The Sicks – New Episode “LGBTQ Homeless Youth” Now Available

We’ve been following the latest parody-comedy web-series called “The Sicks,” and it hasn’t disappointed to so far. The series is about life in the city of Toronto and now the third episode has just been released.

The Sicks has everything from fictitious commercials, prank phone calls from City Hall, promotional videos and real music performances.

The series offers a highly imaginative melding of reality and fiction. Past shows have dealt with issues of hunger insecurity and white privilege in Toronto.

The latest episode, which looks at the issue of homeless youth in Toronto’s LGBTQ community, is available to watch for free on www.thesicks.ca.

It is estimated that around 25-40% of homeless youth in Toronto identify as LGBTQ. Family conflict is one of the main causes of youth-homeless. For example, a young person might be forced to leave home after coming out as queer or transgender.

Dr. Alex Abramovich, an Independent Scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH, has been working to address the issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness for the past ten years. “We have not had large scale data looking at this issue nationally in a really long time, so the number could be actually significantly higher” said Dr. Abramovich. “I think it’s really important to talk about this issue and to really name it for what it is. We need to talk about the fact that LGBTQ2S youth are overrepresented amongst the homeless youth population, and that’s a very serious problem, not only in Toronto but across the country.”

But what if there was a way for more people to help address this issue? According to a recent report from the CBC, Canadians are estimated to have saved up over $16 billion of unused customer loyalty reward points. Such customer loyalty programs may include Air Miles, PC Points, Shoppers Optimum and Starbucks Rewards.

“How amazing would it be if Canadians were able to donate the dollar value of all those rewards points to charity?” asks Porteous. “To that end, I put together a parody Starbucks commercial to demonstrate the potential if corporations shifted the focus of customer reward programs from gettingto giving back.

The spoof commercial is featured in the third episode of The Sicks as well on a parody Starbucks website www.donateyourstars.com. The website includes links to donate to charities that support LGBTQ homeless youth in Toronto.

Taken from: The Sicks Release