Memoirs of a Street Nurse
By Liam Wilson
Grace, compassion, and fortitude can be used to describe Cathy Crowe. Cathy fights for vulnerable individuals and social justice. Since attending nursing school in 1972, Cathy has focused the majority of her career to medical care for homeless people. In Cathy’s first book “A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse”, she speaks out on how homelessness in Canada is still a problem and getting worse.
On Friday, November 22, 2019, the Innovation Hub was honoured to host Cathy Crowe as a guest speaker for nursing students at St. Lawrence College Kingston, as well as Brockville and Cornwall. SLC was the first post-secondary institution to invite Cathy to speaking, following the publishing of her book. An overhead mounted camera was used to broadcast Cathy’s talk to anyone attending St. Lawrence College via Skype. This experience positively impacted hundreds of students, professionals, alumni, and faculty.
Cathy’s recently published book focuses on the state of homelessness in Canada. Shocking imagery shows hundreds of people being warehoused in small buildings with little to no personal space, violating Canada’s standard of living. In “A Knapsack Full of Dreams”, Cathy examines death rates of homeless Canadians with a median age of males at 55 years and 35 for females. Both of these statistics are morbid and hard to imagine, however true.
How can you learn more?
● Read Cathy’s book, “A Knapsack Full of Dreams”
● Review her book online
● Ask your library, college, or university to purchase her book
● Gift copies of the book (also available in eBook)
● Visit https://www.cathycrowe.ca/ for more information
The Innovation Hub is a social space, focused on growth between St. Lawrence College and the surrounding communities. The Innovation Hub was honoured to have Cathy speak and give thanks for her contributions as a leader in the field of nursing and inspiring those who follow in her footsteps.
Help support Cathy’s cause by signing this petition: https://www.change.org/p/mayor-john-tory-mayor-tory-declare-homelessness-an-emergency-to-prevent-more-deaths-and-suffering