Group photo cutline:The Caressant Care Nursing Home residents and staff who walked with Joe Roberts (pushing the shopping cart) along Wren Drive in Cobden Wednesday were Lianne Wheeler pushing Murray Lavallee and in the back from the left, Peggy McLeod, Beth Somerville, Ed Stairs, Laurie Graham with Dorothy Delaurier and Chantel Tackney with Evelyn Boisvenue.
by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
COBDEN — Day 1 — On a cool, May 5, 2016, Joe Roberts began pushing a shopping cart along a main road in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It’s a white-painted shopping cart with a placard on the side with the words The Push for Change – Supporting the end of Youth Homelessness.
Day 151 – He was meeting with residents of Caressant Care at the corner of Wren Drive and Truelove Street in Cobden. The residents had gathered to meet him and walk with him along Wren Drive back to their home where he spoke to them and then enjoyed a barbecue.
In an opening to the residents, Alexis Alexander, Caressant Care Cobden administrator, said Joe Roberts is known as the Skid Row CEO.
“In 1989, Mr. Roberts was a homeless skid row addict, and today, he is an author, CEO and internationally sought-after professional speaker offering motivation and inspiration,” she said.
Joe recalled 34 years ago when he was a homeless youth. At a young age, he and his mother were left alone when his father died. She remarried, but the man was abusive and dependent on alcohol. Joe ended up on the streets as a homeless youth.
But, he didn’t dwell on that story for the residents. He spoke about who he represents and how to help the 67 percent of youth who do end up on the streets and how to stop that from happening.
“I was fortunate enough to escape homelessness and despair,” he said. “I came from a very normal, middle-class family.
“I represent one of 67 percent of young Canadians who end up being homeless because of family situations. It can happen to anyone.”
Joe has told his story many times since beginning his journey on May 1. Before coming to Cobden on Wednesday, he met with students at Madawaska Valley District High School in Barry’s Bay and at a high school Renfrew.
“Since leaving St. John’s, Newfoundland, I’ve had the pleasure of addressing tens of thousands of Canadians on the importance of the issue of supporting young people at an early stage so they don’t become homeless,” Joe said.
The young people need support and resources to successfully transition into adulthood, he said. For Joe, the best way is to walk across Canada and inspire Canadians, because it seems those who trek across this country do inspire others.
“Canadians have a model for engaging,” he said. “They run across the country. It’s been happening for 37 years, ever since, in my opinion, the greatest Canadian who ever walked or ran across the country attempted to do so.
“When I was 13 years old, I was in Barrie, Ontario, when Terry Fox came through,” Joe recalled. “And he left his mark on this country in a very powerful way. He showed us that if you have the courage to stand up for something, in the face of insurmountable obstacles, you can make a difference.”
Since the run across Canada was so successful for Terry, Joe decided to do that very same thing. Every day since May 1 he has walked 24 kilometres. He has gone through 10 pairs of running shoes. He figures by Sept. 30, 2017, the last day of his walk, he will have sported between 25 to 30 different pairs of running shoes.
“Today is Day one-hundred-and-fifty-one and I’ve already walked 2,919 kilometres,” he told those gathered in the Home.
But, he’s not travelling alone. His new wife Marie manages the campaigns and there is a driver for the van.
Joe explained that while he walks 24 kilometres each day, there are other days when he’s also engaging in various activities in other communities. Explaining, he said on this Day 151, he was in Barry’s Bay, Renfrew and Cobden – however, he did not walk to those places. He was driven there and then met with the people and walked for a bit, like along Wren Drive in Cobden.
When the trek becomes hard, Joe admits he just has to remember why he’s doing it and each step becomes easier.
“It’s for those young people who are the underdogs, who need someone to be a voice for them, to be an advocate for them, and so, we’ll continue to Push for Change through the rain, through the snow, through an Ontario winter and through the next one year and several days until we get into Vancouver on Sept. 30,” he said, continuing, “There will never be another Day 151 and there will never be another day like this one.”
Joe recalled when he crossed from Quebec into Ontario.
“When we came over the border into Ontario, we met with our greatest community safety partner in this country, the Ontario Province Police, who are very committed to the safety and transition of every young person in this province and beyond,” Joe said.
