Hi there! My name is Ally and for a long time I have been trying to figure out a way to help reduce homelessness in Calgary. I was doing my nightly guided meditation quite a while ago, and the speaker said “now, feel the soft bed underneath you, and the warm blanket on top”. It made me feel sad. My mind started thinking about the countless amount of people I see every day, sitting in the cold with a cup in their hand, asking for some change just so that they could eat that day. Or seeing people lugging a bag of bottles around from community to community in hopes it’ll be enough change to buy a toque for their cold head over night. All of these people don’t have a soft mattress and warm blanket to sleep in every night, let alone the rest of the millions of homeless people we have in the world. I then was kept up all night trying to figure out how I can help these people.

My idea is that I would raise money to buy the necessities required to help families to live more comfortably. The care package for the parents would be a hiking back pack filled with different goods, such as, a blanket, a few gift cards, warm jacket, snow pants, toque, mitts, scarf, a reusable water bottle, a deck of cards, a flashlight, etc. The children’s backpack would be filled with mittens, toques, underwear, socks, toys, and a soft blanket. 

The first step to this plan is for people to donate money, goods, or their time, so that I can start being able to fund the necessities for these families. I would then go around the city and find homeless families to give the stuff to.

The second step is to take pictures of the parents and children we find, and put them on a website with their information of why they are homeless, what kind of help they need, and how you could support them.

Thirdly, the pictures of the homeless people would be used for people to donate money, goods, or help, specifically to that person. 

My last step is, I am hoping to eventually be able to open a daycare specifically for homeless youth so that they have a safe space to come to every day and get some education, socialization, food and rest while their parents are looking for jobs.

This plan will hopefully reduce the homelessness crisis in Calgary, help many children in need, and hopefully eventually will expand to all of Canada.

Thanks so much☻