Covenant House Sleep Out | On Location

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Hello and welcome to real men.
Feel this is a very different

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real men feel.
This is the first time on

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location, I'm your host.
Andy Grant author.

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Coach Halen speaker to visit the
integrate.com to learn more

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about me, but probably
wondering.

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What the heck am I doing today
actually?

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Tonight, it's about 11:30 p.m.
November 17th at the Covenant

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House sleep out in Boxborough.
Massachusetts, I'm part of a

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team Boston for Cisco.
And this is the first time, That

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the Boston area has done the
sleepout people sleep out for

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one night and solidarity with
homeless Youth Of America and of

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the world actually, and we
raised money.

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And this is the been the first
fundraiser.

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I've been a part of since I
think I was in the seventh

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grade.
I did some sort of walkathon

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thing, but I think I've my goal
was $5000.

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The last I checked.
I think I was like at forty

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eight hundred dollars, maybe
something like that.

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Overall my company.
Cisco worldwide. 750 Cisco nians

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are sleeping out tonight and
they raised Over one and a half

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million dollars.
This is just amazing and it's 32

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degrees right now, the forecast
as low as 26.

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The there are wind gusts of like
25.

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It's just it's one nights like
big deal.

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I know, I can go home tomorrow.
I know you know I had dinner

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tonight.
I'll be warm tomorrow morning.

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I'm going to be fine and this is
all done to raise money, and

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bring awareness to people that
aren't fine.

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And that don't have a choice and
are out in the street

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struggling, each and every
night.

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And Covenant House gives those
young people ages, 18 to 21

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somewhere to go a hand up and
they give way it's way more than

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the shelter.
There's a whole program and I'm

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going to be talking different
people tonight overnight in the

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morning.
Good document, my own experience

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here I have done, plenty of
fries outs, do a lot of camping,

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trips my buddies, but I realized
getting ready for night.

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I'm always drunk at those.
So this is my first sober

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freezing experience and it's
going to be, it's gonna be

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great.
Covenant House is someone that I

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donated to already before I even
discovered that Cisco was a big

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corporate sponsor and that this
sleepout was even a thing.

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So I was very excited to be part
of this and to be here when I

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was 18 and 19 years old, you
know, I was kicked out of my

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house and it was, you know,
neighbors took me in for a

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while.
Then I was living in my dad's

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basement for a while and, you
know, things could have gone a

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lot worse and things do get a
lot worse for a lot of people.

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I've had plenty of room and feel
guest that talked about, you

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know, They hit rough times then
they got them when they were

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homeless and things, got even
rougher.

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So it's nothing glamorous about
living on the streets.

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The sleepout is not about
pretending to be homeless, it's

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not about pretending one night
out.

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Here was anything about the
experience is just to raise

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awareness and to raise funds.
So that's what we're doing.

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My name is Jovan and ran, I'm
the chief development officer

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and I've been with Kevin house
for 23 years since 1999.

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Tonight, we are doing our first
sleep out in Boston and so the

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sleepout program has been part
of our movement for the past 13

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years.
And this is our very first time

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of gathering folks together in
Boston who care about homeless

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young people and helping them to
change their lives.

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But and sleep out is, is this
one night a year, but it happens

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worldwide or only in Boston.
Now, it happens.

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Worldwide.
Yep, we tonight, we are first.

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I got the first picture of our
first team of sleepers, in Japan

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at noon, eastern time today.
And it's happening.

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I'm all the way through to the
evening in Mexico and California

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in Vancouver in Alaska and that
will and then time zones in

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between.
So we're all over the place

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tonight.
Out.

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So, and what is, what is the
point of asleep out?

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Yep.
Why is anyone doing this?

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Well, we do it, for two reasons.
One is to raise awareness about

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the problem of Youth
homelessness, which often goes

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undiscussed and unseen.
And the second is to raise money

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to support the programs of
Covenant House that are helping

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young people to turn their lives
around.

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And all of it is with being in
solidarity, with young people

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who are experiencing
homelessness, it's not intended

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at all to mimic or End that we
can even begin to experience in

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one night under safe conditions,
what?

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It's like to experience,
homelessness, but to sleep

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outside and lose some of the
Comforts of home and solidarity.

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What's the age range of people
that might find themselves in a

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company house?
Yep, in the United States and

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Canada.
It's largely young people who

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are between the ages of 18 and
21.

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And so in those two countries,
the foster care system typically

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cuts off at age 18 And so at
that point, if a young person

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doesn't have a family and isn't
equipped, as my 19 year, old

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isn't equipped to live
independently that's when they

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often find themselves homeless.
And so, that's where the Cliff

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of services often ends.
Is on the 18th birthday.

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In the four countries, where we
serve in Latin America, we serve

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young people who are much
younger and so that range is

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about the advert, he's about 14.
So it's 10 to 18 is the age in

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Latin America, really for this.
Same reason, that that's where

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Services cliff and Covenant
House, has to stop them.

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What are you saving people from,
right?

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Yeah, it's a great question.
It's such an intersectionality

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of so many issues as rarely.
Rarely a young person comes to

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us with one problem, right?
And so, sometimes that's the

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case, but that's especially the
case.

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When mental health is the
primary issue is that sometimes

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that is just too much for our
family to Bear especially a

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family that may already have
modest means or be overwhelmed.

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And so but mental health is I'm
a big component where families

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can't often care or therefore
the, the mental health runs in

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the family.
And so, there is a prevalence of

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mental illness that drives young
people to us.

