I slept outside last Thursday – or at least tried to – and raised more than $31,000 for Covenant House Vancouver.
The annual event is called Sleep Out: Executive Edition, and I was joined by about 40 other business leaders. We collectively raised or donated more than $1.1 million.
Covenant House is one of our region’s most successful organizations in turning around the lives of youth aged 16-24. Its “one-size-fits-one” system customizes a continuum of care, first serving up medical attention and nutrition, then counselling, then assistance in finding a job or resuming education, then eventually (but quite slowly in these days of our housing crisis) finding permanent shelter.
Yes, it is certainly expensive. The amount we raised last Thursday will pay for a few months of just one of Covenant House’s programs. But when you consider how its involvement can avert down-the-road expenses and outcomes, it’s a smart investment in young people. And unfortunately, even in a conspicuously wealthy community with a hefty tax base, government support doesn’t meet these needs; it is necessary for charitable and non-profit organizations to pick up the slack.
The logistics of the Sleep Out are pretty basic. After a couple of hours of touring the facilities, discussing the issues and meeting three young people in the program, you get a slab of cardboard and a sleeping bag, then lay in a laneway between about 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and debrief as a group before going home or to work – and back into warmth and comfort. It was cold last Thursday (around two or three degrees at its lowest), but it was dry with little wind. In other words, nothing too challenging.
I’ve done this three times before, once in pretty steady rain. You’d be surprised how heavy rain feels when it lands on your prone face, just as you’d be surprised how sore your hip feels the next day from sleeping on your side, or how your neck feels from not having a pillow.
But this is mild compared to the real world of sleeping on the streets. I once asked someone at Covenant House how well it resembles what he had experienced. It was about the same, he said, except we weren’t going to be on a noisy street out of necessity for safety and we weren’t going to have our shoes stolen at least once a week. Oh yes, and we had food available before, during and after.
If you wish to support Covenant House, my page on their website can still take in tax-deductible donations until Dec. 31.
This piece originally appeared in a Giving Tuesday special print feature in the Nov. 22 edition of the North Shore News. Kirk LaPointe is a West Vancouver journalist and North Shore News columnist.
