Get Involved
Homelessness affects each and every Calgarian
Whether you are concerned about social justice issues or you just want to see the city parks cleaned up, there are things that all of us can do to help end homelessness.
What U Can Do...
It is easier than you think, share these ideas with your family and friends!
- Respect the people experiencing homelessness as individuals
- Recognize that there are many paths to homelessness, including economics, mental health, addictions and family violence
- Read Calgary’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness
- Speak out against family violence and support local domestic violence shelters
- Respond to people experiencing homelessness with kindness – look people in the eye and say “Hello”
- Volunteer with an agency working with people who are experiencing homelessness
- Stay in for the evening and watch The Soloist, Home Safe Calgary, and/or People of the Abyss: Bringing Them Home
- Become socially aware and politically active
- Remind yourself that no one sets out to experience homelessness
- Volunteer your professional talents or offer job training or employment
- Challenge stereotypes – speak up, write letters and advocate for change
- Instead of gifts for anniversaries and birthdays suggest donations of money, clothing or food
- Volunteer for a committee or organization that is working to end homelessness
- Tutor/read to children experiencing homelessness
- Use your vote to support the creation of a just, humane and inclusive society
- Know your fundamental human rights and remember they apply to everybody
- Close your eyes and imagine your bedroom when you were a child; now think of children who are experiencing homelessness
- Host a holiday party for children at a shelter
- Help build or fix up houses or shelter
- Support “housing first” and charge rent for a home or apartment at below market value
- Get the facts and fight NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) at neighbourhood meetings
- Give your recyclable bottles to people experiencing homelessness or donate the proceeds of your recycling
- Hold a fund raiser or food and supply drives
- Organize your church, nieghbourhood or community association to respond to the need for services such as sock drives, volunteers, or mentors
- Buy Calgary Street Talk
- Create a library for a shelter or other organization serving people experiencing homelessness
- Mentor street involved youth
- Educate your colleagues, classmates, friends, family and children about the facts and faces of homelessness
- Lobby your MLA or MP to address the real issues of homelessness – encourage others to do the same
- Monitor plans to end homelessness and demand accountability
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