Dear Friends, this past year has been a year of movement and renewal. The structural steel beams creating a third floor for the 44 new housing units at 97 Victoria symbolizes the energy throughout The Working Centre, directed towards building and shifting spaces that make a difference in people’s lives.
After considerable remediation work on the building at 256 King, we are ready to open our doors. We have intentionally crafted the space at Fresh Ground to be an oasis of brightness and calm, with close to 1,000 plants helping us to build fresh ground as a gathering place.
We are introducing a new menu that celebrates community, sustainability, and the joy of sharing meals. This menu will be available at Fresh Ground, in take home meals and catering options.
As part of the 35th Mayors’ Dinner, workers in the field of employment counselling, settlement support, shelter and homelessness supports, and workers involved in climate change and environmental projects were invited to share their experiences, stories and perspectives.
This winter, outreach workers have estimated that more than 150 people are homeless without a place to live. This means that daily shelter for this group is a constant battle for survival. Sometimes they will get a place at an emergency shelter when there is an opening, other times they stay with a friend, other times they gather in a room where others are squatting or winter camping.
To celebrate the Christmas season, 800 Christmas meals were prepared at our commercial kitchen on Queen Street and were served at four different locations during the Christmas season. Chef Michael Bertling and volunteers cooked and chopped hundreds of pounds of turkey, potatoes, carrots and bread so that they could be served at four Christmas meals.
Throughout the winter our focus was on safe and warm shelter spaces. We are now able to provide 100 beds at the King St. Emergency Shelter and 80 beds at University Ave (UA) residence. Both locations include a food servery, washrooms, showers, laundry, primary healthcare, and housing supports.
“I was taught that giving is better than receiving and that we’re here to help our fellow sojourners, not ignore them when they are in difficulty” In these times of multiple challenges and crises, we reflect upon the work, lived experience, and compassion of Anna Kaljas.
Nestled there in your sleep space at the King Street Shelter, you cling to any remnants of sleep you can gather. In your 6’ x 8’ space, are surrounded by all the belongings you have to your name. Your changes of clothing, shoes, warmer clothing as the weather changes. The items you have gathered on your journey – items you found that can be repaired and resold, items stolen to feed a growing addiction that has consumed your life.
The Queen Street Apartments were possible because of a Rapid Housing Initiative grant through the Region of Waterloo and the Federal Government’s CMHC. The funding provided capital contributions for the rapid construction of new housing and/or acquisition of existing buildings for rehabilitation or conversion to permanent affordable housing. This project achieved its goal when the new tenants all moved in during June 2023, one year after construction started.
The Working Centre campus at 256 King East has been undergoing significant renovations as we prepare the spaces for a substantial re-creation. There are three paths of change that we have been navigating. The first is the necessity of moving Worth A Second Look Furniture and Housewares Thrift Store from the main floor of 97 Victoria N to make way for the housing construction project that will start in early October 2023.
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.
