On March 3, 2022, I completed the 360°Experience in support of 360°kids, an organization providing essential housing, food, education, and employment assistance, to our most vulnerable youth across the York Region.

The 360°Experience shows us firsthand the harsh reality of spending a cold night on the street when home is no longer a safe place to be. As a board member, and resident of York Region, I’m grateful for this organization and the incredible work they do to help youth in crisis.

And I’m grateful for the support offered by my community. Thank you for your generous donations and notes of encouragement. Because of your support, this year’s 360°Experience raised over $360,000.

Many of you have been asking what this experience was like, so I wanted to share this recap with you here.

The evening began at the York Region Administration Centre in Newmarket, Ontario. 360°kids gave every team a different scenario to navigate throughout the night. I was paired up with my friend Tony Pampena and Emma, a 360°kids Youth Outreach team member.

Our scenario was a 19-year-old man with mental health challenges and a family that refused to acknowledge this and help him get the medication he needed. His outbursts escalated until he was kicked out of the house with nowhere to go and only a few bus tickets in his pocket.

360°kids gave us each a sleeping bag and a tarp and we set out into the cold around 9pm with a list of places to visit. Each team was sent to different shelters and outreach centres serving youth and adults experiencing homelessness.

~9:30pm

Our first stop was the LOFT Outreach Van. This is a service that meets people in the community and provides them with bare necessities: food, clothing, sleeping bags, Naloxone, etc. They also help those experiencing homelessness understand what their options are for shelters.

~10:00pm 

Our next stop was to make our way to an adult shelter called Inn from the Cold. We were encouraged to take the bus from the Newmarket bus terminal. The bus dropped us 2.5km away from the shelter. This felt like an especially grueling walk in the cold. The shelter staff knew we were coming and gave us a tour of their facility. They told us about the incredible work they do, with very limited resources. They also told us how they are forced to turn people away when the Inn is full, which is heartbreaking.

Earlier, while we were trying to navigate the bus schedule at the Newmarket bus terminal, Emma saw a young person she recognized and learned he didn’t have a plan for the night, so she spent some time brainstorming with him. She ended up giving him her sleeping bag and tarp. We also gave him several of our bus passes. And Tony gave him some Domino’s pizza coupons he brought along to hand out that night.

~11:30pm

As we got progressively cold and tired, every step in this journey took so much more time and effort than one would think. Around 11:30pm we walked another 2.5km to catch the bus back to Richmond Hill to visit the 360kids Hub at 10415 Yonge Street. This is a drop-in facility where youth experiencing homelessness can get a warm meal, have a shower, do laundry, work out at the gym, hang out, sleep in one of their emergency beds, and get other support as needed.

~12:45am

By the time we travelled to and completed our tour of the 360°kids Hub, it was 12:45am.

As part of the 360°Experience, each team had a support team keeping watch over them. These support teams travelled by car and checked in with us throughout the night to make sure we were safe. Our support team met us at the 360°kids Hub and helped us think through our options for the rest of the night. They reminded us if we missed the last bus, we would have had to walk up to Newmarket to complete the event, which would take about three hours. We decided to travel north by bus.

While on the bus we searched for any 24-hour coffee shops or restaurants to spend the remaining five hours. Due to Covid, most of the 24-hour coffee shops in the area had closed their dining rooms and only kept their drive-through open. By the time we got to the end of the line, the Newmarket bus terminal, we still had no idea where we were going. It was 1:30am and we were desperately hoping the building was open. But alas, the doors were locked. We stood there looking into this large, empty, heated space we simply could not access.

~1:30am

At 1:30am set out into the cold. We were thrilled to stumble upon a Subway sandwich shop that was still open. We went in and Tony ordered a sub. We encouraged him to eat it as slow as possible, so we could stay in the warmth. After about 30 minutes, the employee told us he was closing the store and we were out on the streets again.

~2:00am

We heard other teams were planning to sleep in bank vestibules, so we set out looking for one. The first bank we came upon was locked. But around 2:00am we found one with an unlocked door! It felt like heaven. It was a large, heated vestibule and we were able to put down our tarps and our sleeping bags and use our knapsacks as pillows. I shared a sleeping bag with Emma (we opened it up and put it down over the tarp) because she had given hers away to the young person we met earlier that night. Tony used his sleeping bag and loaned us his heated blanket. With that, we fell asleep on the floor under the bright lights. It was a rough sleep.

~3:00am

Around 3:00am, the cleaning staff came in. They largely left us alone and cleaned around us in the vestibule and in the main bank. Our restless sleep continued.

~4:20am

At 4:20am, we woke up to a security guard telling us to wake up and get out. We tried negotiating an extra half an hour because we figured we could find a Tim Hortons open around 5:00am. We tried making a case for 360°kids and other compassionate appeals but the security guard would not budge. So, we packed our things up and headed back out into the cold. This was another eye-opening experience. If we couldn’t successfully lobby for ourselves, how powerless would a young person experiencing homelessness feel? We spent another 40 minutes or so walking the streets.

~5:00am

We still had one hour to go and thankfully we were able to get back into the Great Hall at the York Region Administration Centre. We should have been out in the cold for another hour, but we simply didn’t have it in us. We literally felt like we were going to collapse on our feet.

Over the next hour, the rest of the teams arrived back at the Centre. Some had slept in bank vestibules like us and had also been kicked out by security. Others slept in bus shelters. One team found an all-night Tim Hortons. And another group found an office building that wasn’t locked, and they slept in its lobby. Others literally slept outside in the nook of a building – although they admitted they only lasted half an hour. It’s easier to be moving than to stay still in the cold.

~6:00am

360kids treated us to a hot breakfast and coffee while people shared their stories. A common theme expressed was how fortunate we were to be able to head home, warm up and get some rest.

This was a tough experience. It was physically grueling, and the bitter cold (it was -12°C degrees with the wind chill that night), and lack of transportation only made it more so. It was also mentally tough, and it became increasingly difficult to make simple decisions as the night went on. I felt like I aged 10 years – especially after spending two hours lying on the bank floor – every joint ached.

I also can’t stop thinking about many people we met throughout our night. There was the young man at the bus terminal. Where did he sleep that night and every night since then? We also met someone else whose hands were all bandaged up from stage 4 frostbite. Stage 4 occurs when bone and tendon freeze. We learned he may lose most of his fingers as a result.

Many of you have asked why this event was held on a Thursday. Why not a Friday instead? The reason is because 360°kids wants people to experience just how hard it is to function the next day. They wanted us to see what it felt like for people to go to school or work after a rough night out in the cold. This is why the 360°Experience is held in March – obviously, navigating the cold is another one of the hardships those experiencing homelessness must face.

Thank you all for your incredible generosity and encouraging words along the way. I am so grateful for your support. If you or your team are interested in participating in the 360°Experience, please reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for your time.