We kept saying we should make a beer to help their cause, and this felt like the right time. Beer brings people together, and we hope it brings more attention and help to our neighbors experiencing homelessness in Austin and beyond. We’re excited to be part of ‘Been There’ and we hope we can encourage other businesses to join us on this epic journey!”
For co-founder Aaron Brown, Austin isn’t just the backdrop for Been There—it’s a test case for what’s possible. “Austin is a weirdly unique place that’s going to go down in history as the first major city in the U.S. to solve homelessness,” he says. “It’s already happening with the incredible organizations doing the work combined with incredible artists fueling the inspiration – it’s a recipe for magic and will be a model for the rest of the country.”
That sense of possibility is what drives the team to find new ways to engage people who might not otherwise think about homelessness. “At Been There, we believe in meeting people where they’re already having fun and weaving in a little good that can grow into a movement,” says co-founder Lenny Barszap. “We know we can’t end homelessness on our own, but collectively, we can. We see ourselves as the cheerleaders, adding energy and visibility, while our partner organizations are the ones with the tools to solve it. If we add fuel to their fire, real change is possible.”
Fun First. Do Good Always.
Been There is best known for its unexpected blend of storytelling and social impact—like Home Free, a college comedy film they produced to draw in audiences who might otherwise never engage with the issue of homelessness.
“We always designed the movie to reach audiences who wouldn’t normally watch something about homelessness,” said Barszap. “That’s why it’s a college comedy—comedy became our Trojan horse to get people to pay attention.”
That Trojan Horse strategy now extends far beyond film. The Been There team recut Home Free vertically for social media, making the entire movie available scene-by-scene online—maximizing visibility and access. Even the pricing strategy is focused on inclusivity: the full film is available for purchase for just $5, or less to rent.
As Barszap put it: “Really just thinking about how do we get this movie in front of the most people possible?”
A Platform Others Can Plug Into
The beer partnership marks an evolution in Been There’s strategy. After raising over $3 million for other homelessness nonprofits through events and creative campaigns, they’re now looking to create a plug-and-play model for businesses that want to do good in ways that feel natural to their customers.
“We see it as not too different from the Product (RED) campaign,” said Barszap. “The idea is to take things people are already buying and doing—and make a piece of that give back and do good.”
The goal is to create a brand other companies can connect to—a social impact platform fueled by fun, driven by purpose.
“We mostly raise money for other people,” said Barszap. “But it has to grow beyond us, right? And so the beauty of this is that it does—it’s now this other company, their marketing teams and the power of their brand that helps to solve this problem.”
The Festival Stage as a Force for Good
On November 8, Been There 4 will bring this idea to life—onstage, on tap, and on mission.
With performances from Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys, Ben Kweller, Benji Hughes, and a roster of Austin musicians, the festival is equal parts celebration and call to action.
“Our music festivals serve two purposes,” Barszap explains. “One is to raise a lot of money—and we’ve already raised over three million dollars. But just as important is changing public perception around this issue.”
Previous lineups have featured members of The Pharcyde, Jurassic 5, and Karl Denson. The soundtrack to Home Free was produced by Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas and includes original work by the very artists now headlining the stage and many more musical legends.
But beyond the music, the heart of the festival is connection—bringing people face to face with the nonprofits doing the hard work every day, and showing that solutions already exist if we choose to support them. “We want people who can write big checks,” Barszap said, “but we also want people to simply see the organizations doing great work—and understand that there are people already solving this. If we can just add more resources to what’s already working, this is something that really could be solved in Austin.”
This year's festival shares 100% of proceeds between Been There and fellow homelessness nonprofits including early intervention masters Sunrise Navigation Center, emergency transitional housing and workforce development innovators The Other Ones Foundation (TOOF), and permanent housing and holistic supporters Caritas of Austin. The event will also feature a pop-up gallery with Art From The Streets featuring original art for sale from Austin-based artists who are or have experienced homelessness.
Looking at What We Normally Look Away From
The next frontier? A 30-foot-tall public art sculpture by globally acclaimed sculptor, Daniel Popper, that Barszap hopes will become a defining symbol of Austin’s commitment to ending homelessness.
Proposed concept of the monument by the acclaimed sculptor Daniel Popper
“We want to create a piece of art that people are drawn to—something they want to look at, not look away from,” he said. “Everyone agrees homelessness is wrong, but it’s sad, it’s painful, and most people don’t know what they can do. It feels bigger than them.”
That’s exactly why Been There isn’t just a name—it’s a vision. A promise. A belief that the things we look away from today can become the things we overcome together tomorrow.
“The name Been There captures the organization’s deeper aspiration—to reach a future where we can look back and say, we’ve been there. We’ve solved this.”
“It’s an aspirational name. It’s an empathetic name,” said Barszap. “That’s really what we’re about—how do we get to a future where we can say we’ve been there?”
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