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Have shopping cart, will travel

Joe Roberts going through Langley Sunday as part of cross-country trek to end youth homelessness
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Joe Roberts has pushed through all kinds of weather during his journey across Canada to raise awareness and funds for youth homelessness.

Joe Roberts is making a push for awareness, funds, and most importantly, change.

Roberts is pushing a shopping cart across Canada to raise funds for youth homelessness, and will be in Langley this coming Wednesday.

On Sept. 27, Roberts plans to be at Langley City Hall (20399 Douglas Cresc.) at noon; from City Hall, he will walk to Langley Secondary School for a presentation in the early afternoon.

The 50-year-old, who recently purchased a house in Clayton Heights, embarked on his 517-day journey May 1, 2016 in St. John’s, Nfld., and his goal is to complete complete his trek in Vancouver on Sept. 29.

Roberts is the driving force behind The Push For Change, created to show support and raise funds and awareness for the 35,000 Canadian youth still living on the streets.

The most recent numbers show that Langley needs a ‘Push For Change.’

Langley has the third largest homeless population in Metro Vancouver, according to a Metro Vancouver count conducted over two days in March. There were 206 homeless people counted in Langley, signifying a 124 per cent increase in the number of people without permanent shelter since the last count was done in 2014.

And the count in March showed that in Langley, 50 young people were found to be homeless. Of those, 28 counted as ‘unsheltered’ and 22 had some form of shelter.

Roberts said one of the challenges with “sleepy communities like Langley” is that youth homelessness isn’t always visible.

READ MORE: Youth shelter announced for Langley

READ MORE: Students show support for youth shelter

“Youth homeless, like actually sitting on a piece of cardboard, that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Roberts told the Times. “The youth that are at risk, that you don’t see, those are the ones that are really concerning. Youth homelessness begins with couch surfing, it begins with invisible homelessness. And that’s where young people are at their most vulnerable.”

He said there are thousands of young people at risk of becoming homeless who are dealing with issues such as mental health issues, addiction, family conflict, and abuse.

“They are on the fence and they could be, if we don’t get our services wrapped around them, be that next person sitting on cardboard,” Roberts said.

https://youtu.be/DEqia0JMujA?t=20s

Former drug addict

Roberts is no ordinary Joe: he uses his personal experience as a former drug addict and homeless youth in Vancouver.

He turned his life around, got clean, returned to school, and became the successful CEO of a multimedia company.

Roberts’ arrival in Langley will mark 9,019 km into his 9,220 km journey, and by the time The Push for Change arrives in Langley, he will have shared his personal story of transformation with a million Canadians at more than 450 events in 10 provinces and two territories.

He said travelling around the nation has been an extraordinary experience. “Walking across the second widest country on the planet on your own steam is a full time job for 17 months,” he said.

And while the many sights he’s soaked in during his journey are indelible, it’s the people he’s encountered along the way who have impressed him the most.

“It’s not the ocean coastline or the curious wolf who followed me in northern Ontario,” he said.

“It’s not just Canada’s natural beauty, it’s the beauty of its people and our values. As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, I’ve re-fallen in love with this country because of its people. Canadians aren’t short on social justice and rolling up their sleeves on important issues like youth homelessness. That’s what has inspired me the most.”

Roberts said sponsors have stepped up to fully fund the trek, so none of the money raised goes towards operating expenses.

“The money that we’ve raised, which is approximately $550,000, we had a provision to leave some of that in the communities we’ve went through. The half that we have kept, we have forwarded that to our charitable partner, which is Raising the Roof.”

In particular, Push for Change is supporting the Raising the Roof Upstream Project, a youth-based homeless prevention model that “addresses homelessness before it happens, with young people who are at risk but are still in schools,” Roberts explained.

Homelessness costs Canadians

The shopping cart is a symbol of Roberts’ transformation from youth homelessness, a nation-wide problem that takes a toll in many ways.

For example:

• the annual cost to keep a single youth in the shelter system is estimated to be between $30,000-$40,000;

• the cost of keeping a single youth in a detention centre is estimated at $250 a day, or $100,000 a year; and

• Canada’s total homeless population – estimated by government to be 150,000 and by non-governmental agencies to be as high as 300,000 costs taxpayers as much as $7 billion annually.

Grand finale

The Push for Change winds up with the grand finale Sept. 29 at at the Vancouver Public Library, 350 W Georgia St. It will include a ‘Walk with Joe Parade.’

For more about the initiative, or to donate, visit www.thepushforchange.com.