Facing the homeless challenge
By John Mohan

Can future business moguls have so much compassion for the less fortunate they'd willingly sleep outside five winter nights? Last week four Asper School of Business students took up the challenge to participate in the nation-wide, 16 city "Five Days for the Homeless" campaign.

While other students were going about the normal campus activities -- Blaire Hamilton, Kelsey Noakes, Jeff Lloyd and Nico Villanueva closely replicated the hard and marginalized lifestyle of those who experience homelessness while still attending classes.

They could not carry money or cell phones, and ate only food given to them by kind-hearted souls. They were permitted to have a pillow and sleeping bag but couldn't shower or access washrooms outside of normal campus hours.

With no shelter, the first night was the hardest. Subsequent nights did get colder but their bodies adjusted and the resourceful students used discarded cardboard and a plastic tarp to block the wind. Although there was confusion by some observers about the purpose of the exercise, the participants were surprised at the level of interest and compassion. However, event organizer Nile Nazarko wonders if there would have been such high level of generosity and support if a real homeless person had camped out at the Asper School of Business.

With the challenge nearly a week over, participants have reflected on the impact it has had on them personally.

Kelsey Noakes acknowledges she now has the potential to be a credible voice for the homeless because she is relatable to her friends and family giving her a platform to explain homelessness is not about laziness but rather there are many routes for people to find themselves homeless -- financial crisis for someone already struggling to make ends meet or an unmediated mental illnesses or job loss. She admits sleeping outside five nights was easier than expected because of the overwhelming campus support.

Had she been really homeless she would have likely been ignored or perhaps harassed making the already arduous ordeal not only more difficult to endure but also harder to even escape from. She accurately points out the campus community supported and congratulated her for her accomplishment but those on our streets have no one to cheer them on for their important achievements -- like making it a few days clean and sober. The absence of positive reinforcement discourages people, making escaping homelessness even more difficult.

Five Days for the Homeless was a success on several levels. The participants and their families were better informed about and personally changed by the hardships of homelessness. In the short-term they raised nearly $12,000 in support of Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY).

There's no telling how they will affect the corporate world after graduation.

--John Mohan is the CEO of Siloam Mission.

Originally printed in the Winnipeg Sun, Wednesday, March 25, 2009.
Reprinted with the permission of Sun Media Corporation.