When in Hawkesbury, he had the opportunity to walk the streets with “Canada’s greatest hockey dad, Walter Gretzky.” While famed hockey player Wayne Gretzky could not walk the streets with the two men, he did make a $10,000 donation to The Push for Change through the Gretzky Foundation.
“I said to Walter as we walked through the streets of Hawkesbury, ‘Walter, if every kid in this country had you as a dad, had that role model, to teach resiliency, to teach them to continue to practice and never give up, we wouldn’t have young people ending up on the streets – but we do.
“The sad reality is, not every young person in this country has Walter Gretzky, or my mom, and so we continue to Push for Change.”
Joe said he was at Caressant Care since it is a corporate sponsor of the Push for Change and is hopeful of visiting every Caressant Care home.
“Sponsors are important in the work we do,” he said. “Our sponsors pay all of our bills, which means 100 percent of all the dollars we raise goes towards supporting our cause. None of the money we collect goes to pay for our trek. It is covered by our sponsors.”
The Love Story
Marie Marcoux-Roberts, his wife, recalls the story of them.
As teenagers, the two dated when they were in Grade 10 in a Barrie high school. They broke up and each went their own way. Marie married, had two children; Joe married.
When Marie was divorcing her husband, she decided to google Joe Roberts and see what happened to him. When his name came up that he had been a homeless youth and was now a motivational speaker, she found it hard to believe.
But, she contacted him and found out it was true. They decided to meet since Joe was coming to Toronto for a speaking engagement.
“We met for dinner to catch up,” she said, adding, “Ironically, he was at the end of his first marriage too.
“We met, had a platonic dinner, went for a walk and caught up. He went back to Vancouver and I went back to my home.”
Over the next few months, they kept in contact through emails and texting.
“Within weeks we knew we had a lot in common and fell in love long distance. That was in the fall of 2012.”
In the summer of 2013, Joe moved to Barrie, they purchased a house, and she quit her accounting job and joined him in his speaking business.
On March 27, 2016, they married.
“This is our honeymoon. It’s really kind of neat … this campaign is a labour of love for both of us.”
Joe’s Story
And while Joe may be a successful businessman, Marie said it wasn’t always that way, and began telling a story familiar to her.
She recalled that four days before Christmas in 1989, Joe had hit bottom. He was living on the streets in Vancouver and it was a cold and rainy day. He needed drugs but had no money. He sold his boots.
“Walking up the street, he was completely humiliated and broken as a human being,” Marie said. “He felt a lot of shame. He said the only thing that had pity on him that day was the rain that was covering the tears of shame.”
Stopping on the street corner, Joe prayed to God, admitting he was at his lowest point in his life and was ready to change, if God would help him.
“Joe said, ‘If you open the door, even a little bit, I promise to run through.’”
The next day, Joe walked into a Salvation Army soup kitchen and told the guy working he wanted help. Excited, the man asked how he could help. Joe said his mom lives in Barrie and would help him if only someone would contact her for him.
“They connected with her and she flew to Vancouver, scooped him up and brought him back home. Joe did six months of detox in residential treatment and then went back to college.”
He was 24 years old at the time – and now he’s 49, she said.
“He succeeded beyond what he thought he would in the business world,” Marie said. “Within 12 years, he went from the kid pushing a shopping cart on the street to finding himself on the cover of Canadian Business magazine and the MacLeans magazine.”
But, he still felt empty inside, she said.
“He remembered when he was on the street corner and said the street corner prayer, that if he was ever to get his life back, he would do something to pay it forward,” she said. “He left the business world and went into speaking, to share his story. And now, 13 years later, the Push for Change idea has become true. It’s about how to help others who are experiencing homelessness. It’s not because they are bad kids but because they are coming from a bad place.”
Marie explained that Push for Change is investing in prevention, they are working to prevent youth homelessness through Raising the Roof, a charitable partner. They have begun Upstream Project, which is a school-based, youth homeless prevention model that works inside the school system, because every youth who ends up on the streets was in school, she explained.
To keep informed of Joe’s journey, check out Push for Change on facebook, twitter and the website.
