February 2014 Newsletter

February 2014 Why Not City M issions / Youth Centres Coldest Night of the Year Thank you to all of our incredible
walkers for taking the time and effort to
sign up, fundraise, and march through
downtown Brantford to help us and Out
Of The Cold to combat homelessness.
We can’t do these things without our
supportive community. Thank you to all
of our volunteers and sponsors, too!
We raised $21,847 with your help.
Re-­‐Source Thrift Shop Wow! Are we ever thankful for the
hard work of all of the amazing
volunteers at the re-Source Thrift Shop.
Great work, team!
Have you been in to check out all of
the great bargains? You’ll definitely get a
bang for your buck. Plus, some proceeds
go to Why Not!
320 North Park Street (North Park and
Fairview). 10AM – 5PM Monday – Friday,
10AM – 3PM Saturday. Call 226-250-0123.
Welcoming New Staff Why Not is pleased to welcome
Becca Vandekemp to our staff team as of
January 2014 as our new part time
Community Developer.
Becca has volunteered as a youth
mentor and volunteer coordinator for 5
years, and she brings a lot of great skills
to the table. Contact her at
becca@whynotyouthcentres.com.
As always, we are incredibly thankful
for all of our dedicated volunteers!
Homelessness Youth homelessness takes a different form than adult
homelessness. Youth are highly networked, and can almost
always find a couch to crash on. The cold isn’t the real problem
with mobility, though. It’s everything associated with being on
the move.
One significant factor associated with couch surfing is the cost to
the youth. The price tag on a place to stay is rarely in dollars, but,
rather, is in expectations and exposure. By simply crashing at
Continued on page 2
Post-­‐Secondary Partnerships Homelessness (Continued…)
We always know when a new semester has started
when the youth centre starts filling with college and
university students who are looking to get some
experience working with youth, or who are just there
to have some fun with a great crowd of teens!
This “semester” alone, we have students from
Wilfrid Laurier University, Nipissing University,
Mohawk College, and Masters College & Seminary!
a friend’s home, the youth might suddenly be
exposed to drug use, crime, and more. And they’ve
got to keep their mouths shut unless they want to be
out in the cold.
Further, mobility almost always means that you lose
all of your “stuff.” That does not only include
clothes, toiletries, textbooks, and pillow, things that
were meaningful to them. Pictures, personal space,
childhood toys, gifts… When all of the youth group
home beds are full and no couches are available,
youth even lose their communities when they are
forced to travel to other cities to find a place to stay.
Even if they can bring any of those things with them,
they often get lost in transit, or even get stolen when
they are forced to leave them somewhere unsafe.
At Why Not, we work hard to provide a sense of
home, with a family of volunteers and staff who truly
care. We provide food and clothing where needed.
More importantly, though, we really try to provide
conflict resolution skills and mediation in order to
keep homelessness from happening in the first place.
Cirque Du Soleil On January 27th, 14 of our youth from Brantford
and St. George had the exciting chance to go to
the Cirque Du Soleil show in Hamilton.
A few of the youth signed up for the trip,
sponsored by Cirque Du Soleil itself (thank you!),
thinking that it was a chance to just get out of
town, but were floored by the incredible talent in
the show.
By the time we all piled into our vehicles, the
youth expressed just how impressed they were. For
some, it was their first time ever seeing anything
like this. Thank you so much to Cirque Du Soleil
for investing in youth programming! Our kids had
a blast.
There is no easy solution to combat youth
homelessness or its many factors, but thanks to all of
you, we can make a dent in the issue.
Valentine’s Day Fundraiser Success! Wow! Are we ever thankful for our
amazing community supporters. On
February 15th, dozens gathered at the
Northridge Banquet Hall for some
great food, dancing, and fun.
An extra-special thank you goes out to S c o t i a b a n k
(61 Lynden Road) for matching $5,000 in ticket
sales! You made our fundraiser a great success!
Why Not City Missions / Youth Centres
Brantford
368 Colborne Street, N3S 3N2
519 759 2221
charlie@whynotyouthcentres.com
Paris
19 Broadway Street Unit #6
519 759 2221
charlie@whynotyouthcentres.com
St. George
24 Main Street S., N0E 1N0
519 448 4279
wbroorda@whynotyouthcentres.com