Thanks to the members of Muslims for Peace who visited us on Wednesday, July 8th, and served food and handed out free backpacks, socks, t-shirts, hoodies, granola bars, and toiletries to hundreds of our participants.
They purchased all of the food and items themselves, in the wake of their successful crowdfunding campaign where they encouraged the public to give up their lunch and donate $10 to help people in need.
Through their efforts, they raised over $10,000 in just two months!
Muslims for Peace are a local, grassroots group who come together to help people who are less fortunate. They were inspired to give when they were downtown earlier in the year and came across a few people who were living on the streets.
“We met a few people who were homeless and we were inspired by their stories. We knew at that point we wanted to help. “
– Sally, a member of Muslims for Peace
Their involvement at Bissell Centre coincides with Ramadan where Muslims around the world take the time to reflect on people less fortunate and act upon the importance to give and help others in need.
We are so grateful they chose to give to people in the inner-city of Edmonton to ensure they are well fed and have what they need to survive on the streets.
My mom was out digging clams when she gave birth to me on a rock in the ocean. That’s how I got my name. And that’s where I got my lot in life. Things were always rocky.
I never got to go to school. I grew up on the West Coast, and from the time I was just a kid, I was dragged out on the fishing boat with my mom and dad. They made okay money, but they were both alcoholics and they’d just throw it all away.
My dad was always so angry. He’d try to drink away his problems but that just made him angrier. He’d take out his anger on my mom, on my siblings, and on me. I would try to protect my mom, but that just meant that I’d get hit harder.
Mom tried so hard to do good things for her kids. She was the light in my life. She told me to never hurt the people in your life and always try to be a good person.
When she died, I felt like I lost my whole world. It was like the only light I ever knew went out forever. Before she passed away, she told me I needed to go somewhere where I didn’t know anybody and start over. So that’s what I did. I came to Edmonton 37 years ago. But the hard times followed me.
“I was homeless. I had nothing. No money. No family. I was as low as you could get. “
I was on the streets for two years when I first got to Edmonton. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have anywhere to go. And living on the streets is scary. You never know if somebody is going to try to attack you or stab you. There’s no one you can trust.
Like my mom, I tried to do the best I could. But just like my mom, I had a hard time. Those old ways that I learned from my parents got the best of me. I was so angry. I started drinking and doing drugs to try to stop the pain. Alcohol helped me forget just how worthless everything made me feel.
But I became a devil when I drank. It didn’t make me feel any better. I’d get so drunk that I couldn’t care for anyone. My family. My partners. My kids. Myself.
People make you feel so useless when you have a hard time. “You’re nothing but an addict” they say, and they put you down and don’t want to see you as a person. But people like me with addictions aren’t bad. We just need someone to help us believe we can be good. That we can change. I have changed.
I’ve been sober now for more than 20 years. I still feel angry and hopeless sometimes, but I got help. Bissell Centre helped me find my hope for something better.
This is why I love Bissell Centre. Their doors are always open. Instead of telling me I was nothing, they listened to me. They helped me break the cycle of violence and abuse I was born into. They took my hand and held it and never let it go.
I’m talking now and because of help I received at Bissell Centre, I am beginning to understand. I had to talk about all the abuse I suffered and all the rage I felt. I had to come to terms with my past before I could do anything to make something better happen.
I cry when I think of what my dad went through in residential school. It is sad that he never got help and he took all of this to his grave. I pray for him, and I am grateful that I found the help I needed to try to turn things around.
I’ve met people who are just as angry and hopeless as I was. People who are hungry every day. People who turn to drugs and alcohol to try to cope. People who turn to crime and violence to keep supporting their habits. People like my mom and dad who just can’t seem to escape the cycle.
I’ve made it through this life and I survived. I’m grateful for the second chance Bissell Centre gave me. My life can be something different now.
I want to make a difference. I’d like to help others just like me, who didn’t get a childhood and who can’t get out of the dark. I want to go to school and become a councilor. I want to help others just like Bissell Centre helped me.
Thank you for helping me feel at peace for the first time in my life.
Your gift will mean Bissell Centre can be there again for someone like Rocky, when they need a caring person to listen and offer them a second (or third) chance.
