Doing good things feels good, doesn’t it? One could argue a good deed is a selfish act because of the satisfaction it can garner in an individual. If being a good person and doing good things is selfish, then so be it, be selfish!
Stenberg College’s Community Mental Health and Addictions Worker (CMHAW) program is comprised of people who want to make the world a better place. Apparently, they’re all very selfish! From students, to instructors, to grads, this program is all about assisting individuals with mental health, housing and addiction challenges.
The Community Mental Health and Addictions Worker program is made up of students who take the initiative to start clothing drives because they empathize with the 3,600 homeless who have to sleep outside in the cold. It’s made up of instructors who work through people’s challenges with them, because they can and because they care. It’s made up of grads who work on the front line, providing services to the homeless and the addicted in hopes of working toward a better future.
Inspired
Stenberg College was inspired by the acts of humanity and kindness displayed by the CMHAW group to host Be the Change: Changing Attitudes | Seeking Solutions | Taking Action on March 16 and 17 at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster. Fifteen internationally renowned speakers will discuss the topics of Truth and Reconciliation, Homelessness, The Opioid Crisis, and Resistance Resilience and Recovery over these two days.
It’s time
Speakers will address the 150,000 kids taken away from their families and placed in government-funded, church-run residential schools. They will talk about the 30 per cent increase in homelessness in Metro Vancouver since 2014. Speakers will plea for “the most tragic year ever” of overdose deaths in BC to come to an end.
More importantly, they will talk about solutions. They will give you the power you need to do something. To be selfish. To be the change.
