Perspective is everything.

At least that’s what Erika Barraza and partner Kevin F. Adler are counting on as they outfit people who are homeless with wearable cameras to give viewers a first-person look at life on the streets.

“It’s more effective when you’re in their shoes, literally seeing the world from their eyes,” Barraza said. “The thing we’re hoping to achieve here is using entertainment and tech for good.”

The Homeless GoPro Project is the first initiative of the San Francisco-based media company NearShot, which she co-founded with Adler in September. They aim to capture 100 stories of homelessness across the country using GoPro’s point-of-view cameras.

So far, they’ve gotten 15 homeless volunteers — called autobiographers — in San Francisco and Boston to share their experiences with viewers on the nearshot.com website. Through an IndieGoGo campaign, they aim to raise $30,000 for travel and equipment to complete their goal.

When their campaign ends Dec. 4, they hope to return to Boston to document the struggles of winter on the streets and leave cameras at participating organizations, so autobiographers can continue to share their stories.

“What we’re hoping to do is build empathy,” Barraza said. “People don’t understand who the faces of homelessness really are. There is a vision of homelessness that people have in their mind and we’re trying to break that and show them that it can be anyone. Some people are just one or two paychecks away.”

NearShot partnered with the Boston-based enterprise ArtLifting, who connected them with three local autobiographers.

“The more partnerships we can make in this field, the better,” said Liz Powers, founder of ArtLifting, which tries to empower homeless and disabled people through the sale of their artwork. “We both have similar goals in that we are emphasizing the talent and stories behind each person, instead of focusing solely on the fact that they don’t have a home.”

Scott Benner, 57, of Quincy ended up homeless after the steel company he worked for closed in 2009. After health problems and a sluggish economy thwarted his job search, he spent a year and a half on the streets and joined the ArtLifting community in March.

“There seems to be an if-we-don’t-look-at-them-they’ll-go-away kind of feeling,” Benner said about the homeless in Boston. “People don’t understand it completely — I didn’t understand it completely.”

Benner says one of the hardest parts of homelessness is how people treat him. He recalled sitting in a cafe one afternoon. “An older woman came and sat down next to me and I was talking to her and telling her about my artwork and it came up that I was homeless,” Benner said. “I could see an immediate change in how she acted toward me and shortly after she wrapped up the conversation, excused herself and left.”

Benner looks forward to spending this winter off the streets. His disability check came through this month and he hopes to put a down payment on an apartment in Maine. He is one of the lucky ones. With more than 19,000 homeless in Massachusetts, and only 3,000 shelter beds available, many end up in the cold.

“This whole experience has changed me as a person,” Benner said. “I’m just a regular guy who had a bunch of bad things happen.”

Go to indiegogo.com/projects/?the-homeless-gopro-project-by-nearshot to contribute to the Homeless GoPro Project.