In cooperation with Aboriginal organizations, the Government of Canada chose National Aboriginal Day to be celebrated every year on June 21st, the summer solstice. For generations, Aboriginal peoples have celebrated their culture in conjunction with the summer solstice due to its significance as the longest day of the year.
Below is list of events in Edmonton and links for more information on how to celebrate this year’s National Aboriginal Day:
National Aboriginal Day Official Commemoration:
Location: Canada Place (9700 Jasper Avenue)
Date: Friday, June 19th
Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Elizabeth Fry Association:
(serving cultural food)
Location: 10523 – 100 Avenue
Date: Friday, June 19th
Time: 12:00pm
Aboriginal Day Live & Celebration:
Location: Louise McKinney Riverfront Park
(9999 Grierson Hill Rd)
Date: Saturday, June 20th
Time: 12:00pm (concert at 6:30pm)
National Aboriginal Day Summer Solstice Celebration:
Location: Churchill Square
Date: Sunday, June 21st
Time: 11:00am – 6:00pm
For three weeks, they promoted the fundraiser by asking the public to donate diapers or formula with the opportunity to receive jewellery for every box that contained 100+ diapers or a sauna card for every can of formula that was 600g or more. People were also entered into a final draw with giveaways from local businesses.
The response was overwhelming and the generous support from the fundraiser will immediately help families living in poverty who struggle to afford diapers and formula for their children and who rely on our Child & Family Services Program for help.
We are grateful for their efforts and very thankful for our partnership!
Do you want to get involved in fundraiser to help individuals and families in poverty? Visit our Community Giving page to get started now!
For twelve years, the Heart of the City Music Festival has enlivened Edmonton’s core for one weekend in June by filling it with the work of the city’s musicians and artists.
The festival’s continued mandate is to foster local artistic talent by providing performers and artists at all levels with an opportunity to showcase their musical talents and to strengthen inner-city community engagement.
The Heart of the City Music Festival is FREE for every one of all ages to attend and is supported by hundreds of partners and volunteers working hard to provide a family-friendly music and arts festival.
Bissell Centre is proud to be one of the many sponsors of the event, along with McCauley Community League, Boyle Street Community Services, Bent Arrow, E4C, and other dedicated supporters.
2015 Heart of the City Music Festival:
Saturday, June 6th – 11:00am to 9:00pm
Sunday, June 7th – 11:00am to 5:00pm
Little Italy’s Giovanni Caboto Park (located between 108A and 109A Avenues and 94 and 95 streets.)
FREE for everyone to attend
All ages are welcome
City of Edmonton bylaws prohibit the attendance of dogs
This past year, 2014-2015, had its challenges, but overall we had a stellar year.
We weathered another Thrift Shoppe fire and thanks to hundreds and hundreds of kind citizens we were able to restock our shop and reopen in November.
Our 24/7 MAP prototype finished its second year and demonstrated that it is an effective and efficient way to divert crises from the police and emergency medical services while offering humane interventions that assist the homeless in getting connected to services and supports they need.
We are currently working with our community colleagues to review the prototype and figure out how, together, to move forward with an integrated, community approach to crisis diversion services.
We added a Jobs Club to our mix of employment services, which helped find permanent jobs for 100 of our clients – all of them paying above a living wage.
Late in the year, we were able to add three more Housing First staff who are focusing on finding homes for large families with complex needs.
We also worked to better integrate all of our services in order to make it easier for people to access them, and have nearly completed the creation of a database that will help us better understand, act, and track our work with those who seek our help.
We also ended the year in strong financial shape, generating a small surplus in operations, which will go into our “rainy day” fund.
April 1 marked the beginning of our new fiscal year. It’s going to be a challenging one, given the economic climate. We anticipate some reduced funding from our provincial funders, but believe at this writing, the reductions will be manageable.
That said, we have secured or will be securing resources to continue to grow our services to address our mission and priorities. Our two major priorities this year are to house more homeless people and put more people to work.
Currently we are designing a new assertive outreach team that will consist of seven staff, all of them devoted to seeking out homeless individuals and working with them to find and sustain housing.
