Aarian Bhakoo | April 15, 2021
Some answers have been edited or cut down for clarity.
This new club at The Woodlands brings a unique mix of educating, raising awareness and holding events, all for the cause of homelessness and related social problems. They will continue to bring forth new events and new ideas, all with the goal to "pass it on, pass it on., pass it on...".
My first touchpoint with the Hot Potato Initiative was an Instagram post that happened to cross my eyes one December evening, a three slide mission statement and description chock-full of eye-catching visuals. Intrigue got the better of me, and now, four months later, I find myself interviewing the executive committee of one of Woodlands’ newest clubs, a source of innovation and discussion among not just the local school committee, but Ontario at large. In fact, according to Chapter President Angela Wu, Woodlands is home to one of the first chapters of the Hot Potato Initiative outside of British Columbia, and to them, that leap forward comes with a very special significance.
“Starting a flagship chapter of any club in any other province, it’s a lot of work in the beginning.” explained Outreach Officer Yaoxiang Song. “For us, the significance is that we’re really trying to promote an image of the HPI actually bringing lessons about people experiencing homelessness...we’re really trying to promote the idea of being more accessible to individuals experiencing homelessness in our community, and the actions we as privileged members of society can take to better raise awareness.”
It seems as if this movement came out of nowhere; in less than four months, the chapter has amassed an executive committee, a general member body of over 30 students, and their first charitable event; a Masterchef-style home cooking competition raising funds for Youth Without Shelter. However, the roots of Woodlands’ HPI chapter stretch back much farther, all the way to 2016, when a group of high school students in Burnaby, BC founded a non-profit organization with the goal of educating and engaging Canadian youth on the topic of homelessness and social inequality. Four years of steady growth later, the time was ripe for the organization’s first venture outside of the province. “Last summer, the Initiative was recruiting for both ambassadors and chapter presidents.” Angela explained as I stayed busy taking notes. “I applied as an ambassador, and then they offered me a position as a chapter president instead. I was like “...Okay!”. Basically, I just applied to the Hot Potato Initiative in BC, their official base. From there, over the summer, they prepared us on how to run events, what kind of vocabulary and terminology to use, what kind of standards we should set for the year and how to lead our chapter. As we moved on into the school year, in between sorting through all the admin issues like getting approved and getting a staff sponsor, we were able to start up exec applications.”
In addition to this timeline, Angela also had plenty to explain about how the organization has changed since its foundation. “Since 2016, a lot of the original founding members have gone on to become board members, and they're now in university and leading all these other parts of the Hot Potato Initiative. In terms of our chapter, we're a part of something called the Engagement Portfolio, which means that we engage with students in high schools, we're the ones who deliver content, run fundraisers and get the students engaged with the conversation.”
Engagement is a large part of the Hot Potato Initiative’s aims. To them, it is not enough to simply raise funds or be charitable, as incredibly important as those two things are. They want their members (and the student populace at large) to be fully educated and informed on the topic of social inequality and homelessness, and to create a new attitude and mindset towards these issues as well.
“We’re trying to get some of those individuals in our school or the members themselves involved in the understanding and learning of lessons on homelessness, and how we can more rapidly reconcile these stereotypes that we were taught in our households,” Yaoxiang elaborated, speaking on what sets the HPI apart from other clubs focused on social activism. “I think that it gives us a lot of room to really explore more of the options given that we're just a new chapter. Not only are we starting on events and fundraising, but we're also giving lessons to our own members, which is something that’s new.
“It's a bit mundane when you don't actually give your members the reason why they are raising funds. If you're only going to conduct a few fundraisers, it doesn't really have any significance or meaning backing it up. So I think that HPI, in its own way, is kind of unconventional, and we're really trying to think of quirky ideas, especially with the Masterchef event. And that's something that you don't see anyone else doing, a cooking event. We're hoping it will really appeal to the student population. So we're trying to go about HPI as not just another club raising charity funds, but also teaching lessons and finding some new events that we can promote to our school community.”
Of course, the Masterchef Event was on every exec’s mind during the call, and even on my own. Fortunately, they were happy to share the fine details with me, including where such a wild idea came from. “In some of our early exec meetings, we were brainstorming about what sort of events we want to run this year, what can really engage the student body in a different way compared to what others have done, and the idea of Masterchef came up.” explained Victoria Chakma, the chapter’s Logistics Officer. “We all agreed that this would be a good way for HPI to be introduced to the Woodlands. The event is essentially what the name suggests, it's going to be a cooking competition, like Masterchef. The actual competition aspect will happen from April 12th to 16th, those are the days that we're judging. After that, we'll be editing together our own episode of Masterchef to share with the Woodlands community.”
“The event is a fundraiser, but the major goal is to raise awareness of both HPI as a club, as an organization, as well as the fundraising aspects of it, which is to actually raise money to fund for care packages that we're going to donate to Youths Without Shelter.” chimed in Abhinav Balasubramanian, the chapter’s Finance Officer. “In the Masterchef video, there's gonna be like an educational portion of it, which discusses food insecurity. It really ties back to the HPI’s mission of raising awareness. It tackles three goals at the same time.”
