Imagine you’ve been living in a shelter with a community of 300 roommates. Then you find housing and suddenly you’re on your own! Lonely, isolated, and bored. Chances are good that you’ll fall back into unhealthy habits.
Aftercare at The Mustard Seed works to house clients who have been living in our shelter, and part of helping them is encouraging a healthy lifestyle and getting appropriate supports in place.
We believe that, as human beings, we were created to live in community with one another, and unfortunately, not everyone has a healthy community. That’s where volunteers come in.
Groups of volunteers are coming together with the Aftercare team to form a supportive network for a client who is transitioning to the freedom, independence and responsibility that comes with having an apartment of their own. This looks different depending on the client and group of volunteers, but examples are: going out for coffee at the local Tim Horton’s and talking about how life is going, going out to the bowling alley, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a picnic at Princess Island park, etc. The possibilities are many and volunteers have the opportunity to get creative!
Volunteers in these supportive capacities will have the opportunity to work as a team and support one another. This is really an opportunity for those in the Calgary community to come together with The Mustard Seed and intentionally help their neighbors get back up on their feet!
If you would like to learn more about volunteering with Aftercare, please email kristyferguson@theseed.ca
Cool, thanks Kristy! It would be cool to have stories of what volunteers have experienced while working with Aftercare clients!
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