The Home Depot is showing that homeless youth have a past and a reason they are where they are in its most recent effort to support the Orange Door Project.

The spot, created by a team at Publicis Toronto and directed by Duane Crichton of Partners Film, starts with a young homeless man sitting alone, looking at his empty bag. It then runs in reverse to show his backstory, including being robbed on the street and fleeing an abusive home. The spot ends the same way it began – with the youth looking at his empty bag – except in this case, he’s contemplating his decision to leave in the first place.

[iframe_youtube video = “nUjisqJlHhE”]

Fighting homelessness, particularly youth homelessness, through the Orange Door Project has been a major CSR platform for Home Depot in recent years, although one that has not seen a great deal of above-the-line advertising support. The retailer has utilized more in-store methods and community partnerships to drive its work.

Earlier this year, Home Depot was also a founding partner on HireUp, a job board for homeless youth created by Impakt – a social responsibility agency that has previously worked with Home Depot on Orange Door initiatives – and Workopolis.