Volunteer to be part of Dufferin’s 20,000 homes campaign

October 7, 2016 · 0 Comments

The 20,000 Homes Campaign is a national movement of communities working together to permanently house 20,000 of Canada’s most vulnerable homeless people by July 1, 2018.

The campaign is spearheaded by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. The campaign supports a grassroots non-partisan advocacy effort to build public support for ending homelessness and political support for renewed federal and provincial investment in housing and support services.

The campaign is based on the belief that homelessness is a national emergency requiring urgent and immediate action, where the time has come to stop managing homelessness, and start ending it.

The Community Advisory Board (CAB) will complete at least one Registry (count of the homeless population) and we will engage volunteers who want to contribute to implementing a registry and taking forward action: neighbours, people with lived experience, local businesses, housing and service providers, faith-based groups and government agencies.

At CAB’s meeting on Wednesday July 20th, 2016, the committee voted to join the 20,000 Homes campaign in order to strengthen and promote the ongoing work in the area of HF. The committee then formed a ‘Project Leadership’ sub-committee which held their first meeting on Tuesday August 2, 2016 and started the ground work for the campaign. The committee is meeting weekly and consists of representatives from the County of Dufferin (Housing Department), Supportive Housing In Peel (SHIP), Choices Youth Shelter, Family Transition Place (FTP) and Orangeville Food Bank.

Registration and training for volunteers is slate for Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16, with the count scheduled for October 17 and 18.

Then after the details from the count have been compiled into a report there will be an official launch of the report and a “Call to Action” on November 22 to garner more ongoing support and raise awareness for homelessness services

For additional information on becoming a volunteer and to sign up, visit www.20kdufferin.shipshey.ca.