Sanctuary Toronto (www.sanctuarytoronto.ca)
Sharing our lives and our resources, we reach out to a downtown neighborhood plagued with homelessness, drugs, prostitution, unemployment and AIDS. We offer dignity, support and direction to people who want to reclaim healthy, meaningful lives. Through drop-ins, street outreach and one-to-one relationships, we offer food, clothing and basic health care. Our staff help individual community members access welfare, housing, legal counsel, medical care, counseling, therapy or drug rehabilitation. Perhaps the most valuable thing we offer is simple friendship.
Partner organizations working in our country:
The Mustard Seed--Calgary, AB (www.theseed.ca)
The Mustard Seed Street Ministry is a non-profit Christian humanitarian organization that has been caring for Calgary's homeless for over 24 years. We help meet the essential needs of the less fortunate through food, clothing, and shelter provisions. The Mustard Seed also provides a broad range of progressive and innovative education and employment training programs to help guests regain confidence, find hope, and rebuild their lives off the street. Supported housing, arts and recreation programs, an integrative health and wellness centre, and personalized mentoring provide comprehensive care to our guests, helping restore wholeness and confidence.
Siloam Mission--Winnipeg, MB (www.siloam.ca)
A connecting point between the compassionate and Winnipeg’s less fortunate, Siloam Mission is a Christian humanitarian agency offering programs and services at no charge to those experiencing homelessness.
Siloam Mission alleviates the hardships of the poor and homeless, assists in transitioning them into self-sufficient and generous lifestyles and advocates nationwide on their behalf.
The Booth Center--Winnipeg, MB
(http://www1.salvationarmy.org/can/www_can_mnwo.nsf/vw-dynamic-arrays/0B410105E295F5D780256EFA006A3A0B)
Winnipeg can be a hard place for families living at and below the poverty line. Lack of food, inadequate housing, stress, unhappiness, even despair - these are the daily realities for thousands of our city's less fortunate.
The Salvation Army's Booth Centre has been helping make life better for those in need since 1988. We provide a warm meal and a safe bed for those with nowhere else to go. Located in the downtown core of Winnipeg, The Booth Centre is a 280-bed facility with residential programs for men and women, as well as special, enhanced residential programs in the areas of addictions counseling, intermittent sentencing and mental illness. We offer emergency, short and long term accommodations, and accept referrals 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
In addition, the Booth Centre reaches out to provide help on the streets, bringing hot food and support to those in the downtown, as well as acting as a drop-in centre.
The EFC's Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness
(http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=337)
As a people called by God to reach out to those living in poverty, we believe that evangelical churches and faith-based organizations have an important role to play in helping address the pressing issue of homelessness across Canada.
StreetLevel Conference
www.streetlevel.ca
Street Level is a national conference designed to network, resource, encourage and equip those who work among homeless and street-involved youth and adults, or are interested in engaging in relevant social justice issues.
This conference is presented by StreetLevel: the National Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness. We will build on the success of the previous Street Level Conferences, in particular, the most recent in 2006, the theme of which was ‘Truthtellers and Peacemakers’.