Sleep Out! So Others Can Sleep In
BELLEVILLE – Market Square will be a bedroom for many Belleville residents Friday night as they sleep outdoors to raise money for homelessness.
For the eighth year, the Hastings and Prince Edward Canadian Mental Health Association has dedicated a winter night to raise money for the cause which is an issue in cities across the province. The event is called Sleep Out! So Others Can Sleep In. The fundraiser has set a $10,000 goal, but hopes to surpass it. The Community Development Council of Quinte, Little Caesars and Three Oaks Foundation will help provide food and supplies for the event. Downtown cafe Sweet Escapes will be open all night as a warming centre. It has been helping people who struggle to find warmth and shelter for years.
Every year, the CMHA donates money raised at this event to one its shelters or houses. They give people with homelessness and mental health issues a place to stay. Executive director Sandie Sidsworth said this year’s focus is the Family House.
She says the sleep out tries to help people understand what living on the street is like.
“We never try to duplicate and we would never even suggest that what we do is what somebody endures day in and day out as someone on the street. But we do hope it creates awareness to what the challenges are that people who are in that position face. Ultimately we seek that people create an empathy, because a lot of times folks on the street aren’t treated with respect.”
Loyalist College has become a big part of this event. Students and staff from the Social Service and Child and Youth worker programs have dedicated days to sharing more information about this event on campus. Sidsworth has worked closely with the college to raise awareness about the event.
“Loyalist is my school. We’re just jam packed with students and I always get so excited when we go into the classrooms and we see people aware and wanting to come out,” she said.
Sidsworth shares her enthusiasm about the new homelessness strategy that the Ontario government will be implementing.
“We don’t operate alone…it takes other people working together to help someone permanently.’
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