When Ashley Richard was living as a homeless youth in Toronto, people assumed she was trouble.

“Going to high school was a challenge because I never knew where I would be sleeping,” said Richard. “It was awkward asking people to stay at their place because their parents wouldn’t want me there, like I had a reputation because of a situation that was out of my control.”

Richard moved to Toronto at the age of four. She eventually did graduate high school, though it was two years late. She credits her grandmother with keeping her strong.

“I was really determined to graduate high school because post-secondary education was a goal of mine,” she said. “My grandma drilled that into my head.”

After her grandmother died, Richard moved back to Winnipeg at the age of 21. She now attends the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba (U of M) and is the President of the Association of Aboriginal Commerce Students.

Her mother was born in the Philippines and her father is from Pine Creek First Nation.

Richard and five other U of M students are taking part in 5 Days for the Homeless, an event where students – known as “sleepers” – sleep outdoors and raise money for Resource Assistance for Youth Inc. (RaY), an organization that helps homeless youth.

They kicked off the event today (March 7, 2016.)

Richard says her experience in Toronto inspired her to take part.

“I know firsthand what it’s like to be homeless,” she said. “I had peers who were homeless and I remember how tough it was and how challenging it made everything else so to be a part of this was very important for me.”

Andrew Ward is the Senior Operations Manager at RaY.

He says RaY has been partnering with this event for a number of years now and every year it pulls in approximately $25-thousand dollars. The money is vital in helping RaY feed, house and employ homeless youth both within the organization and outside of it.

Ward says negative perceptions of homelessness persist in Winnipeg. According to him, events like this help to disprove those perceptions.

“I’ve been doing this for 18 years and when I go out into the community and talk to groups of people or just overhear conversations, people say ‘why don’t they just get a job, they’re dirty and choose to live on the streets’ but no one choses to sleep in a bus shelter overnight,” said Ward. “What these guys are doing is attempting to debunk those myths.”

 

Andrew Ward addressing the crowd

 

“It’s not a choice, it’s an unfortunate reality,” he continued. “The worst thing we can do is ignore it and the best thing we can do is talk about it and promote the conversation.”

5 Days for the Homeless was originally started by students at the University of Alberta’s School of Business in 2005. It now runs in schools across the country and to date, has raised $1,462,500 for charitable organizations from coast to coast, according to the Asper School of Business webpage.  

A number of events are planned throughout the week to help raise money for RaY. For more information on this event, or to donate, visit news.umanitoba.ca/5-days-for-the-homeless/.