Walk raises awareness
'You have to create strategies that work,' says national advocate to end youth homelessness during Yellowknife visit
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The man known as the Skid Row CEO was in Yellowknife Sunday afternoon raising awareness about youth homelessness - and he did it all with a shopping cart.
Volunteers Steve Norn, left, and Kristopher Jennings barbecue hamburgers during the Push for Change event that took place at the SideDoor Resource Centre for Youth. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo |
Joe Roberts, a former heroin addict who lived on the streets before becoming CEO of a multi-million dollar website development company, could be seen pushing his shopping cart through the streets of Yellowknife in an effort to raise awareness for youth
homelessness.
Joined by a handful of dedicated volunteers from the SideDoor Resource Centre for Youth, Roberts' five-kilometre walk around the city was part of the Push for Change, a national trek he began in May 2016. The 17-month journey will have spanned 9,000 kilometres and taken him across the country from Newfoundland to B.C. by the time it wraps up in September.
The shopping cart he brings with him is a symbol of homelessness, he says.
"In 1989, I was homeless on the streets of East Vancouver pushing a shopping cart collecting cans and bottles addicted to drugs," Roberts said on Sunday.
"I was one of those people you walk by sleeping on the park bench or accosting you for change."
He had aspirations to get out of that life, he added - but if it hadn't been for a street-based agency he might not have.
"I had systems and supports there for me to find the door out," he said.
And with the launch of the SideDoor's two new youth-oriented programs - Housing First 4 Youth and HELP4U - on July 10, Roberts shared some important words about the issue.
"You have to create strategies that work," he said. "There is no one brush that paints all. When we take a look at the adult homeless population, the best place to reduce the numbers nationally - whether it is here in Yellowknife, Western Canada or the entire country - is to start with youth prevention."
Roberts said according to statistics, more than 80 per cent of adults who are homeless had experienced homelessness when they were teenagers.
"When we know that statistically we can really put a dent in youth homeless, we are actually talking about preventing and supporting adult systems as well," he said.
SideDoor executive director Iris Hamlyn agrees. She said national research reveals addressing youth homelessness can prevent adult homelessness.
"We have a short window of opportunity whereby we can provide supports and services to youth while they are in a vulnerable state so they won't be entrenched in homelessness," she said.
Tiffany Thrasher joined Sunday's walk. She said she has spent many of her teenage years homeless as she struggled with addictions. But she thinks youth homelessness is preventable - with the right help in place.
"If we can catch it while we still can, while people are young, we can end it as quickly as possible and make such a difference in our society that we'll just be great," she said.
"I really want to see a difference and that's why I'm here."
