Renjie Butalid

Founded in March 2007 by Nick Petten while an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo, Out in the Cold is a grassroots, student-run event held every November, where students and community members are invited to spend the night outside on campus, to raise money and awareness of homelessness issues in their local community.

We are continuing the Out in the Cold initiative by sharing a model by which other schools and universities can adapt to their respective campus and local community. www.outinthecold.ca was launched in October 2009 as an online portal to document the growth of this grassroots initiative. It is our goal to provide the tools necessary for people in other schools and universities to organize similar events in order to provide a better understanding of issues surrounding homelessness, poverty and housing stability.

Causes of homelessness include poverty and a lack of affordable housing. Root causes of poverty include low income, unemployment or underemployment, social isolation, racism, low literacy, poor education, and many more. Addressing homelessness is effective social, health, and economic policy.

• Learn more about the issues

After three years at the University of Waterloo, the Out in the Cold model was successfully adapted at the University of Toronto campus. In November 2009, Out in the Cold was run simultaneously at both campuses, and was organized by teams of students led by Kaija Saarinen (Waterloo) and Jenna van Draanen (Toronto).

• Learn more about Out in the Cold 2009
• Out in the Cold in the news

Out in the Cold Timeline

Out in the Cold has raised over $10,000 for organizations tackling the issues of poverty and homelessness in the local community.

March 2007: University of Waterloo

November 2007: University of Waterloo

November 2008: University of Waterloo

November 2009:

University of Waterloo & University of Toronto

www.outinthecold.ca launched

November 2010:

Our goal is to apply this model to schools and universities across Canada. Please contact us if you would like to host Out in the Cold in your local community.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Out in the Cold 2009

A big THANK YOU to InsideToronto.com for putting together this video of Out in the Cold, held at the University of Toronto on November 20-21, 2009.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Vision

When tackling the issues of poverty and homelessness, one begins to recognize immediately that the solutions to these problems are not always cut and dry.

An example of a simple approach would be to throw more funds/resources towards homeless shelters or similar-type organizations without really attempting to address the complexities surrounding the question:

“Why do we even have homeless shelters in the first place?”

This question extends far beyond the problem of a lack of housing for youth and people on the streets, and goes into questions regarding employment and job training programs, education, healthcare, family, mental health, drugs and crime to name a few.

Taken from this perspective and recognizing that a complex solution is certainly required to address a complex problem, the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction aims to tackle the issue of poverty reduction by “making Hamilton the best place to raise a child.”

Think about it.

Instead of tackling the issues of poverty and homelessness in silos, individuals and organizations in Hamilton are working in a multi-collaborative approach (community, business, voluntary sector, government, education, health, etc.) in order to make Hamilton the best place in Canada to raise a child.

In other words, they are creating a movement towards reducing poverty within their city by working together and recognizing that each individual/organization has a role to play in creating change – they currently have more than 300 people on their leadership team and are working with more than 900 organizations and individuals on community solutions to reducing poverty.

More from the HRPR’s report to the community, dated June 5, 2008:

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Action

So what can you do within your community?

A great example of ‘action’ to raise awareness and empathy (in order to move towards reflective dialogue) that can easily be done at other schools and university campuses is Out in the Cold, an event held last Friday, November 21 2008, at the University of Waterloo campus for the third year in a row.

From the Waterloo Chronicle:

Now in its third year, the program hopes by simulating the conditions that the homeless face on the streets that more people will work to end poverty.

“The main part of the event is for people to stay outside overnight to experience what it might be like to be homeless during the cold winter months,” said the recent UW grad [Nick Petten]. “Of course, it doesn’t come close to it but people will understand how hard it is, and how cold it is.

“You can multiply that by 10 or 100 and that’s what it’s actually like. It’s a very sobering experience.” Petten said he started the Out in the Cold fundraiser to get students to understand issues surrounding homelessness and raise funds to tackle the growing problem. Students aren’t immune to homelessness either as there are various levels of it out there, including people who have to couch surf just to get by with rising tuition costs.

(News coverage on Out in the Cold from last year)

This year, funds raised went to ROOF which stands for Reaching our Outdoor Friends, a non-profit organization “committed to providing for the safety, support and overall well-being of homeless youth and youth-at-risk, age 12-25, in the Waterloo Region.”

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Voice

Matt Levicki from Elite Life Media, produced a short video on Out in the Cold, highlighting the event as well as ROOF.

Video after the jump.

(Note: I have a cameo in the video, thanking the Federation of Students for their support)

Popularity: 6% [?]