By Stephanie Mancini
Published in March 2019
How to tell the story of this work? Following are some reflections of a lively week of conversations, system changes, and creative problem solving.
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We met to continue developing the Inner City Health Alliance (including Sanguen and Sanctuary who are highlighted at this year’s Mayors’ Dinner. Tickets are selling well, see details on page 2. We met with Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre to build more collaboration; we had a conversation with a doctor interested in supporting our work.
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We have talked with Hospitals and Police, trying to coordinate timely and coordinated supports for people who are homeless/at risk of homelessness. How can we do this better? We met with folks from St. Mary’s Church as they expand their commitment to people dealing with homelessness.
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We had many conversations about the Ontario government announcments to change how employment and health services will be delivered.
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We did the background work for our Income Tax Clinics which start on Monday, helping some 3,000 people over 2 months to complete their income tax returns.
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On Thursday night the Fermented Thoughts conversation on the Ecological Works of Mercy emphasized ways we can build personal disciplines and practices that help reshape our relationships with the earth and with each other.
What stays at the end of the week are each of the people whose journey we supported together.
At the Job Search Resource Centre…
Helping the parents of two sisters who we are also helping to job search; they have very little English language skills, but we have found an employer who speaks the same language, willing to offer them a first work experience; A young woman with moderate language skills who has been volunteering to build her experience looking for a customer service job in the clothing sector; A single mom with strong language skills who has worked as an interpreter and is trying to find work in the social work sector… each navigating the complexities of life and work in a new country and in a new language.
In Outreach work…
Helping a man transition from hospital to a supported housing environment while we await a long-term care option; nurses visiting a woman in motel who has undergone a skin graft for cancer, carefully treating a terrible infection, bringing food and friendship with each trip; supporting a man who lost his housing in the middle of the night without his belongings or shoes; a young man in motel is visited daily, offering support and food as he works to stay away from drugs. We call hospital to check on the wellbeing of a woman who is new to our community, while she talks to voices we can’t hear. We held many conversations with a man who has overdosed for the fifth time at St. John’s Kitchen, hearing his despair as he asks us to let him die, while we hold hope and commitment to life and love.
We ended the week with a memorial service at St. John’s Kitchen, hosted by Margaret Nally – a litany of fifteen people from our community who have died since November. Loretta, Sandy, Rocky, George, Kellie, Ovila, Dave, Bart, Jennifer, Mark, Greg, Ali, Daryl, Alf, Mike – each person, each life is remembered. With each name, water is poured into a dish affirming with the declaration – Always Remembered, Never Forgotten. The service becomes the way we reinforce the commitment of love as a community, as we mark the joys of friendship and the loss that is so present with us in our work.
The Water Street house, a small gesture in the midst of these complexities, continues to develop. It will offer welcome, rest, and supported housing in response to the realities of injectable drug use. For an update on the house and its plans see The Working Centre website.
Day by day, weaving together, creatively responding, and strengthening the fabric of our community.