This team will add to our already considerable Housing First work and will also help those homeless individuals who do not qualify for Housing First assistance. In the first year, our goal is to find housing for 150 more homeless people than we currently do each year. Stay tuned for more on this; we hope to launch in July or August.
We are also working on a plan that will increase our capacity to secure more temporary and permanent employment for low income workers. While I do not have a launch date in mind as of yet, we hope to get this off the ground within the next 12 months.
Our sincere condolences go out to the friends and family of the individual who lost his life in the workplace accident in Westmount yesterday. We are also heartened by the outpouring of care and concern from communities in the wake of what has happened.
Some media reports have mentioned that the individual was placed at the worksite by Bissell Centre. To clarify these reports, our Casual Labour Program did not place the individual at this jobsite or to any of the companies cited by the media. We are not a subcontractor and do not hire people directly, but connect workers with companies that are registered with Bissell Centre.
We are still awaiting the official identity of the individual and will share information when more is known.
About our Casual Labour Program:
Over 20 years ago, we recognized the safety concerns of workers. We started our Casual Labour Program as a social mission to address those concerns and to reduce barriers to employment for people on the street. We are committed to providing our participants the training and resources needed to ensure safety and success in the workplace.
Worker Safety and Employer Accountability:
Our Casual Labour Program offers up to 100 job placements every day for the unemployed. We work closely with over 500 registered employers who understand and agree to our standards regarding workplace safety, the hiring process, and successful payment for the worker. In 2014, we conducted 60 jobsite visits and we ended relationships with four businesses that did not meet our quality control standards.
Worker safety is our highest priority. A committee of participants in our program meets regularly to share their experiences on the jobsite and provide feedback and raise concerns in order to increase our awareness about safety in the workplace. Workers are encouraged to leave the jobsite if safety is an issue. That way, Bissell staff will meet with the employer to voice these concerns.
We encourage people to not accept jobs without safety measures in place, but the reality is that there are people who are desperate to work and do not raise safety concerns out of fear of losing their job. We try to mitigate this through education and skills training.
Safety and Skills Training:
The Casual Labour Program offers training and skill enhancement free of charge for workers needing to be job ready. The program provides: employment counselling, job searches, resume writing, Construction Safety Training System (CSTS), H2S (Hydrogen Sulphide) Alive, Standard First Aid, and other job specific training. It also offers free lunches, boots, coveralls, gloves, and bus tickets when needed.
Casual Labour Success Story:
For three years, Steve relied on Bissell Centre’s Casual Labour Program to find daily, temporary work. The staff of our Employment Services Program saw that he had a strong work ethic, a drive to succeed, and was a reliable participant of the program. They were able to immediately engage with him and discuss setting career minded goals, including operating his own business.
Personal issues in Steve’s life started to take control and pull him away from the program. He was seen less and less on a daily basis and this was a cause of concern for staff.
Employment Services was able to enroll Steve into Bissell Centre’s Homeless to Homes (H2H) Program to get him housed in hopes of getting his life back on a track. With the support from H2H, Steve was able to have the space to address his personal issues, gain the life skills necessary to get control of his life, and restore his confidence. The road blocks that impeded his ability to be a successful participant with the Casual Labour Program were reduced.
Steve has since come back to Bissell Centre’s Program as a registered business owner of a successful roofing company that billed $20,000 in the first month of operation. Employment Services was able to provide him with referrals and encouragement to start his business and continues to support him with his success. The program refers casual labour staff to work for him, provides the resources to help with problems that may occur on the worksite, and offers guidance to his staff who might also be dealing with personal problems.
Casual Labour Statistics:
60 jobsite visits (2014)
14,000 casual labour placements (2014)
500 registered employers
$1M in the pockets of our workers
100 full time job placements
For more information about our Casual Labour Program, please visit our webpage here.
For media inquiries, please contact Darren Brennan, Marketing and Fund Development Associate, at 780.423.2285. ext. 129, dbrennan@bissellcentre.org.
Thank you! Over 300 turkey meals were served at our annual Easter celebration for the inner-city community, an undertaking that would not have been possible without the dedication of our supporters, volunteers, and hard-working staff.
