Cat Baron stands with three of her students in her 10th year of participating in the fundraiser. Naomi Librach, Centretown NewsClusters of young people braced flimsy cardboard signs against gusts of wind under a grey sky. Gathered at downtown street corners, Algonquin College students jingled their cups of coins and begged preoccupied passerbys and drivers for spare change.
Cat Baron supervised the chaos calmly from the rickety comfort of a mottled green lawn chair.
Baron, who teaches community and justice services at Algonquin College, marked her 10th straight year of participation in the 12th annual 24 Hours of Homelessness, an initiative to fight youth homelessness and educate the public by simulating life without shelter for a day and panhandling to raise money.
The event took place from 2 p.m. on Sept. 30 to 2 p.m. on Oct. 1 at the west end of Minto Park along Elgin Street.
This year’s 24 Hours of Homelessness coincided with a similar cause: The Push for Change, a cross-Canada campaign to raise awareness and fundraise to end youth homelessness, passed through Ottawa at the same time. Joe Roberts, a former homeless addict and co-founder of the campaign, is pushing a shopping cart from coast to coast to symbolize his battle with homelessness.
After almost 20 years of working with homeless and at-risk youth at the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa, Baron got involved with 24 Hours of Homelessness during her first year as a full-time professor at Algonquin.
“This is my way of giving back,” she said. “To experience it year after year with a new group of students… I couldn’t ask for more.”
Baron said she tries to help students have a “real” experience by banning cell phones, food and electronics throughout the 24-hour period.
“For my students, I know that the event will give them a small glimpse into the lives of people who have to be homeless and spend their lives out here without shelter and without food and without much understanding of what’s going to happen next,” Baron said.
Katie Sanders, the outreach and substance use coordinator at Centretown-based Operation Come Home — which supports street-involved youth — said Baron rejected an OCH staff offer to bring the students McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches at last year’s fundraiser because she wanted them to only accept donated food.
“She really wants her students to understand and have a realistic experience in terms of being homeless for one night,” Sanders said.
OCH is an education and support centre for homeless and at-risk youth whose mission is “to prevent homeless youth from becoming homeless adults.” According to Baron, it has been a main fundraising recipient since inspiring the launch of 24 Hours of Homelessness in 2004.
Fifty per cent of the total funds raised in-person and online will go to OCH. The remaining 50 per cent will be split between the Algonquin program’s emergency student bursary (40 per cent) and a class fund (10 per cent).
Baron created a GoFundMe page on Aug. 29 to complement funds raised in-person during the event. By early October, online fundraising had generated $1,930 with the help of 48 donors and 962 shares via Facebook.
Baron said this year’s overall fundraising goal is $6,000, and she said she was hopeful students will reach it.
“We try and beat past years but we also want to make sure that we stay modest because there’s lots of reasons to give in Ottawa and we don’t want to extend ourselves too much,” Baron explained.
She added that about $1,000 has been raised from pledge forms. Event donation totals have not yet been finalized.
While Baron credited her students with “getting everything done” in preparation for the fundraiser, one of her students, Michaela DeCurtis, said the event wouldn’t be possible without her professor’s help.
“(Baron) does almost all the planning for the most part. She’s the reason that we’re able to come out here every year,” DeCurtis said.
“She’s a huge part of the community here in Ottawa. She’s kind of like the glue that brings everyone together to make it work.”