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Megan Heck

Four Foundational Pillars of University Avenue Interim Housing

Megan Heck September 30, 2022

University Avenue Interim Housing (UA) is an apartment complex that consists of 80 dorm units meant for those who were unhoused and in need during the height of the COVID pandemic. At UA, shelter, a consistent food source, and community-based resources are available for all residents. It has been operating for almost two years, enabling a community to foster and a support system to be built.

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Serving Others at St. John’s Kitchen Garage

Megan Heck September 30, 2022

As a stay-at-home mom, Gwen Gerencser held several part-time jobs prior to St. John’s Kitchen (SJK), such as a bus driver for her children’s elementary school and a retail employee at The Beer Store. When her children began to get older, she started to look for an organization to volunteer with where her availability could be flexible, and SJK was the perfect fit.

Gwen describes volunteering at SJK as incredible, as she was able to cater her volunteer hours to her schedule, and the time she dedicated was met with immense gratitude. She wanted to provide help wherever needed, which is exactly what she did – through serving food to community members and washing dishes, a role that always needed more hands.

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The Integrated Circle of Care is a fluid and collaborative approach followed by workers from different agencies weaving through St. John’s Kitchen. Within this approach, staff members from each agency are aware of their specific personal roles. However, the high level of collaboration between workers means that people can approach any worker, without knowing their agency association or specific role, and still receive support – either that worker will support the person directly, or they will introduce the person to another worker who can support the person more appropriately.

This approach makes relationships more natural and support more accessible. Workers from different agencies are easily approachable, meaning that people build relationships with multiple workers. Having relationships with different workers is important to a person’s support – it makes support from a trusted source easy to find, and means that people have a choice of worker to approach in any given situation.

In order to maintain a circle of care around a person, workers from different agencies ask for consent from the person for information to be shared between workers. Continuous communication between workers helps to ensure that people do not fall into gaps between services, and also that services are not duplicated.

Queen St. South

Victoria St. North

Fresh Ground
Victoria St. North
Queen St. South
Fresh Ground