An additional thanks to Stadium Save-On-Foods and Eastwood Safeway for providing spring flowers as centerpieces. The flowers brightened the room and were much appreciated by our participants!
A hot meal amongst community can be a first step towards a life out of poverty and homelessness. This is why your support means so much!
Below is a video and some photos from the event. Enjoy!
Hundreds of people from Edmonton’s inner-city community gathered in our Drop-in Centre to enjoy a hot meal during our annual Easter celebration. Thank you again to the many generous supporters and volunteers who helped make this year’s event possible. If you enjoyed the video, please share it with your friends. 🙂
“They took my hand and they held it and never let me go” – Rocky
After years of brutal domestic abuse when he was child, Rocky fled from his hometown in British Columbia to Edmonton to start a new life.
He found himself homeless, lost, and scared. “I didn’t know anybody. The life on the streets was hard and scary”, he says. “You never know when someone is going to attack you.”
Rocky began to use drugs and alcohol as a way to wash away the painful memories of his family life and was in and out of jail for 15 years.
He was always hungry and went without food for long periods of time.
He saw many desperately hungry people on the streets resort to stealing just to get some food.
“It was pretty sad to not find a place to get a meal and I noticed a lot people would go to stores to steal food”, Rocky said.
He felt isolated and lonely, especially during the holiday seasons.
He dreamed of enjoying a hot meal and a safe place with family and friends.
Rocky eventually came to Bissell Centre and immediately felt safe and welcome in the Drop-in Centre. He had access to hot meals, clean clothes, bathrooms, showers, and help finding work and a home. He said, “I had no clothes, I had nothing, but here they give it to you…a lot of people don’t have access to that and Bissell provides all that.”
Getting a daily lunch at Bissell Centre was the start of his journey out of homelessness. The comfort he found in meals was also found in staff who treated him with dignity and respect.
It gave him the confidence to start on a new path. “It’s an honour to work with these people and I feel happy and good when I talk to them”, says Rocky, “Once that door opened, I kept going and the doors always kept opening. They took my hand and they held it and never let me go”.
He watched as other people who came for meals also ending up getting the help they needed. “I have seen people come here and find a home. Some of them do change”, he says.
Rocky’s family never got together during Easter.
Enjoying holiday meals with friends in the Drop-in Centre gives him the warmth he needs. “The meals are a treat for the people here and I enjoy them. I have been to a lot of places and I am always saying that I’m grateful to have a place like the Bissell Centre that helps people.”
He believes that if there were no meals served in the inner city, there would be more problems on the street and, “they will lose hope and it’s bad enough that they lost hope in their life”.
Today, Rocky is sober and stably housed. Even though he has a home, Rocky still comes to the Drop-in Centre every day for a hot meal and to be with friends. Rocky’s goal is to go back to school to become a counselor to help others find hope and a new life.
We will be serving 300 hot meals to people in need at our annual Easter feast, an undertaking that would not be possible without the support of many.
Please help us provide meals and care for people like Rocky this Easter.
Students from Strathcona High School’s Leadership Program came together and shattered their goal of $200,000 to fight poverty in Edmonton and in Ecuador by raising $352,000 in just five weeks!
Through their Treehouse Project, the students raised enough funding that will provide housing for the homeless in Edmonton through Bissell Centre’s Housing Options Program (HOP) and the construction of an ecotourism lodge that will not only protect the rainforst in Ecuador but will alleviate poverty for the Siona people through Change for Children.
The students rallied the local community securing partnerships with the City of Edmonton Task Force to End Poverty and with local businesses. The fundraiser was launched on February 11th and was capped off with a 24 hour bike-a-thon starting on March 19th where 114 fundraising teams of students, plus volunteers, teachers, and alumni, rode stationary bikes in the Strathcona High School gymnasium with Mayor Don Iveson also participating at the main event. In total, 1,135 riders culminated in the high school gym with the closing ceremonies and a cheque presentation taking place the next day on March 20th.
We are very grateful to be a part of such an amazing fundraiser from young leaders who have worked hard to provide new opportunities for the homeless to be housed in Edmonton and for economic development that will protect the homes of impoverished people in Ecuador for generations to come.
