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September 29, 2009
Walk a mile in the shoes of homeless youth
What’s it like to be young and on the street? Why do so many youth end up there? At www.inourshoes.ca Vancouver homeless youth answer these questions first-hand.
Ten homeless youth— Bynkie, Carter, Cookie, Ian, Yannick, Farrel, Violet, Samuel, Kstuddas and Davin— have filmed themselves walking the streets of Vancouver and telling their stories about daily survival, goals for the future and the steps that they are taking to get off the streets. Their stories are unfiltered; their faces are not shown in order to protect their identities.
“We did this because we want people to hear from us directly,” says Carter, a 22-year-old homeless youth. “We all have our own stories of why we are homeless and what we are doing to get off the streets. I just want people to understand us better.”
“I hope that the inourshoes.ca website builds a wider and more accurate understanding of the realities of homeless youth and the support that is required from our communities to help our youth get off the streets for good,” said Renata Aebi, Director, Directions Youth Services Centre.
The inourshoes.ca initiative was officially launched this evening to a small group of donors and supporters of the Directions Youth Services Centre and Family Services of Greater Vancouver, including Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. The launch event included homeless youth who lead a one-mile walk of downtown Vancouver, which culminated at the 700 block of Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. There, the Mayor officially unveiled the campaign in front of a giant projection of images depicting life circumstances of homeless youth.
“In Our Shoes is a great opportunity to listen and learn from our city’s homeless youth,” said Mayor Robertson. “We have so many young people who live on our streets and their voices are rarely heard. In Our Shoes gives us a better understanding of the daily life of these youth, which is critical to providing them with the help and services they need to turn their lives around.”
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