A local drop-in centre will receive a helping hand from 15 Carleton University students during the school’s reading week, part of a volunteer project aimed at sensitizing the students to the challenges of delivering social services in the city.
Centre 507 on Bank Street provides free support services to the Centretown community, such as counselling, crisis intervention, health care and meals.
The participating Carleton students will be trading flip-flops and daiquiris for paintbrushes and mops for the Alternative Spring Break program during the last week of February.
Over five weekdays, the students will volunteer at several different social service agencies across the city, including the Ottawa Food Bank, while living on a budget that puts them below the poverty line.
Caroline Ann Giekes, manager of Centre 507, says she’s thrilled to have the students helping out. Giekes says the volunteers will be painting, building, organizing and cleaning during their service day.
“Our goal is to provide service to the folks who walk in the door, so things like spring cleaning and organizing and patchwork repair and building always sort of get shuffled to the bottom, because those aren't necessarily top of the list. But it makes a huge difference in how we deliver service.”
Iman Azman, team leader and organizer for the Carleton program, says she wanted to work with Centre 507 after seeing a poster for the drop-in centre on a lamppost on her walk home.
Giekes was especially excited to hear that the posters are being seen around the city. She explains that one of the men who uses the drop-in centre wanted to put up posters and asked a staff member to help him make them. “He’s been plastering them all over the place,” she says.
Azman says the Alternative Spring Break is a great way to take class learning to a higher level.
“A lot of people are just looking for opportunities for how they can understand the world better,” she says. “It’s a really unique way to broaden your views and to understand different issues.”
Geoff Plint, a neuroscience student at Carleton, is one of the 15 participants in the volunteer group and says he’s excited to be spending reading week immersed in Ottawa’s social-services scene. Plint says he’s looking forward to seeing the city from a different perspective, as well as learning about different resources.
“When there’s (poverty and homelessness) right down the street from Parliament Hill, I want to see what’s being done about it.”
Giekes says that the physical work the volunteers will contribute will be very helpful, but connecting with the students themselves will be invaluable.
“We get to share our story with a group of people who are interested in social justice, who are interested in supporting their community, and they are potential donors and funders. They’re our champions moving forward,” she says.