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.
Standing witness to the harshness of our world is painful and draws a deep lament – across the world, on the earth that sustains life, and in our own community. The lament is important, standing with eyes wide open as witness, and feeling the pain. If we don’t lament, this despair can turn into anger, into fear, or indifference.
I have a huge passion for pets, and have been witness to them bringing people together in magical ways on many occasions. When I first started working at the University Avenue (UA) interim housing project, one of the things I absolutely loved was that folks were welcome to bring their pets to live with them. Knowing how deeply attached many community members are to their pets, it brought me immense joy to know they didn’t need to be separated from them or choose to remain on the street to stay with their pets.
Are you able to meet your basic needs like showering, clean clothes, using a restroom, accessing food and clean water? Have you been hospitalized or used a crisis service? Have you stayed in a holding cell, jail or prison? Have you been attacked or beaten up? Do you have planned activities, other than just surviving, that make you feel happy and fulfilled?
These are questions that might not cross your mind on a day-to-day basis but are front and center for many people in our community, folks our teams walk with each and every day.
The Erbs Road Shelter was built by The Region of Waterloo on regionally owned land at 1003 Erbs Road. The idea of building an outdoor shelter started in the summer of 2022. The Region contracted with Now Housing in late December to start production of the cabins made out of shipping containers. The Working Centre only came on site when the occupancy permit was granted in the last week of April 2023. The 50 cabins offer private, safe, secure and inclusive accommodation.
Those of us responding directly to the day-to-day survival needs of increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness in our Region knew that we needed immediate action. A phone call to Fr. Toby Collins at St. Mary’s Church in downtown Kitchener led us to hosting a month-long people-sleeping-on-the-floor pop-up shelter for 200 individuals in November of 2019. Since then there have been many positive changes.
We have collected stories from around The Working Centre community to provide perspective about how our work has changed and adapted during the pandemic.
At last year’s Mayors’ Dinner we focused on Person-Centred Grassroots Healthcare. In the words of Dr. George Berrigan: “We had no bureaucratically designed program or procedural guidelines to work under. In effect, what we did was use the approach of the famous professional tennis player, Arthur Ashe, who tackled his problems using the SUD method: Start where you are! Use what you have! Do what you can! Our immediate barrier was gaining trust which took a lot of listening and attention, being adaptable, open and especially non-judgmental. We worked hard at keeping our promises. We knew our care had to be backed by consistency, respect and kindness.
Perhaps like many an angsty young adult, I was once enamored with the idea of revolution — Rage Against the Machine was a staple of my music collection.
Believin’ all the lies that they’re tellin’ ya
Buyin’ all the products that they’re sellin’ ya
They say jump and you say how high?
You’re brain dead
You got a bullet in your head
There have been times in my life when I was drawn to the idea of tearing down systems. Shouting “cus the man!” and all that felt good. While I still get a kick out of this kind of music and am encouraged to see people standing up to challenge the system, I now think that if rage is not rooted in relationships it is empty.
Homelessness is an issue that continues to impact our community that affects so many people from diverse walks of life. And, it can happen to anyone at any given time. Not too many people choose to be homeless as it is scary, stressful, unsafe, unhealthy, unpleasant, nasty, and extremely exhausting. Homelessness can relate to people living life out on the streets, in abandoned buildings, parks or on park benches, couch surfing and in shelters. This paper brings into light my personal involvement in working with people who experience homelessness, mental health and addiction.
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.
