Downtown Mission gets people talking with 24-hour 'Bench Talk'

The Downtown Mission hosted its 24-hour "Bench Talk” outside its Ouellette Avenue location in Windsor, Ont. on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

The Downtown Mission is again hosting its 24-hour “Bench Talk” outside its Ouellette Avenue location.

Community activists and volunteers joined executive director, Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin and Ward 3 Coun. Renaldo Agostino to kick off the annual event which started at 11 a.m. Thursday.

“There are many people who unfortunately do live a life where they can only sit or maybe even sleep on a bench somewhere,” Ponniah-Goulin said. “So this is an opportunity for people to kind of experience that in whatever weather is happening,”

Ponniah-Goulin said she was thankful the weather was mild for this year’s event, noting those less fortunate don’t have a say in what the weather brings.

“This is the event that we bring attention to that,” she said. “Where we allow people to come by, talk to us here as staff, as board members, as community advocates and other community leaders as well who will stop by over the next 24 hours just to learn about the work that we do.”

The fundraiser is intended to get people talking about what’s happening at The Downtown Mission and across the city as the region’s homeless population continues to climb.

The tradition of spending 24 hours outside began several years ago to demonstrate the importance of affordable housing while discussing solutions with residents and community leaders.

Officials said program use at the mission has doubled in just the last year alone, noting the shelter’s food bank is now serving over 2,000 people per month while putting out between 300-600 meals per day.

“We’re seeing a lot more young and older families as well. It’s really heart breaking when you see parents out there with children in tow that get off a bus or out of a cab and come to the food bank and get some food for themselves and their family.”

Ponniah-Goulin said the Windsor Youth Centre use has also doubled in the last year with about 200 young people utilizing their programs each month.

Some of the funds raised this year will help replace the mission’s recently broken dishwasher, she said.

Shortly after the event began, officials with Fulger Transport dropped by, pledging to donate $5,000 a month for the next year to the Mission.

“We’ve donated in the past before,” explained human resources manager Zach Dorland. “But coming here and seeing how much in ‘23 the problems have exasperated and gotten worse, we made a commitment now to have a substantial capital filling in each month for the next year, so hopefully we can help,” Dorland told CTV News.

“If you double the amount of people that need these services, by definition you double the amount of resources and they clearly don’t have them at this point so we’re doing the little bit we can to try and bridge that gap but it takes a whole community to solve that problem,” he said.  

Community members Greg Lemay and Natalie Bourgoin also joined in, saying these are important events to raise money, but also to raise awareness and demonstrate what it's like for the vulnerable population.

“I think it’s just having more people be the voice for those that don’t have any and shinning light to the issues at hand,” Bourgoin said.

“As a community, I do believe in the power of the collective, wholeheartedly.”

Bourgoin said, “having real authentic conversations create ripple effects and you never know whose heart you my touch and honestly at this point, raising awareness but also sharing resources, sharing connections.”

“Just that one conversation with the right person who has the right connection can move mountains, so I think that’s the importance of having these conversations. It’s the ripple effect.”

“Another important thing that I found here is that going back to even the first time I done this, we had some folks that it was their first time attending the mission and now we see them as repetitive people coming back year after year whether they’re donating, whether they involved in different capacity so obviously these conversations work,” Lemay said.

“It’s better than trying to communicate over social media or something like that sot the end of the day these conversations work. It’s proven.”