The first time Steve Cordes, BA’84, walked into Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), he was weeks out of Western.
Hearing the non-profit organization would soon be hiring, the sociology grad set up an information interview.
Steve Cordes (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)
“I immediately fell in love with the place,” Cordes said. “I liked the vibe.”
That initial visit soon led to a job, where he was charged with landing employment for 65 youth, working with internal staff and seeking out external contacts to make it happen.
“It was ‘sink or swim.’ But the more I dug into it, the more I loved it, and it was because of that connection to people.”
Four years later, Cordes became YOU’s executive director, leading it to become an internationally respected organization and integrated service model that includes transitional supports, career services, social enterprise and affordable housing for youth.
After four decades at YOU, Cordes will be retiring from his role as chief executive in August. Yet the vibe remains, along with his unwavering commitment to meeting the unique needs of young people, including those experiencing homelessness.
He recently shared his passion and knowledge as a guest instructor in the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Humanities (SASAH), teaching the fourth-year capstone course, Understanding and Addressing Youth Homelessness in London, Ontario.
SASAH director and professor Aara Suksi said Cordes was “the perfect match” to help students explore the complex issue and connect with youth experiencing homelessness.
“We wanted to ensure students had the right tools and skills, from a knowledgeable and caring professional,” said Suksi. “Steve brought the expertise to offer them a deep community-engaged learning experience. He has a gift that allowed him to build a relationship with the class very quickly.”
With Suksi as his key advisor, Cordes developed the curriculum, which included guest speakers, practical activities and field visits. For their final project, students produced short, collaborative videos, sharing stories of local youth experiencing homelessness.
“The experiential part of the course was so profound, because Steve designed in it a way to build up their knowledge, skills and comfort level so they could conduct interviews with clients of YOU,” Suksi said.
First, Cordes asked students to submit their perceptions of homelessness.
“I wanted to understand their attitudes towards homelessness and what they knew as individuals and collectively,” Cordes said.
He then brought in a lived experience panel comprised of people who were a decade out of experiencing homelessness. Their stories had a deep impact on the class, including Kathleena Henricus, a fourth-year SASAH and international relations student.
Kathleena Henricus (USC)
“It’s sometimes easy to forget we are far closer to homelessness than we realize,” Henricus said. “We sometimes assume a person has made bad decisions or fallen in with the wrong crowd. But it can happen with the death of a parent, the loss of a partner or moving to a new city to explore an opportunity that falls through.”
Margaret Gleed is a fifth-year student and president of the Arts and Humanities Students’ Council. She’s pursuing a dual degree, combining an Ivey HBA with a philosophy and SASAH double major. Through her range of courses, she’s examined questions about homelessness related to systems, structures and costs of care.
“To talk about the issue in a way that is more person-facing, made me feel a little more hopeful,” said Gleed, who also completed an internship at YOU. She said she appreciated the practical training her class gained ahead of their interviews with YOU clientele.
“Steve taught us how to hold conversations and phrase questions with awareness of the power dynamic we had coming in. We could be the same age, have the same upbringing, but as students we were in quite different circumstances. Through the course, we were given the tools to rely on our instincts and our respect for human beings in situations where we don’t have all the information.”
Margaret Gleed (Frank Neufeld)
The students worked together to form their approach, submitting questions to Cordes for review and suggestions.
“I thought if I could get these students to the point where they could become ‘comfortable with the uncomfortable,’ then they wouldn’t need to worry about the end game of the conversation, because humanity is in the conversation,” Cordes said.
The results were positive and made a lasting impression.
“We didn’t think we were going to have the conversations that we did, and it completely blew our understanding of available resources and lived experience out of the water,” Gleed said.
As incoming president of the University Students’ Council, Henricus said the experience underscored the importance of community-engaged learning and service.
“Not everyone had the most accurate picture of youth homelessness coming into the course. How could you if you haven’t talked to anyone in that situation? But when you have the opportunity to talk to people and have them tell you what they need, you see things differently. You can’t go into these spaces and not be changed. This course showed we sometimes miss out on learning when we prioritize comfort.”
