Homelessness - Life Hanging by a Thread with Al Wiebe

This webinar was part of the City of Winnipeg’s Awareness & Action Speaker Series on October 4, 2022.

Through his personal experience, Al will talk about mental health, homelessness and trauma, and how they are intrinsically intertwined. He will discuss unconscious and overt biases, stigmas and preconceived notions and how they are barriers to productive policies and detrimental to the challenge of reducing homelessness. He will highlight the results of negative and positive attitudes towards those suffering in homelessness and mental illness. It is a process of learning what is helpful, and unlearning what is not. In order to do this effectively, it is critically important to factor in key insights from persons with lived experience. These insights will help shape policies and remove barriers. Housing is a basic human right, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that it is consistently available. Human rights matter.

Biography:
Al Wiebe is a person with lived experience of homelessness having spent over two years in hidden homelessness on the streets of Winnipeg. He lost his job where he was earning $150K per year. He could not handle that trauma due to unchecked clinical depression and spent years in recovery. Al is now a 24/7 advocate for those living in poverty and homelessness. He directs a non-government funded lived experience led housing program in 3 cities, and is involved in peer engagement training for all three levels of government in Manitoba as well as for many other organizations. Al is also involved in many projects, boards, committees and councils focused on homelessness, poverty and healthcare including several for the City of Winnipeg such as the Human Rights Committee of Council and the Poverty Reduction Strategy.