Our thanks to University Hill Elementary School and Division 10 who raised $100.00 through a "garage sale". The students brought in used toys and books as well as baking, students could buy a toy and a treat for a dollar. They also send us a lovely Christmas card for our young people, featured below. Our thanks to Division 10 for all their hard work!
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If you live in Vancouver, then you know we are experiencing some very cold temperatures. You may wonder and worry what happens to the homeless folks in Vancouver when it gets colder than normal or the weather is extreme.
Vancouver has an Extreme Weather Response Program of which Covenant House Vancouver and many other service providers are a part of. The program issues an extreme weather alert for the homeless, and providers then go above and beyond to ensure no one has to be outside. In Vancouver, extreme beds generally open when temperatures are near zero with rainfall that makes it impossible to be dry, freezing rain, lots of snow, high winds or temperatures below -2 degrees. These types of beds can be opened by existing shelters with the help of volunteers and extra staff. They can also be operated by churches and community groups. They are often a mat on a floor and may not have food provided and have little support services. These beds are meant for crisis only and not meant to replace year round shelters or long-term housing.
Covenant House Vancouver has the ability to add an additional 12 cots to be used by youth during an extreme weather alert – this is in addition to our regular 54 bed shelter. We get support to do this from staff and volunteers when we are very short staffed, and everyone from around the agency, youth worker or not, pitches in to make sure that the beds can be open. Along with the extra beds, we provide our youth with warm and dry clothing, a hot dinner and breakfast. We also encourage the youth to come to our drop-in program the next day so our youth workers can help them find shelter or any other supports they need. Even if they are not ready to work on things, they can stay in the drop-in where it is warm, dry and safe.
As you can imagine, it takes more food, clothing and staffing to ensure that our youth are warm and safe during extreme weather, and more support is always welcome.
To learn more about the Extreme Weather Response or the Greater Vancouver Shelter Strategy please click here.
Here is an article about the extreme weather and homeless by The Vancouver Sun.
One of our youth “Adam" has been in and out of the Shelter Program about 9 times in the last year. He has a long history of being in foster care, of past gang involvement, trafficking, and has disclosed drug/alcohol and mental health concerns to staff.
This time, Adam came to us after his sister had been evicted and he could no longer stay with her as she was moving to Richmond. Adam is working as a framer and had already found a place for January 1st, but needed to access the Shelter for a week, so that he can collect his next pay cheque, furnish his new place and then make the move. He knows that if he doesn’t stay somewhere “good for him” while he waits, that his issues will get the better of him, and he may not make it to the new place.
Adam is admittedly not a morning person. Having to wake-up at 5:00 in the morning, he’s usually pretty grumpy with staff at that time, until he wakes up. Unfortunately, this morning, we had run out of bag lunches. Thankfully one of our donors donated a stack of MacDonald’s gift certificates over the holidays, so we offered up some of those to Adam. After acknowledging and apologizing for his morning grumpiness, Adam thanked staff and decided to begin his day by reading out the morning headlines from the newspaper to staff. It was his way of working hard at being friendly with us!
To Adam’s credit, he has successfully completed his plan and has moved into his new place. We are all very proud of him and wish him the absolute best!
