Failure is for the Privileged

welcome

to the future

my name is katie hectobyte i’m a social

entrepreneur and innovator

three how are we doing today i just have

one question for you

how many times have you heard if you

just believe in yourself

you can do anything by a show of hands

in the audience

who genuinely believes a statement

aw only a few optimists in the room

for those of you who raise your hands

i’m not here to change your mind

i’m just here to change your mind set on

how you may view the stereotypical

unsuccessful individuals in this world

name is katie hegdeveet i’m founder of

social enterprise

bootcamps for change we facilitate

weekly in-shelter fitness programs for

youth experiencing homelessness in

canada

we also have a scholarship program the

sweatier for the better fund

where we pay for youth to become

certified personal trainers

hire them internally in the organization

in addition to connecting them with

local job

and mentorship opportunities in 2019

we impacted over a thousand youth in

2020

we’re on track to impacting over 5 000

youth

i’m a recent grad of ryerson

university’s nutrition and food program

with a certificate in food security and

this year i’ll be pursuing my masters of

management

innovation and entrepreneurship at

queen’s university

with boot camps for change as my project

when we think of the stereotypical

unsuccessful person

this is typically in regards to lacking

financial means

or social capital aka relationships

who would be the most extreme example of

this

the homeless not only without a dollar

to afford a roof over their head

but also not one person one friend

one family member acquaintance or loved

one that they can stay with

can you imagine anything more lonely

this is some pretty heavy stuff

so i want you to humor me for a second

close your eyes

imagine yourself walking down queen

street you see a homeless person

do you cross the street to avoid talking

to them

you won’t even make eye contact with

them let alone

interact with them but you’re already

making assumptions

about their story what is their story

you’re allowed to open your eyes now

perhaps you thought

they must have lived a life of violence

and crime

perhaps you thought they must just be an

addict

or perhaps you thought they must just be

lazy

so their situation must be their fault

and their fault only right

wrong these harmful assumptions could

not be further from the truth

and i’m here today to show you why

while everyone in this room juggles work

family

and financial obligations for low-income

or homeless individuals

these everyday decisions involve

constant agonizing trade-offs

should i fill this prescription or

should i buy food

should i pay rent or pay for my child’s

daycare

and the process of making these

decisions day after day

comes at a cognitive cost one

researchers say is equivalent to living

each day

as if you haven’t slept the night before

but when it comes to the poor we still

tend to blame them for their ill health

i’m sure you’ve heard it all before why

don’t they just get a job

why don’t they just stop drinking why

don’t they just stop

doing drugs or eating that junk however

a lot of interventions for these

populations

currently just focus on providing

education alone

since we’re failing to see the big

picture we like to believe that those

people just

knew these basic facts all the problems

in this population will be solved right

wrong the concept of self-efficacy

theorized by albert bandura as a social

learning theory

is described as one’s own perceived

ability to overcome the challenges

and obstacles presented to them because

i overcame an eating disorder as a young

child

i now have high self-efficacy meaning i

believe in my ability to overcome

any challenge that life throws me my way

i have a vision for my life

not as it is but as it could be do you

with this newfound self-efficacy i have

had the confidence to go after

opportunities that have really helped my

career

because not only do i believe in the

return on investment

but also i believe in my ability to

excel at finishing these qualifications

so failure is further privileged

what does she mean failures for the

privileged

compared to their lower income

counterparts well-off professionals are

way more likely to take a risk

that can result in a huge reward only

because they’re certain

if they were to fail they have the means

and ability to pick themselves back up

again

this is a luxury that low-income

individuals simply cannot afford

a well-off student can take an unpaid

internship in their field of choice

meeting all the right people to

completely propel and change the success

of their career

whereas a youth living in a shelter may

have no alternative

but to be working full-time in a field

unrelated to their career of choice

since they just need to make money to

support their siblings

i want you to think about this the next

time you want to put on your judgment

goggles

the concept of scarcity dubbed in the

book scarcity

why having too little means so much

explains why when one is in a state of

scarcity such as poverty or homelessness

they’re only able to focus on the

problem the thing that they lack

leaving them with less bandwidth to deal

with anything else

i don’t know if you’ve ever been on a

diet before but it’s almost impossible

to think of anything other than food

it’s also extremely difficult to think

about implementing healthy dietary

changes

when you don’t even know where your next

meal is coming from

as echoing green states current

programming

tackles symptoms not systems i

discovered this myself

when i designed a failed nutrition

education program for a local food bank

how effective could my health

intervention possibly be

when i’m suggesting six dollar

blueberries to a room full of

individuals who on average live on 735 a

day

and i’m failing to provide them with a

means to access when i’m preaching

i want you to think about this for a

second really put yourself in their

shoes

there is no worse feeling of self-shame

of knowing what you should be doing

for yourself your family and your health

and you actually want to do it but now

you know

you just simply can’t with little

funding available

shelters may have no alternative but to

sustain only basic survival needs for

the residents

such as heat water and electricity

rather than invest in programs that help

youth rise above poverty

rise above their circumstances and just

make them feel good about themselves

this is why programs like boot camps for

change are so important

but during my undergrad we were

constantly focused on how to solve the

ultimate issue

of growing rates of cardiovascular

disease diabetes and obesity

if a well-off professional is referred

