Tonight thousands of homeless Canadians will sleep on street grates or in doorways. It’s a social tragedy. In the killer cold their coats act as blankets, protective barriers, and shelter. They are humiliated by empty stares and the condition of their lives. Then they are awakened from a dead sleep to find someone looking at  […]

Downstairs in the chapel at the Salvation Army Waterston Centre shelter on Osler Street, 15 beds with dark brown blankets are lined around the room, dormitory style. A portrait of Salvation Army founder William Booth hangs on one of the cream walls, a light-coloured wooden cross on another. The glass bricks at street-level are covered  […]

Imagine being so hungry that you are willing to eat someone else’s garbage? Yes, it’s dangerous, and most of us would cringe at the thought, but there are people in cities everywhere who are forced to eat food from trashcans because they are starving and desperate. In December 2012 The Salvation Army and Grey Canada,  […]

On Tuesday, December 11, hundreds of volunteers from Invis-Mortgage Intelligence, Canada’s leading mortgage brokerage firm, will take to city streets across Canada to donate new winter clothing and supplies to those in need as part of its trademark community program, Angels in the Night. This annual event is the culmination of 12 months of community  […]

Campbell River – The Salvation Army’s Extreme Weather Shelter likely won’t be open every night this winter after a city committee turned down the Salvation Army’s request for funding. The non-profit Christian organization, which runs a cold weather shelter for the city’s most vulnerable, applied for a $45,000 Community Partnership grant-in-aid to extend its shelter  […]

Several of Estevan’s church groups are coming together to bring some of the less fortunate people in from the cold. Starting in December and running until the end of February, St. Paul’s United Church auditorium will host the Warm Welcome project. The goal is to have a safe and warm place for people who would  […]

Are social programs really making a difference? According to Margaret Wente, no one knows. Social programs are not tracked or their outcome measured. Take homelessness for example. Most homeless programs do not have adequate resources to maintain long-term contact with residents after they leave the program. While many programs offer to extend services, it is  […]

“It feels a lot safer here,” says Bev who’s just recently checked into the Women’s Integrated Supportive Housing (WISH) in Calgary. The WISH centre provides support services for women such as emergency and transitional beds plus a variety of skill building programs. Prior to arriving at WISH Bev was sleeping in her car. “Coming here  […]

On the 10th of the 10th 2012 millions of people around the world will mark World Homeless Day in many varied ways. The purpose of World Homeless Day is to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness, while taking advantage of the  […]

Do you find it hard to eat right? An estimated 6,500 homeless youth in Canada do. The lives these teenagers lead consist mostly of jumping from doorways to shelters to various couches, sometimes a different place each night, where there’s no place to cook or obtain healthy food on a regular basis. Youth who are  […]