---
# System prepended metadata

title: '2019-07-04'

---

# 2019-07-04
Sorry for the radio silence everyone. Here's an update on last Saturday's volunteer outing and some email correspondance with shelter staff. 

## Saturday June 29th Escapade!
Last Saturday afternoon **Francois, his friend Albert, Chante, and I** took to the streets to **teach some folks to code**!

The locations we visited were:
  - St Felix (Augusta location)
  - Yonge St Mission (Spadina location)
  - St Stephens (Kensington Market location)
  - Evangel Hall (Bathurst and Adelaide)
  - St Felix (Fraser location)

Here is what happened at each location:
- St Felix (Augusta location)
  - It was closed :S. Look like they recently changed their schedule to only being 24 hour Mon-Fri. No more Saturday hours :(
- Yonge St Mission (Spadina location)
  - This was a shot in the dark. Was closed :(
- St Stephens (Kensington Market location)
  - This was a shot in the dark. Was closed :(
- Evangel Hall (Bathurst and Adelaide)
  - Their schedule said they were offering a free meal when we showed up, but they were closed anyway :S. Guess they didn't update their schedule.
- **St Felix (Fraser location)**
  - We called ahead to this location and told them about the free coding lessons. Over the phone we were told **"Hey! That sounds great! Come on by."**
  - When we showed up we were unexpected. We were told that without the permission of the site supervisor (who wasn't on location) **we could even come in to the shelter for a glass of water**, let alone teach some coding :(.
  - The staff were very sympathetic and gave us an email for the location supervisor. We eventually got in touch with him over the phone. He explained that **without meeting us he wouldn't be able to give us the go-ahead.**
  - **Zach recieved a follow-up email from one of the St. Felix supervisors** later in the week and made plans to meet up with her on Thursday. In the email **she seemed keen to give us permission to come back to the Fraser location with official permission.**  

## Email followup from YMCA Vanauley
In other news, we recieved an email follow from one of the staff at the YMCA Vanauley youth shelter.

The email:
> Hey Zach it is Spencer from the YMCA, just waiting to hear back from our evening team about the coding classes! don't worry haven't forgot you.

It's nice to know that there are some staff in the youth shelters working to get us permission to teach coding to some youngsters!

## Other Observations
 - It was hot ~30°C and we suspected that the shelters were likely closed because of this.
 - We had Chalmersbot to guide us so we were able to get to nearby shelters fairly quickly. However, the walk was still tiring and frustrating.
 - People might be less open to learning in uncomfortable conditions like this. A small incentive, like water, might be important for attracting learners.