Volunteers still needed for Nanaimo Point-in-Time Count: United Way BC
Rushton (pictured) said there are roles for everyone. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
Leading up to the 2024 Nanaimo Point-in-Time Count, United Way BC says they are still looking for more volunteers to help with the count.
The Point-in-Time (PiT) Count is a survey that captures a community-level snapshot of people facing homelessness to estimate the minimum number of people experiencing homelessness in a typical 24 hours.
This year, the PiT Count is run by the Snuneymuxw First Nation with support from United Way BC and the City of Nanaimo. The count is funded by the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy.
The count relies on participation from community members and volunteers to help conduct the survey over a one-day period. This year the count will be held on Tuesday, November 26.
CHLY spoke with Julie Rushton, director of community impact and investment for United Way BC about the role volunteers play in getting the information needed from the count.
Rushton said the count is used to account for the number of people experiencing homelessness to support accurate community planning.
“So we take the data and we really look at what is happening in our community,” Rushton said. “How are people experiencing homelessness, and what are some of the supports that can be put in place locally to address these issues and to support people to find secure, safe, long-term housing.”
The Point-in-Time Count happens about every three years across the country, but this year in Nanaimo, the count will be conducted only a year after the last one. Rushton said this is because the federal government wants to get all communities that do the count across the country on the same schedule for conducting the survey.
“So it's really the reason why we're doing it so close to the last one, is this information is crucial in our community and federal planning,” Rushton said. “We really want to ensure that we're in alignment so that everyone is on the same path towards collecting this research.”
She said this will allow all communities to be caught up to the same schedule by the next PiT Count in 2027.
United Way BC is currently looking for more volunteers to help conduct the count in Nanaimo on Tuesday, November 26. Currently, only 70 volunteers have signed up and 30 more volunteers are needed for the count.
Rushton said volunteers are crucial for the count to happen.
“It's really important that we have volunteers because volunteers are the ones that go out alongside the rest of the committee to really ask those questions in [the] community and to understand the work of the point in time count so that they are able to be culturally relevant,” she said.
There are training sessions offered for volunteers at two different times leading up to the count. The first one is tonight, Thursday, November 21 at the City of Nanaimo’s Service and Resource Centre (SARC) located at 411 Dunsmuir Street from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The training will also be offered at the SARC building on Saturday, November 23 from 10:00 a.m. to Noon.
The training will allow the volunteers to learn about trauma-informed approaches for the count, as well as cultural considerations and appropriateness.
Rushton said that this year, with the count being led by the Snuneymuxw First Nation, they are excited that culture will be leading the way in terms of the count. She said as Indigenous people are usually overrepresented in the PiT Count it is important that it is done through a cultural lens.
For how the count could go on Tuesday, Rushton said volunteers are asked to meet at the SARC building at 9:30 a.m. and then will be given a route to take the surveys to ask questions to those in the community. The SARC building will be used as the headquarters for the PiT Count for the whole day.
She said there are roles for everyone including ones that do not require someone to conduct the surveys.
“It takes a village to really raise a community, and we require all hands on deck to be supporting our neighbours who are experiencing homelessness. We're looking for people to help with survey counting at the site,” Rushton said. “We're looking for help with people travelling to some of the locations where our neighbours experiencing homelessness have set up. We're looking for site locations–so set up and take down, and then just some logistics around food transportation as well between the different sites.
The shift will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with lunch provided and finished with a space for volunteers to debrief.
“At the end of the day, we also have an opportunity for debriefing,” Rushton said. “So some volunteers will hear quite traumatic stories, and so we want to make sure that we're able to support them in the debriefing of those stories.”
Volunteers can sign up leading up to Monday night before the count, but Rushton recommends people sign up early to be able to go to either of the training shifts.
“Really important that community comes together for this, because we are all in this together, and our people who are experiencing homelessness really require their fellow neighbours to come out and support any of the work happening to reduce homelessness in the community,” she said.
Along with volunteers walking through the community conducting the surveys, PiT Counts will also be counted at the Nanaimo Family Life Association’s shower program at Caledonia Park, the Nanaimo North Vancouver Island Regional Library, and during a BBQ hosted by the Snuneymuxw First Nation located downtown at One Port Drive.
People can sign up to volunteer for the Nanaimo Point-in-Time Count on Tuesday, November 26 on the United Way’s iVolunteer website.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.