HISTORY
In 1986, the death of George, a homeless man befriended by the students and staff of St. Michael's High School in Toronto, brought people together to take action. Students and staff at the school, Sister Susan Moran, Father John Murphy and the Reverend Canon John Erb, took necessary steps to arrange a location, food and volunteers. On January 15, 1988 they opened a small storefront on St. Clair Avenue in Toronto.
Without specifically planning so, the first provision of service also revealed the special nature of the service for both the volunteers and guests. Each group grew in humanity by participating in the program; the guest by experiencing from the volunteers a genuine concern; and the volunteers, by learning to earn the respect and appreciation of the guests.
By word of mouth and a "grass roots" growth in interest, the program has continued to expand and develop to address the need and increase awareness of homelessness. Toronto has over 45 locations and more than 5,000 volunteers that provide meals, shelter, clothing and other services. These include a wide variety of settings: churches, synagogues, centers and even a home. In addition, London, Ottawa, St. Catherines, Niagara Falls are a few of the other cities who have started programs of their own.
HISTORY IN Kitchener Waterloo
In February of 1999, a two month pilot project was run at First United Church, Waterloo. In the fall of 1999, three more churches opened their doors to the homeless. In January of 2000 another church opened its doors to provide overnight shelter for the homeless of our community. We have seven churches available for the program starting in the fall of 2000. Depending on the numbers of guests served, more sites may need to be opened.
How Does The Out Of The Cold Program Work
The goal of the "Out Of The Cold" program is to provide shelter during the winter months. It enlists the support of a variety of different sites with varied backgrounds to provide temporary shelter on a night to night rotating basis. Each site will take a day of the week to provide a hot meal and overnight shelter for their guests. The program runs from the beginning of November to the end of March. Each site is responsible for the scheduling of its volunteers, arranging the food and physical resources and its routine service operation.
Adequate and consistent volunteer staffing is the cornerstone of a successful operation. The volunteer base is drawn from the site and the community at large. Volunteers are needed for shopping, cooking, serving, supervising during the night and a clean up crew in the morning.
Funding is provided by the site, other churches, community groups and interested individuals.
It is the responsibility of the individual site to control all finances needed. This includes fund raising, purchasing, income tax receipts if possible, etc.
A community-wide Out Of The Cold Steering Committee exists to aid in providing training, coordinating information sessions, and overseeing the successful operation of the overall program in the community.
For more information about the program E-Mail: msavage@golden.net
Our guests are to be treated with dignity and respect at all times.
Consistent with that overriding emphasis is the importance of respecting the right to privacy and confidentiality of our guests.
If we succeed in creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere it is possible that our guests will share with some of us their hurts and personal information.
It is our commitment that any such information be kept confidential.
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