This man will listen to you talk about anything, and he won't charge a dime

Talking to your loved ones about your problems can be uncomfortable. Talking to your therapist can be expensive. Paul Jenkinson, however, is neither. 

He's just a man with some free time, two chairs, a folding table and a sandwich board that reads: "You are not alone. I will listen."

And he's taking them to public spaces all over Canada for his cross-country listening tour. 

"I'm there as a fellow human to make connections," the retired Nova Scotia social worker told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I just create that safe space for them, a little bit like the stranger on the airplane that you're never going to see again."

'Who is this older man?'

While Jenkinson may not be charging for his services, he does have a professional background in this sort of thing. 

He worked for years as a registered social worker, served on the board of the B.C. Association of Social Workers and worked as a spokesperson for Advocates for Care of the Elderly, which works to create better conditions in long-term care facilities. 

He's also 70 years old, with many decades of life experiences to draw on, including physical pain, divorce, and the sudden death of his daughter a few years ago — "those kinds of, like, Earth-shattering events."

"So I bring that to the exchange," he said. "But, really, people are the experts in their own situation. They really just need some space to talk."

When he first puts his chairs and sign, he says, people tend to regard him warily. 

"I think they're curious, for sure. 'Who is this older man?'" he said. "People go back and forth a few times, surreptitiously as it were, getting some courage to come and sit down."

He doesn't mind waiting, he says. He's spent a lot of time learning to cultivate calm amid the storm that is life. 

"In North America, where production and success are, you know, big values, to sit there and just be calm and OK … takes some learning and patience," he said.

'Cornucopia of beautiful people'

Once people start chatting, Jenkinson says they talk about anything and everything.

He says he's spoken with people at different points in their life journeys. Some are students. Some are recovering from addictions. Many find themselves at a crossroads.

The other day, he says he spoke to a series of people who wanted to tell him about all about the ways they give back to their communities.

"Volunteers from prisons, from shelters, from family agencies. It was like a cornucopia of beautiful people," he said. "The stories can be positive as well as, you know, the life challenges. So I'm thankful for that."

Jenkinson promises to keep everything confidential, unless the person is going to harm themselves or someone else.

There's no time limit on these conversations, he says, and no topic is off the menu.

"You don't have to worry," he said. "You're not gonna see me on the street the next day."

Jenkinson is currently travelling around his home province of Nova Scotia, after which he'll be heading to P.E.I., before making his way west, with plans to spend the winter in B.C.

His route, he says, is circuitous. He'll go anywhere he's invited and has a place to stay. He currently doesn't reside anywhere, opting for a transient life for the duration of the project.

He accepts donations on GoFundMe and Patreon, but says it's really just to keep gas in his car. 

"Here I am. I've got skills. I'd like to make them available," he said. "There's a million hours of volunteering that is done in Canada on a regular basis, and I'm just one of many of those kinds of volunteers."