Turning a classroom in the Robbins Health Learning Centre into a mini-assembly line featuring balled-up thermal socks, warm gloves and weatherproof backpacks has become an important yearly initiative at MacEwan. 

The backpacks are put together and given to those who need these essentials to survive. Soon, the initiative known as Life Kits will take place twice a year, a sign of just how important and well-received the effort has become in just a few years.

Dr. David Danto, dean of the Faculty of Health and Community Studies, came up with the idea for Life Kits shortly after joining MacEwan in 2022. 

“We know that there are health-related crises that are faced by people who are living rough or experiencing houselessness in the Edmonton area,” says Dr. Danto. “This is about community engagement and this creates an opportunity for our faculty, students and staff to all be involved in supporting our neighbours in the downtown.”

Backpacks are donated, along with cold-weather necessities, such as blankets, toques and handwarmers, to fill them up. Volunteers spend an afternoon putting about 100 Life Kits together and then Boyle Street Community Services takes care of distribution to people who need them in the downtown core.

That involvement also extends to another community organization – the Kinsmen Club of Edmonton recently doubled its monetary donation to the project. This $6,000 contribution allows the Life Kits program to take place twice a year, in advance of cold weather and just before the warmer temperatures set in – a time that often sees a drop off in donations for vulnerable communities.

“MacEwan is a great example of people who identify a need and then step in to address it,” says Kassidy Green, Bachelor of Social Work ’19, and manager of development for Boyle Street. “It’s really important just to listen to our community about what they actually need and  to action that alongside the staff and the students who are interested in building a better and more inclusive community for everyone. 

“People who are living rough are often treated as invisible and this event is focused on their needs and what they need to make it through winter,” says Dr. Danto. ‘That’s incredibly helpful and inspiring not just for our staff, but ultimately for the people who will get these Life Kits.”  

Dr. Danto says he’s particularly pleased that the partnership with Boyle Street has grown and credits graduates, like Green, who have gone on to work with the community services organization.

“We have students who are placed at Boyle Street in work-integrated learning experiences that are part of their education, we have faculty members who have affiliation with Boyle Street and we are both downtown Edmonton organizations.”

Early on, when Dr. Danto first conceived of the Life Kits idea, he had an occasion to step back and realize the importance of what they were doing.

“The reality sort of hit me while looking at this mountain of donated sleeping bags and backpacks that overtook my office. These are all actual pieces of usable cold-weather equipment that, in a matter of weeks, will be out there in the hands of people who really need it and for whom it’s going to make a real difference. I think about that often  – it’s easy to get lost in the abstractions of it and the internal operations of a project, but when you think about how much a person needs warm mittens and a hat on some of these cold days in the winter, it’s humbling to think of the impact that it can have within our community.”