Indeed, the HPI is never narrow in their field of activism. To them, it’s not just about addressing homelessness, but also the causes, the perpetrators, the impacts tied to that homelessness, whether that be food insecurity, prejudice, or another issue entirely. A clearer picture of an individual experiencing homelessness invites empathy and humanization, and encourages a community’s involvement in doing their part to become educated on and to address the issue. It’s something that is always important, even more so in the current world we live in. According to the Toronto-based Fred Victor charity, there are some 10,000 individuals experiencing homelessness at any given night in Toronto alone, and significant increases in unemployment and economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the loss of multiple homeless shelters due to public health concerns, has left the Canadian homeless population in a precarious position.
Responsibility calls, and fortunately, the HPI is intent on answering. “It's really important for us, especially as a high school club, because it's best to educate and inform people when their minds are still a little more impressionable as adolescents” explains Louise Meriel, the chapter’s Logistics Officer. “I think it is very important because sometimes - not sometimes, a lot of the time - people can overlook the effects that something as big as this can have on people outside of their immediate circle, or people outside of their specific socioeconomic class. Putting awareness into our event is super important because it sort of enhances people's perspectives on the situation and kind of gives them a bit of a chance to change. It really just opens people's eyes to what's going on around them. And like Angela said, since we're part of the engagement group, we hope that this awareness really encourages more empathy in general towards those that are experiencing homelessness.”
“All the proceeds are going into buying highly needed items for youth experiencing homelessness, and we really wanted this event to advocate for students or student-aged individuals just like us, who are going through like so many struggles and who are offered very little support, especially in the pandemic.” Angela further elaborated. “We really want to communicate that this is our student body’s chance to make a tangible difference and be there to support others in our community who are our age and who we can relate to. I think that our advocacy does play a large role in the middle of the pandemic and in the middle of all the issues that individuals experiencing homelessness are going through.”
Of course, this is all in the present day, and the HPI doesn’t just have plans to stay locked in the present. According to Chapter Secretary Kaitlyn Yu, they have many plans and goals for the future, ones that they hope to go down multiple avenues with. “Our overarching goal is definitely just to keep having conversations, reach more people with our conversations. I think we want to also focus on self awareness. In our meetings, we'll talk about things like prejudice and discrimination - it's almost a self reflection of sorts. So from there, we can just keep passing on this knowledge or these perspectives on the big issue of homelessness. As for more specific goals, we are planning to host two more events for sure, and we hope for increased engagement with each one. We got a late start this year, so we’re aiming for more than three events next year, for sure.”.
However, for now, the plan doesn’t extend to institutional change, mainly grassroots movements. “HPI is a relatively new foundation, so as far as I'm aware, there are no moves yet to advocate for certain policies and on an institutional level, or a legal level.” explains Angela. “But we are taking part in a lot of different initiatives. I think the focus right now is to really impact our neighborhoods, and reach small circles so that they can expand on their own later on. So for example, one thing that HPI as a whole has run is like a sleepout. Another thing is a collaboration with a local cafe where they put educational stickers on all the coffee cups so that people could spark a conversation whenever they get a coffee. Continuing with little initiatives like that is the goal for the next few months.”
It was a fruitful interview for certain, one that was a learning experience for everyone involved. But, the one thing that both myself and the entire Woodstock team wanted to know about the executive committee was the personal connection, the personal motivation to participate in an initiative like this. The answers were perspective-changing.
According to Angela, it came from a desire to bridge the gaps between those experiencing homelessness and the greater community, all stemming from one particular experience - the sonder. “Sonder it basically means that when you're walking on the street, you get this realization that every single passerby has a very complex life of their own. They have all these different experiences, they live a different childhood, they believe in different things, they are going through different relationships with people; like everyone has a very complex life, right? This concept of individual experience has always interested me a lot. I think that this concept is the most lost when it comes to individuals experiencing homelessness, because we can see through our own prejudices, we can to alienate them or exclude them. Not even just from our physical locations, but also from our minds, when we don’t treat them as people, and I feel like that's a very harmful mindset to have.
“Communities are supposed to be there to support one another and raise one another up and care for one another, and so I felt that homelessness and the conversation about it was something that had to happen. It's such a perpetual and constant problem across all timelines and across all nations and all communities, and so I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to start addressing this problem. I was immediately drawn to the Hot Potato Initiative and clear and determined these other students were in this exact same mission.”
Yaoxiang had more to add. “It’s great to be actually able to contribute to this community and contribute to society. From a privilege standpoint, we may think the amount of money we raised for charity is trivial to ourselves, but to those experiencing homelessness, it might mean something completely different. Even if I make a small impact, even if this club doesn't become as big as we want, we're still making an impact. Any impact is worth it, whether it’s to educate these people or it's to simply raise money, I think that nothing is trivial. It is all worth my time, and I just believe that overall, being a high school student, you should actually do more than just learn.”
It was an illuminating experience for both myself and the rest of the Woodstock team. It’s one thing to be taught a lesson, but to be taught in such a comfortable, two-way dialogue with incredibly motivated, passionate, and inspiring young leaders was truly a privilege. I came away from this conversation with new insight into one of Woodlands’ newest clubs, but more importantly, I came away with self-reflection on my standing in the world and the way I interact with the less fortunate around me, and I hope that students who read this piece can come away with some of the same conclusions. We would like to thank the Woodlands Hot Potato Initiative for sitting down and making this conversation possible, and wish them good luck and success with their Masterchef event, the final video of which is going to be coming out in the very near future.
Check out The Woodlands HPI chapter at their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hpi.woodlands/?hl=en
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