to me by their doctor following a heart

attack

i can sit them down and give them all

the information they may need

and how to implement an effective

exercise routine

dietary changes as well as a stress

management plan

in addition to my fee everything that

i’m going to be recommending is going to

cost more than 700

a week clearly this is inaccessible to

most

so if they can afford it and they’re

just unmotivated or unwilling to change

and end up becoming one of those

statistics that we tend to focus on so

much

this is not where the real social

problem lies

harsh but true susceptibility to chronic

illness

is directly related to bigger themes

surrounding income and homelessness

income determines one’s living

conditions including access to safe

neighborhoods

but also nutritious foods you guessed it

i want you to think about this

the next time you want to put your

judgment goggles on

so if you have the means to access as

much healthy food as you want or all

these services

and you’re just choosing not to use them

hey

i don’t make judgments we should all be

able to live our lives

how we best see fit so my work in

program

isn’t for just telling people what they

should do i’m in the business of showing

people what they can do

even though there are some youth that

may not use these programs for a variety

of reasons

maybe they’re having a tough day

mentally or they’re dealing with an

invisible injury that we know nothing

about

our programs alone are encouraging them

they do have value in society

but through my work in my life i’ve

learned that you simply cannot make

someone do

what they don’t want to do poor or not

but if they don’t have a choice to work

at something this is where my moral

obligation to

do something comes in it’s like a fire

in me and i want to ignite that fire in

you

a friend of mine forced to abstain from

alcohol during a 30-day rehab stint

he came out and drank why

because he wanted to it’s only when he

decided

himself that he had a problem that he

wanted to fix

he was able to voluntarily use the

resources around him

on his own accord so when i saw that

funding was cut for health programs for

the homeless

took me right back to when i was a 12

year old girl dealing with

issues i was dealing with at that time

without exercise

or roof over my head i honestly don’t

think i’d be here today

so every youth deserves these

opportunities regardless of financial

means

when i saw youth were doing way better

at the workouts than i was

we started the scholarship program

specifically to hire these youth

so we can dismantle harmful stereotypes

that actually perpetrate

self-stigmatization

in the population that we work with

according to albert bandura can you tell

i like this guy seeing people

similar to oneself succeeding also

raises these observers beliefs

that they too possess the capabilities

to succeed our scholarship recipients

have not

only inspired our peers and shelters but

also our sponsors

at-risk youth do want to succeed and

they can succeed

they just need to have an opportunity

when you imagined homelessness earlier

is this what you pictured

these are some of the most kind generous

hard-working people i know not lazy

definitely never living a life a crime

literally wouldn’t hurt a fly

they just needed an opportunity to help

them realize their full potential

the gentleman standing beside me hashima

hebshi

recently came to canada from yemen he

ended up at one of the shelters we work

at

horizons for youth and i was teaching a

class there last february

without me even asking he began

encouraging his peers on the sidelines

and adjusting their form i suggested

that he should become a personal trainer

less than a year later he’s now

completed four fitness certifications

with our mentorship

does that sound like laziness to you

this is more than i have

he now says a few words about his

experience working with me

and boot camps for change please enjoy

during my time on the show one day i

came back from the gym i went downstairs

i sat down i looked at people and

some of them they were doing the workout

wrong so i jumped in i started like

adjust their position and stuff

and ask them like okay this how you do

it this this this is wrong you want to

avoid this because you want to get

injured

and then she saw that katie saw that and

she told me

you’re natural in this you know that and

she asked me have you thought about

being a personal trainer and she shocked

me because my response was

not really because i’m definitely sure

that

it’s expensive and you had to to get a

degree or something and you have to pay

for it or a certificate

she thought i’m like you know what don’t

worry about that we’re gonna pay

everything for you just gonna show up

are you ready for it and i said like i’m

definitely down for it i would love that

i took the exam and

i got certified that day and i cannot

explain how happy i was i felt great i

felt like you know what

that’s what i want to do that’s what i’m

really going to enjoy

this may or may not come as a surprise

to you but before i started this program

i had multiple people question me do you

actually think the homeless can work

do you actually think the homeless want

to work scholarship recipients are in

full-time positions

at gyms like good life and la fitness

exiting the shelter system and living

independently

my dream mentor leila jana stated talent

is equally distributed but opportunity

is not

clearly opportunities like education

have the ability to change lives but not

everyone has the same access

to the same opportunities so let’s do

something about that

our programs have a huge importance for

youth in the shelter system

by improving physical health by

preventing disease youth experiencing

homelessness face so much adversity in

their daily lives

and my program provides them with a

healthy way to relieve that stress

physical health is intertwined with

mental health

as those who experience less stress get

sick less often

and in turn are more productive at work

by taking less sick days

avoiding financial difficulty breaking

the cycle of poverty through exercise

two years after i started this program

i’m viewed as a peer to the youth

rather than an outsider in a privileged

situation just coming in

telling them how to move and how to eat

by sharing and developing this trust

the youth are not only more likely to

participate in our programming

but are also sharing valuable feedback

with us so we can continuously evaluate

and therefore improve our programming so

vulnerability

makes leaders stronger let’s include

youth voices

and how we approach complex problems

such as poverty

that’s my vision for 2020 youth

inclusion

because youth are not the leaders of

tomorrow we’re the leaders of today

thank you very much

you