To reduce barriers to higher education, Booth University College has launched the Shelter University (Shelter U) pilot project. This initiative offers free university-level, non-credit courses to individuals who are experiencing poverty and searching for stable housing. All course expenses—including textbooks, field trips, and laptops—are covered by private donations and a grant from the Winnipeg Foundation. As the first rollout of this pilot project, Booth will provide a weekly music sociology course at the Salvation Army’s Winnipeg Centre of Hope. Booth Instructor Aaron Klassen, who is leading the course, explained that this pilot is meant to challenge the “ivory-tower model” of education. “The most important thing for me was that (our clients) were students. They get the same exact treatment that any university student would get,” said Winnipeg Centre of Hope Executive Director Mark Stewart.
