Email

Print

Today is also recognized as World Homeless Day. The Welcome Resource Center caters to homeless persons, those with mental illness and the elderly. The center has several events planned for their participants, but one main activity is the “Sleep It Outâ€￾ initiative that raises funds for the center. The event will be held on Saturday night into Sunday morning. The center’s administrator told us more about it today:

Joyce Ellis - Administrator, Welcome Resource Center
"Based on my experience here at the center for the past 6 years, I must say that homelessness; to me it's on the rise. We are seeing more and more people becoming homeless. Younger person becoming homeless and also in terms of home, for us we say home isn't just the 4 walls, that's not a home. So you wil be able to go to a place where people call somewhere that you sleep but it is really a home? So besides being 4 walls, you also want that 2 eyes and that heart beat that connects you to what is home. We have over 400 registered to the center, on a regular basis our numbers have been falling, we have between 25 and 30 come in regular. Of that 400 person, the homeless population is like at least half of that and then from that half, we have like 3 quarter that are homeless and mentally ill."

Courtney Weatherburne
"You guys, every year host a fundraising event to assist with the Welcome Resource Center. So tell us about this upcoming initiative called Sleep it Out on Saturday."

Joyce Ellis
"Yes, on Saturday it’s a night of being homeless, we will be at the Memorial Park. People, we are not pretending to be homeless, we are just raising that awareness and ask that people empathize with the population that I serve. They could come here at the center to register yes but you can also register at the park. I must say unfortunately, we have no t-shirts left, thank god our t-shirts are sold out, so we don't have any more but there is always space at the park for you to sleep out and we welcome your 10 dollars."

Tomorrow the center is hosting fun Friday where the participants will get food, drinks and be able to dance with the Titans carnival band. Another upcoming event is their Banquet which will be held on October 26th at Caribbean Tire.