On November 9th, Hartford Bags of Love hosted their annual ‘Sleep Out for Homelessness’ in Nevers Park in order to raise awareness and bring attention to the issue of homelessness.
Hartford Bags of Love is a non-profit organization started by Tiernan Cabot when he was 9 years old. His organization was started with the help of his parents, and jump-started right from the beginning. The components of his organization are the bags of love, little free pantries and the annual sleep out. Each of these contribute to battling homelessness and aiding the community in order to provide more resources for homeless individuals.
One of the most impactful events hosted by the Hartford Bags of Love is their annual sleep out. It started at 5 pm, at Nevers Park in South Windsor. The sleep out consists of two parts: the sleep out, and a public speaking forum. Anyone can participate in this event, all they have to do is show up. For the sleep out, participants brought tents, boxes, blankets and other necessities in order to bear the cold of the November night. The public speaking forum is also open to whomever, and consisted of two main speakers, Sharon Redfern from the Cornerstone Foundation in Vernon, and State Representative Tom Delnicki.
The goal for this event isn’t to pretend to be homeless, but rather appreciate what more fortunate individuals have, and experience one night of braving the cold in order to further appreciate that fact.
“So we wanted to have a night of empathy and a night of realizing how lucky we are and how the issue truly thrives to this day,” Cabot stated.
This being the biggest event they hold annually, this sense of empathy and raising awareness brings together the community and lets others who share a passion for helping the issue of homelessness come together and talk freely amongst each other.
When asked about how this event connects people, Cabot told The Prowl, “Yeah, absolutely. I think for me personally it’s been incredible to see it, you feel very connected being with these people, talking about the same issue. You spend a night because it’s not, unfortunately, something you hear about often. I think the majority of people aren’t constantly thinking about it in the same way that some people here are”.
By being able to converse about this topic with others in similar concern to this issue, brainstorming, intellectual conversations, and even new solutions can arise.
In addition to the sleep out, Hartford Bags of Love hosts different events throughout the year, including the bags of love, the name of the organization, the little free food pantries for the homeless or less fortunate set up around the area and public forums. The public forums are a great opportunity to host speakers to spread awareness of the cause, and share their thoughts and ideas further. One speaker Cabot has hosted is officer Jimmy Barrett, the outreach coordinator of Archer.
“He works with over 1000 homeless people who he knows all by name. He knows their stories so we try to facilitate people like that to come to our community where I mean, we don’t see homelessness, but you look at the people who are in Hartford, they are from towns like ours,” said Cabot.
Connecting with such a widespread community of people experiencing homelessness is a difficult journey, but Hartford Bags of Love achieves their goal of supporting the solution to the issue of homelessness every year, and will continue to do so as long as the issue stands.
