Grace Smyth, 15, recently attended a Saskatchewan student leadership conference and it was there that she got an idea. She admits that it wasn't anything new as it was another school that had the program but when she heard the idea she thought it was a good one. During the month of October Grace Smyth and her friends will be collecting donations for various shelters and organizations to help the homeless in Saskatchewan. She said they will be accepting donations of warm coats, boots and blankets until Oct. 31. Donations can be dropped off at Gordon F. Kells High School or the Shockwave Youth Centre during the period and they are also accepting hygiene products like toothbrushes and toothpaste as well. Smyth calls it Homelessness Awareness, an initiative she said was also inspired by her trip to the Philippines in August.
Smyth visited the country as a member of Street Invaders, a Christian missions program for students that offer various programs to help young people to learn about leadership and other aspects of self development. "We did a lot of ministry, we did jail ministry and hospital ministry too and we did different feeding programs," she said.
"That experience was kind of an eye opener to show me that it is a problem in Canada too, so that was something that came into play when I heard the idea."
According to statistics released by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network in June, on any given night there are at least 30,000 Canadians that are homeless. And there are approximately only 15, 467 emergency shelter beds available in Canada.
Single adult males between the ages of 25-55 make up 47% of the homeless population and youth from ages 16 to 24 count for 20% of the homeless the release stated.
Smyth said that such numbers have led her to start the program and raise awareness of homelessness in Saskatchewan. Many may be well aware of homelessness in big cities but Smyth said her goal is to sensitize people to the problem in our province.
In a 2010 report by the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System, Regina saw 1,484 individuals staying in a shelter one time during 2010, remaining for an average of 56.2 days.
Mental illness, addiction, family violence and extreme poverty are just some of the causes of homelessness according to the Canadian Homelessness Research Network.
High rent and low vacancy rates have also put pressure on approximately 30% of Canadians who rent. Low income households are also at risk, as an estimated 1.5 million of Canada's low income families are paying in an excess of 30% their income on housing. While 50,000 Canadians account for the "hidden homeless". Many are staying with a friend or "couch surfing" with nowhere else to go.
Smyth said she has some additional plans to further promote her program and hope people will make donations and join her initiative.
"We're gathering lots of clothing to distribute to various homeless shelters, just to kind of help out with that," she said.