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The biggest common denominator
is goes without saying, is

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poverty that, it's young people
who are coming from homes, where

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there's been, chronic poverty,
or there's been a crisis in the

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family that has led to, you
know, an impoverished situation,

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a death of a parent, a divorce,
the abandonment job loss.

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You know, the recessions and
such, you know, impact, the

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communities where we serve,
young parenting is another

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through line through the a lot
of the young people who we

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serve, and not just young women,
but young men, as well as a

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major critical risk factor of
homelessness among young people

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is if their parenting a child
alone.

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And so, most of our programs
have the option to bring in a

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child or to move to another one
of our programs that That does

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to really stop that cycle of
homelessness.

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And then, of course, you know,
the, the demographic risk

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factors when it when it
intersects with with race,

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majority of the young people who
we serve are black, Hispanic or

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of indigenous population.
So, young people of color, the

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lgbtq population is dramatically
disproportionately represented

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among homeless Youth and, you
know, often it's family,

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rejection or not, finding In
their place within their

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Community.
But most often It's a

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combination of many of those
factors that have a young person

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find their way to us.
For younger that are on the

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streets, is it roughly 5050 men
and women or who you know who

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comes to you and does does
actually get some help as his,

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what's the breakdown?
Yeah, it is about 50/50.

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Yeah, yeah, and some of our
communities, they're more young

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women in some.
There are more people who

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identify as young men.
Like there's, you know but it's

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you know, overall it is about
half and half.

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Yeah.
Is the sleepout always November

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17th or is it always the is
intentionally the week before

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Thanksgiving.
We always we always have our

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biggest one the Thursday before
Thanksgiving when we first

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started it.
The second or third year in.

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I remember one of our
participants saying as long as

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young people are homeless, I
will be sleeping outside the

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Thursday before, Thanksgiving.
And that's really always

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resonated with me as just an
important time one.

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Because in much of the world
that, you know, it's the

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beginning of it being incredibly
cold out as it is here.

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And but, but also, you know,
kicks off the That season of,

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you know, people, you know,
gathering with their families

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and thinking about how to be be
generous and supportive of

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others.
But we also do have, anybody can

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participate in a sleep out by
going on our website, coven

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house, dot, org, and doing
asleep at at any time, we have

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TurnKey programs where people
get set up a fundraising page.

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And we have programming there
that folks can do with their

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family, their church group tour,
their Girl Scout Troop and all

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to to Awareness and raise money
for our young people and then we

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do other ones.
We had one last week, our stage

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and Screen sleep out, which is
Broadway, performers and actors.

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Who, who participate the
actress?

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Rachel Brosnahan The Marvelous
mrs.

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Maisel is the one who leads that
she's been doing it for 10 years

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and and she recruits a bunch of
folks to participate in that.

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So we do different ones
throughout the year, but this is

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our big one.
I think the most important thing

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to remember is that there really
is.

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The really is There's that
there's no difference between

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the young people who are, who I
see every day at covenant house

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and the four teenagers who I'm
raising in my own home.

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But for the luck of the draw,
the family, they were born into,

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and the circumstances that have
hit my family, in the

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circumstances that have avoided,
my family, and so, and the same

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could be true for every one of
the young people, Covenant House

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serves, and every one of our own
families.

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And so in a, in a country in a
world that so / In so many ways.

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This is a place like this is a
movement that every single

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person can get behind and feel
good about that.

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These young people, all they
want is what we all want for our

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children and for our families is
happiness, normalcy.

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Have some fun and, you know,
live healthy lives together.

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The sleepout is what what little
sleeping out there was for me is

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over.
It's a I think it's like 5:20 in

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the morning it's 28 degrees.
I feel really good.

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It was, it was not a pleasant
night.

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It was very cold.
All my, my all my stuff, my

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limited stuff is covered in
Frost.

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I've been awake since for, I
think I might have slept from,

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like, 1:30 to 2:30 solid.
And then just like a lot of

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fitful naps, hard to get
comfortable.

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My box, picking was not ideal.
My box was just exactly as wide

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as my.
And so I couldn't, I couldn't

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even I couldn't move.
Well I couldn't even I couldn't

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even move my arms.
Enough to zip up my sleeping

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bag.
So But what with all that said,

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it was a really cool night.
You know, spiritually,

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emotionally.
Not just weather-wise a lot of

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amazing people here.
I have like four 15.

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I went inside and was just
chatting more with the staff

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learning more about Covenant
House and the history and all

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the services and just the
turnarounds that they've been

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able to do for.
So many young people last night

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we broke up in different I'm
smaller breakout groups and got

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to hear from from to alumni of
the Covenant House from New York

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City Maya and Nikita Nikita has
gone on to get her master's

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degree and counseling.
So, yeah, this is an amazing

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group and amazing cause, and by
being privately funded by not

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relying on government at all,
they get to do what they think

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is, right for, Each person that
they come into contact with it's

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really cool.
I think I would doing this each

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year.
I feel.

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It's weird.
I feel so grateful.

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I'm Ivan.
I don't know why I guess there's

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for everything that that this
that a, you know, a crappy night

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of sleep in the cold on the
pavement outside is just like,

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you know, I choose to do it, I
don't have to do it, you know,

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and by making that choice, like
I can appreciate everything else

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that I can choose.
So be good to yourself. be good

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to each other, and I invite you
to have with more compassion for

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the people you might see on the
streets.