Non-profit in Sudbury, Ont. to hand out quilts to people sleeping on the streets | CBC News

Volunteers with the Go-Give Project in Sudbury, Ont. are handing out 50 hand-made quilts to people sleeping on the streets this winter.

Shannon Macdonald, the organization’s lead outreach co-ordinator, said every night outreach workers see between 70 to 100 people who are sleeping in makeshift shelters or on the street in Sudbury.

“So we see everything from encampments where people have some pretty big structures where they can provide warmth for themselves and then right to people sleeping literally on the sidewalk just with the clothes on their body,” she said.

Macdonald said the quilts can make a big difference for people who are sleeping outside in freezing temperatures.

“It could essentially to some extent be life or death,” she said. “Like people are cold.”

Volunteers with the Northern Initiative for Social Action (NISA) make the quilts and donate them to a different organization each year.

NISA provides support for people with mental health challenges, and its volunteers also have lived experience with mental illness.

“All the quilts are made from donated materials,” said Hughie Jenveau, NISA’s program co-ordinator.

“They just make quilts throughout the whole year.”