5 Days for the Homeless campaign kicking off

Students take on united effort to address community needs
An annual event, 5 Days for the Homeless, is expected to take place throughout the month of March at different universities across Canada, including the University of Regina (UofR). It is a campaign that aims to raise awareness and collect donations for individuals in society who are experiencing homelessness. Through an annual week-long campaign, students and the local communities are engaged to raise funds for the needy in the society.
Looking back on the origins of this campaign, 5 Days for the Homeless was founded in 2005 by students from the University of Alberta, and it started with the idea of post-secondary students simulating the experience of homeless people. The students agree to forgo their everyday personal comforts which are often taken for granted, such as access to a warm bed, food and basic hygiene products. With no source of income during that particular week, the students have to rely on families, friends and acquaintances to donate these necessities. Also, students are expected to attend all classes as well as write their exams as scheduled during this period.
The Canadian Association of Business Students (CABS) is the entity that primarily runs the 5 Days for the Homeless campaign. CABS’ goal is to enrich student life experience through holistic outdoor learning and development opportunities. Students may have the chance to interact with over 70,000 business students from 26 universities across Canada alongside their growing Alumni network.
The 5 Days promotional video mentions that more than 235,000 people experience homelessness. Every year, one in five Canadians experiences homelessness at some point in their life and almost 30,000 Canadians may be experiencing homelessness at the moment. It is an unfortunate reality that these numbers have been rising since 2010. In 2019, seventeen 5 Days campaigns and 81 events were held across Canada, raising more than $170,000 for local charities and organizations focused on preventing homelessness.
In 2019, a campaign at the UofR raised over $58,000.
Currently, the programs and services that nonprofit organizations like Carmichael Outreach provide are in greater demand than before. Whether it’s accessing food support, addiction recovery or other community resources and programs at Carmichael Outreach, the foundation of it is to maintain a holistic relationship with one another, one that allows people to share their values with each other.
People who have faced major life challenges and feel like they have run into a brick wall are able to meet with someone from the housing support program, food security program, or any other folks at Carmichael, and have the opportunity to access relationships and supports that are focused on empowerment.
The 5 Days for the Homeless campaign aims to address the issue of homelessness in our community. After the pandemic, the Hill Business Students’ Society (HBS) team audaciously reimagined 5 Days to ensure the campaign could still occur and support Carmichael Outreach at time when the organization, and its clients, needed help the most.
During the 2021 campaign, the HBS partnered with local videographers Munz Media to present Project Live for 5 from March 15th to 19th — a Facebook livestream event held each night of the campaign from 7-9pm. Every livestream included local guests discussing topics surrounding homelessness, the pandemic, and how our community has adapted.
Last year, CTV news covered the 5 Days for the Homeless Campaign at the Hill Business School at the UofR, which was followed by a closing reception at the Hotel Saskatchewan. The Hill Business Students’ Society raised funds for Carmichael Outreach. The group raised $34,311.20, beating their goal of $30,000.
Alecia Macdougall, the VP Academic for the Hill Business Students’ Society told CTV “All of it will go to Carmichael and it’ll support their laundry program, their boutique, their meal services, their warming centre, everything that they provide to individuals that they help.” Chrysta Garner, Development Coordinator for Carmichael Outreach added ““Every dollar is one additional day that somebody has hope. We have an endless amount of people that come through our door. It’s unbelievable the community that is seeking the help and the assistance right now. When we have opportunities like this from a secondary or a third-party fundraising that we can … assist with, it means the world to us.”
Apart from students, the 5 Days for the Homeless campaign also encourages faculty, administration and even local celebrities and political figures to join in the venture.
In the past couple of years, notable figures like George Laraque, Justin Trudeau and Denus Coderre along other local radio and municipal figures joined the 5 Days for the Homeless participants for a full night on the streets.
Homelessness is not always a choice but a matter of circumstances. It takes collective effort and individuals in society to come together, to support one another as one community, something that is needed more than ever now. Each person has something of value to contribute to the community, and the community has the opportunity and responsibility to share values with others.
For those interested in participating in the 5 Days for the Homeless campaign, sleeper applications close in mid-January. This year’s application deadline was Wednesday, Jan. 15.