Markham Councillor Karen Rea to spend night on streets for 360Kids

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 26, 2017
By Amanda Persico

Youth homelessness is not as seen on TV.

It’s not the kid in ragged clothing sleeping on a sewer grate or in a back alley.

In York Region, it could be the student who falls asleep in class, the youth riding the bus to stay warm or the friend who crashes on a buddy’s couch for a few days.

“You don’t see it,” said Markham Coun. Karen Rea. “You don’t see people sleeping on the street.”

For one thing, the region is a large geographical area, said Michael Braithwaite, former executive director for 360Kids, an organization dedicated to helping at-risk and homeless youth in the region.

“People don’t realize York Region has so many pockets,” Braithwaite said. “There are so many open spaces to hide.”

360Kids hosts the 360 Experience, a night where community members get to experience what it’s like to be a youth living on the streets of York Region for a night.

Participants are given very little, a few dollars to buy a bus ticket.

It’s up to each participant to navigate the YRT bus system, find their way to a shelter or somewhere else to sleep and manage to stay warm.

“This isn’t just an event where you go and have a good time and then later say, ‘What was that gala for again?’,” Braithwaite said of the night.

“After this, people get it. They see homelessness different. They see the kids sleeping in class differently. The next snowstorm, you don’t think about shovelling, you think about those kids sleeping on the street.”

Rea is one of 35 community members participating in the fourth annual 360 Experience on March 2.

Other community leaders participating this year include Richmond Hill Mayor Dave Barrow, former Markham fire chief Bill Snowball, teachers and administrators, business executives, York police officers, social-service workers and residents.

“We wake up, have a hot shower, go to work and then return home to a roof over our heads,” said Rea, who claims not to be an outdoors person, especially in winter.

“It’s not just in Markham or York Region. We all live together, under one umbrella - Canada.”

The morning after, participants are encouraged to continue with their daily routines and go to work.

“Youth go on like this for days,” said Braithwaite, who is now the executive director of the national homeless organization Raising the Roof.

Rea first connected with 360Kids about 18 months ago, when it partnered with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to convert a historic home in the Hwy. 407 and Main Street area of Markham into transitional housing for homeless youth.

The project, located at 17 Mill St., will add three more bedrooms to the 360Kids Transitions program for youth moving from homelessness to independent living, bringing the total number of spaces to 14.

The fundraising goal for this year’s 360 Experience is $100,000 to help support other youth homeless programs offered by the agency.

For more information or to sponsor a participant for the 360 Experience, visit 360kids.ca.